scientific anglers new sharkskin line

[okflyfisher]

Has anybody handled or cast this line?

[dudley]

At $99.95 I'll let you go first

[mdram]

looks like the sa version of airflows ridgeline. i love my ridgeline, and its cheaper

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

Castwell took it to the fish in. All who tried it said it worked very well excellent in fact. LowtechJoe said He got an extra 30 feet with his cast . It is pricey about a hundred bucks.

There will probably be a few comments on it after the FI.

[Ray]

He cast 30' farther and it's because of the line??? I find that difficult to believe.

[Magneto]

I?ve had the opportunity to give it a spin; here are my thoughts: The version I tried was a prototype and the taper was based on the GPX line, same taper, same weight, and almost the same color. I found it fairly noisy when the line is stripped through the guides. It wasn?t as noticeable when shooting though. Because it had been lawn cast quite a bit before I got to it, so perhaps it may have been a tad dirty. I was able to get an extra 10 ? 15 feet out of it, perhaps I was ?on? that day, I don?t know. My first thought was; with all the little bumps that it has, I would think that it would pick up more dirt then regular lines and fill in the low spots pretty fast. I wondered about cleaning a line like that, but didn?t ask. Then I found out how much it costs, and decided that whatever ?distance? benefits there might be, it just isn?t worth the $99. As I understand it, there will be several versions of it, GPX, Trout, etc.

I have been told by the guy that was testing it for 3M that it does in fact float better then any line he?s had, at least that?s what he said. I was not able to try it on water.

This all occurred 3 weeks ago, so what ever version I tried is very, very new.

There you go

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

He cast 30' farther and it's because of the line??? I find that difficult to believe.

That's what he said.

It is a heavier line than he has been using plus he was able to shoot it better.

Some people do better with certain lines than they do with others which might help account for a 30 ft increase in distance.

[brookid]

Yes, three weeks ago up in Michigan. The shop had a prototype Orvis Helious (sp) 5wt rod lined with the sharkskin. I was given the rod for the moring fish.

It does shoot line, very well. I couldn't get past the noise though...it really rakes across the guides. It made me wonder about long term effects...?

In short, i really liked the rod ($750 price point) and probably wouldn't buy the line even if it was priced at $60.

$850 for rod and line...

[Grizzly Wulff]

JC brought a 6 wt with him to the Idaho Fish In and a lot of us had a chance to try it out. The offical name for the line is the Ultra Trout. It's a light green in color, and definately produces a noise as it shoots through the guides; a bit like a silk line in sound.

As for gaining distance with the line, it shoots much easier than a standard line and that accounts for the extra distance. At $99.00, it will be a long time before I add one to my arsenal. If I were into distance casting competion, it's the line I would want. JC says it floats much higher on the water and is easier to pickup, although I did not get a chance to try it on the river so can't comment on that.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I also had a chance to try the new line at the Idaho Fish-In, as did VEE. Is it noisy going through the guides? Yup, a tad bit more than silk. Can it add distance to your cast? If you shoot line it can add a pretty fair amount of distance. On my cast it added about 25 to 30 feet. To VEE's cast, about 15 to 20.

At $99 it's a bit pricey, but VEE wants one for her 5 weight, so that's at least one, probably 2 lines that will find their way to our house.

One thing that did happen. The line has a factory loop at the end to attach leaders with a loop to loop connection. The line we were test casting had a break in the coating just above the loop after several days of casting on lawns and gravel roads. Don't know if this is a big drawback, bit I'll be cutting the loops off our lines when they arrive.

REE