It's been a few years since I posted here, but I've never stopped lurking. FAOL remains the friendliest, most informative and most entertaining of the countless fly fishing websites that have hatched over the years for a number of reasons, and this classy bulletin board is one of them.

And discussions like this one regarding fly lines is classic FAOL: No matter the topic, everybody wades in up to their armpits - right, wrong or indifferent, and without fear of ridicule. Everyone contributes based on their experience.

Or, as RW so succintly put it, "Opinions are like 'whatchamacallits,' everybody's got one."

Here's mine: I'm an admitted Cortland junkie. I've been fishing their lines for nearly fifty years now, so my opinion is colored by my obvious brand name loyalty.

Over time, I've used a variety of fly lines including SA Air Cell Supremes, Ultra 3s, Ultra 4s, Masterys and GPXs, Wulff TTs, Rio Grands, most of the Cortland products and a bunch of no-name house brands. With the exception of some of the off brand lines, most were good performers.

I recall some difficulties with early batches of Cortland Lazer Lines (premature cracking) and introductory shipments of the original mono-core 555s (they floated poorly and had serious memory problems, both of which were corrected).

Of them all, Cortland 444 Classic Peach remains my all time favorite, though the new 555 Dynatip may quickly supplant that if it continues to perform as it has for me all summer. So far, I'm luvin' it.

And recently I've found the Sylk lines to be superb for winter midging where I live, but that's another story.

444 Peach is soft, slick, supple and maintains its integrity through a wide range of temperatures. It suits me best for the kind of fishing I do most, and under the conditions I most often fish. And that, I think, is key. It suits me, but it might not suit you. We all have different expectations.

Blistering line speeds and 80 foot casts are of no importance to me where I fish. Being able to drop a little dry fly into a tea cup-sized pocket at 25 feet is. 444 Peach does it flawlessly. It picks up and mends beautifully. It falls from my reel in long loose lengths, not corkscrew coils. It casts like butter.

As for it "dragging" through the guides, I suspect that's a function of its suppleness. 444 tends to droop a bit between the guides -but I find that to be a control factor rather than a hinderance. It allows me to put just the right amount of "English" on my casts. It's a definite style thing, and 444 Classic Peach suits my style.

Now, having said that, I can also say I find no fault with Rio, SA or Wulff lines. In fact, I like them a lot - my 4/5 TT in particular. I have a few 4 and 5 weight SA floaters and a couple of full sinkers; they all perform as advertised but I am a bit suspicious of having to "scrape" the finish off the floaters with what amounts to a plastic brillo pad. I can't help but wonder if, over time, you might be reducing the weight and diameter of that critical front end, and that some day your WF5 might end up being a WF3. Probably not.

I've also found a line that behaves poorly on one rod can be pure magic on another. The search for a perfect marriage between rod and line can take some experimenting, but it's worth the trouble.

Not to belabor the point, I think that how we fish determines what products we like - or don't like. And that regardless of our opinions, most of the name brand fly lines out there today are absolutely superb. You just need to find one that suits your style.


Best,
MF