Favorite Fly Line Manufacturer

Your favorite fly line manufacturer?

  • Airflo

    Votes: 10 16.4%

  • Rio

    Votes: 6 9.8%

  • SA

    Votes: 28 45.9%

  • Orvis

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Cortland

    Votes: 11 18.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 9.8%
  • Total voters
    61
kmudgn said:
I'm pretty much ok with about any of the "major" fly lines. I am partial to Cortland DT SYLK for my bamboo rods, but that is about it. I suspect that if I was Tarpon fishing it might make a difference, but for the Trout/LL Salmon that I mostly target about anything will work. I have enough ability to successfully cast most lines in the 2-9 wt range so it matters little to me what brand is on the reel. I generally buy whatever I can get for a "reasonable" price, but refuse the $100+ lines from my local shop.

Blaming poor casting on the line is like a tennis player yelling at his racquet. or a golfer breaking his clubs over his knee.
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I agree , there is not a $100 line worth that . Not that I ever did . I’ll buy a clearance line , and still felt like it was overpriced .
 
O' Clarkii Stomias said:
If you have ever played any competitive golf, you'd understand talking out frustration on a club. You feel stupid afterwards while you're in the garage putting a new shaft on your club, but it feels good in the moment.
Tip: don't try to break a graphite shaft over your knee.
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I’ve played with guys that broke clubs . I threw a club ONCE in frustration towards the cart , held on to it too long , and it nearly hit my playing partner in the head , that was the first , and last time I did that .
 
kmudgn said:
Blaming poor casting on the line is like a tennis player yelling at his racquet. or a golfer breaking his clubs over his knee.
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I'm gonna have to disagree. Equipment can definitely be of poor quality. A good line can't make a poor caster better, but even a great caster can't make a crappy line work as well as a good line will.

I can cast just fine, but I've had a few lines that are garbage:
I did get one of the MaxCatch bass lines - supposedly a Big Nasty clone - that absolutely will not shoot. Texture is rough, but not slick-rough like Sharkskin. Sticking with SA Titans for throwing big stuff!

Integrated shooting head lines can be a crap shoot as far as getting slinky-like running line that ends up a tangled mess no matter how much you stretch it. My older Airflo 40+ are still my favorites - haven't tried the new versions.
Did not like the first two Rio "InTouch" lines I tried (OBS Cold casts great but will not lay straight on the water, and Perception just feels weird.)

Most of the lines I've bought in the last 5 years have been SA Titan or Sonar series, or Airflo.
 
Northern said:
I'm gonna have to disagree. Equipment can definitely be of poor quality. A good line can't make a poor caster better, but even a great caster can't make a crappy line work as well as a good line will.

I can cast just fine, but I've had a few lines that are garbage:
I did get one of the MaxCatch bass lines - supposedly a Big Nasty clone - that absolutely will not shoot. Texture is rough, but not slick-rough like Sharkskin. Sticking with SA Titans for throwing big stuff!

Integrated shooting head lines can be a crap shoot as far as getting slinky-like running line that ends up a tangled mess no matter how much you stretch it. My older Airflo 40+ are still my favorites - haven't tried the new versions.
Did not like the first two Rio "InTouch" lines I tried (OBS Cold casts great but will not lay straight on the water, and Perception just feels weird.)

Most of the lines I've bought in the last 5 years have been SA Titan or Sonar series, or Airflo.
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Instead of spending $ 150 on a new line because one believes it will make him/her a better caster I suggest spending the money on casting lessons instead
 
I still enjoy my Wulf triangle taper lines after 35 years of using them. SA came out with their "Trout" taper a few years ago that was close.
For subsurface lines I tend to get SA.
 
I absolutely agree lessons are a good thing, and - assuming you need lessons - better than upgrading a good line to a great line...but they won't help if your line is crap.

Case in point: today I fished with a friend who is still newish to fly fishing. She has struggled a bit to get her casting down. Today her casts were 3x better - nice tight loops, and farther than I've seen her cast before.
As we were packing up, I noticed that she had the "wrong" line and reel on her Echo 3wt - one she had bought for her 5wt. The different line made a huge difference. She hadn't fished in months, so it certainly wasn't practice!
 
