Thanks for the offer! Apparently I need to do some in depth research on tapers and so forth. So many variables! In all honesty my short list was half of what @Kfish told me that he liked and half of what seemed kind of ideal from light internet perusing.Adam,
The two lines you've shortlisted look like pretty different tapers to the AS. Sweet lines, yeah, but different. You might like the rio predator, it's a bit more along the lines of an AS, longer front taper, short back taper. It does have an extra 4' on the head compared to the AS.
If you want to give one a rip I've got a 270 grain (total head, 240 grain 30') F/I/3 I throw on my 6 that you can try. It's not the intermediate though....it bombs on my Winston 6wt. PM me if youre interested in a test drive.
PS I can't beat @Stonedfish offer, I'm gonna want this line back!
-Matt
I've only tried the two Rio lines I mentioned but neither are as "wow" as the AS, at least until the AS disintegrates. Seems like a lot of folks have durability issues with Rio as well?