My nephew turned 18 and my job was to pick out a light spinning outfit for him, which with the help of Dubby’s fishing and Ammo, here in Harrisonburg, was a breeze. But I also thought I would “plant a seed” and give him my old Sage Launch 6wt. I wanted to get him a new line but I didnt want to spend $75 on a new line ($75!!! does anybody else think that is outlandish???). So I saw this Rio Mainstream bass line, $40 online and my local fly shop, Mossy Creek, had it. So I get it and put it on a “vintage” medalist which balances this rod well. Well, I was shocked at how well this line cast and how the line just shot out of the guides!! I mean, this was a harmonic convergence of line and rod for my limited casting skills. Now, its only 80 ft long (not an issue with me I dont think) and has no loops (I can tie a lot of nail knots for $35), but man this line will cast for me. When it comes time for a new line, I will be checking this out. They have a DT in a trout, which I use, and this bass line for my smallmouth rigs. Now in fairness to SA, they just replaced a GPX line for me that was 2 years old due to loop cracking, so they do stand behind their stuff. I’m not familiar with Rio as far as warrenty support. If anyone else is looking for a cheaper alternative for these $$$$ lines, my limited experience with this Mainstream line suggests they deserve a look.
The Rio Mainstream lines are really good value lines. Before the Mainstream Bass line came out we often used the Mainstream Saltwater line for bass bugs and other bulky flies.
Having spent a lot of time going through industrial facilities and having been involved in the development of some intellectual materials I understand why the cost of new products are frequently very high. There can be thousands of hours spent by engineers and chemist developing something like a new flyline, none of these guys work cheap and their labs are not low rent either. Personally, I have never been convinced owning one of those state of the art line was going to make me that much better of a fly caster or help me catch more fish.
Nice thing about fly lines, they will usually last you a few years. So, consider the total cost to buy a fly line. If it is $75 and the line lasts you three years, then it only costs you $25 per year. I don’t mind paying that much for top of the line fly lines. Now, consider what it costs just in gas to hop in your truck and drive 40 miles to a fishing spot and back. If you have a full sized pick up then it may cost you as much as $25 just for one fishing trip. Or for me to drive to Ellensburg to fish the Yakima River, I am looking at a 70 dollar bill for fuel. For extended fishing trips, consider all the various costs and the total can easily come up to many thousands of dollars. Compare all that to the $25 or so per year that the fly line cost and the fly line is one of the least expensive items on the table.
Just for info, I fish almost exclusively with Rio fly lines, they are excellent lines and they give us a wide variety of options to fit all of our fishing needs.
Larry —sagefisher—
Ditto. (Double ditto since the post had to be more than 10 characters.)
Valid points, I use this theory on batteries for my boat. People complain about a TM battery only lasting 3 yrs, but if you use the TM every trip for several hours (I do for my style of fishing that is not FF), they don’t last forever. I hate to spend the $$ just as much as then next guy, but when you average it out, its no different that going to eat at a decent restuarant or a movie, BUT you still have the line/rod etc.
Rio lines are very good, I use them for most of my fishing from small stream to spey and salt water. Lines are expensive but the way I look at is if it cost me $120NZ and it lasts for 3 years then I will have used it at least 120 times and that works out to a dollar a trip, cheeper than a single fly!
All the best.
Mike