I'm glad this poll came up. I actually went thru my lines last night to see if I did in fact have more SA lines than any other brand (I voted SA). I do. But the great part was finding a few NIB lines I had forgot I had: A 6wt Rio OBS type 3, a cortland type 9 sinker, a nextcast coastal F1 and an integrated OPST head for my SH 6wt. Score!

If you've got a lot of lines laying around, check em out - might have some gems in there.
 
My bias leans heavily towards airflo becuase they are made of polyurethane. I have airflo lines that get lots of use that I've had for years with no issues. The only mortal wounds I've had on an airflo line were caused by my dumb ass stepping on them with cleated boots. I know I can get an airflo line for a one off trip, and store it and it will be like new when I need it again. I've had a few PVC lines crack, some with very little use, most of them were orvis, others cortland and rio. To be fair, this was years ago, so newer lines might have a longer life.

Since the Airflo ownership switch, they seem to have ditched their non-trout specialty lines (do they actually have a rep that lives in the PNW now?), so I've been buying up closeouts when I find them. There are also a couple of other companies that have airflo make their lines, so I'm eyeing them, but since they have to be imported, they will be pretty expensive.
 
Rob Allen said:
Review of th Max catch DT?
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Rob, I finally used the Maxcatch DT-5 line for the first time today. I paired it up with my 8'6" 5wt Powell Light Touch and it was a perfect match.
The line has virtually no memory and floated well for the 4 hours that I fished. It also mends much better than the WF that I was using previously which was what my objective was.
A happy camper for a 13$ 'investment'.:D
 
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Old406Kid said:
Rob, I finally used the Maxcatch DT-5 line for the first time today. I paired it up with my 8'6" 5wt Powell Light Touch and it was a perfect match.
The line has virtually no memory and floated well for the 4 hours that I fished. It also mends much better than the WF that I was using previously which was what my objective was.
A happy camper for a 13$ 'investment'.:D
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How old is your Powell? I made a few thousand Powell blanks back in the early 2000s.
 
Rob Allen said:
How old is your Powell? I made a few thousand Powell blanks back in the early 2000s.
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classicpowellrod.com

Classic Powell Rod

classicpowellrod.com classicpowellrod.com
Mine is the Western Sierra that I built around 1990.
Pretty sure the rods after 2000 were after Charles Schwab bought the company...not sure why he felt the need but I guess rich guys do what rich guys do. They were the Legacy series and were a Cobalt blue color. They were actually nice rods...my son still has one and I built one for my wife on one of the blanks.
 
I hope Rajeff get back into the line game. ALL of the Airflo lines that I like exist because of Rajeff, not the actual Airflo company. The new owners also don't sell a single line under $100, which I find to be ridiculous.
 
I was guiding one of the original SA guys a couple of months ago. We were talking about the ridiculous mark up in fly fishing. He told me the mantra at Scientific Anglers was to make it by the mile and sell it by the inch. The cost to make a fly line is very cheap, but hard to fish with out one. My favorite fly lines are the Bruce Chards, for saltwater. Jim Teeny had some great lines but I couldn’t convince him to put a loop on them.
 
mems said:
I was guiding one of the original SA guys a couple of months ago. We were talking about the ridiculous mark up in fly fishing. He told me the mantra at Scientific Anglers was to make it by the mile and sell it by the inch. The cost to make a fly line is very cheap, but hard to fish with out one. My favorite fly lines are the Bruce Chards, for saltwater. Jim Teeny had some great lines but I couldn’t convince him to put a loop on them.
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I wonder how Jim Teeney felt about hookkeepers???:unsure::ROFLMAO:
 
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Old406Kid said:
classicpowellrod.com

Classic Powell Rod

classicpowellrod.com classicpowellrod.com
Mine is the Western Sierra that I built around 1990.
Pretty sure the rods after 2000 were after Charles Schwab bought the company...not sure why he felt the need but I guess rich guys do what rich guys do. They were the Legacy series and were a Cobalt blue color. They were actually nice rods...my son still has one and I built one for my wife on one of the blanks.
Click to expand...
The blanks we made were after Charles Schwab and before china..
 
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