What’s the real difference in saltwater vs freshwater fly lines. My understanding is that saltwater lines are stiffer and limber up in the heat and warmer water of the tropics.
It seems to me that fresh water lines could be used in more reasonable climates line coastal areas in the winter etc.
I am planning on a trip to the TX gulf coast sometime in the future. I have switched out my backing from dacron to gel-spun in order to get a longer piece of backing on a couple reels.
I have a bassbug taper WF line on a 7 wt. If I go to the coast in Jan-March, can I use this line at the floater on the trip?
I also have a SA Quad Tip line on a 7 wt. It’s their fresh water version . . . . Would be nice to be able to use that also.
What do you all do? think? Do I really need a set of saltwater lines?
weynep…
1st off there are different types of saltwater lines. Cold water and Tropic lines.
If you are talking about the normal cold water line compared to cold water freshwater line the only difference that you will find is in the tapers. Saltwater lines normally have a shorter front taper in order to throw larger flies. The freshwater lines will have a longer taper to aid in presentation of smaller flies.
The answer is yes, you can use your freshwater line in Jan-March on the Texas coast. You will just have to adjust your casting stroke for the larger flies that you will most probably be using. The Bass Bug taper that you mention also has a short front taper to throw larger flies and should serve you well.
So if what I have can handle the flys, then I really can use my fresh water lines on salt assuming I am not in the tropics, when the water is really warm.
Is there any time of year along the TX coast where I would really need to use a tropics type line?
I bought a 9wt outfit today. Got a Striper line for it. I looked up the taper chart and it seems to be in the middle of a bass bug line and a redfish line. For my use that sounds like a good all around line for me now. I am going to use it for throwing my larger deer hair flies for Large mouth bass, striper fishing in a local lake hopefully, carp fishing, and coastal type salt trips - Redfish etc. I got spooled on my 7 wt last summer by some carp. Needed more stick!!
waynep…
Where the difference between cold water and tropic lines really comes into play depends whether you are wade fishing or fishing from a boat. If you are wading the limpness of the line is less important, ( the line is simply dragging behind you and will be hard to tangle), than if you are fishing from a boat where you can use a little more stiffness to keep the line from tangling and to allow it to shoot better.
I cannot comment about times on the TX coast because I have never fished there.
The Texas Coast gets extremely hot through the prime saltwater fishing months of summer and early fall and a standard freshwater line or a coldwater saltwater line (like a striper taper) could easily become limp, unresponsive, and even sticky under those conditions. You’ll save yourself a lot of frustration if you save up a few dollars and add a tropical saltwater line to your arsenal. They are typically designed to be tougher than freshwater lines and stand up to the heat, sand, and abrasion common to coastal fishing.
Is Texas really that much hotter than Arkansas in the summer? Is there really a difference between 90 degrees and 82 degree lake water and 98 degrees and 88 degree gulf water? I don’t believe there is but the fly line makers would like you to think that.
Twenty years ago you bought a fly line and you used it. People got by too. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, and fresh or salt water it still worked. They didn’t make a line for every single possible potential condition and yet they somehow people caught fish. How could that be?
The only real advantage that I can see for saltwater flylines is that they are more readily available as intermediate lines. The slight and slow sinking action of an intermediate line gets your line under the water a bit and makes wave action have less of an effect on your fly line.
Yes, there is a difference. I’ve personally experienced the frustration of trying to cast a limp, sticky SA Mastery Bass Taper (that I’d brought with me when I moved from Missouri) into the teeth of a 20 knot breeze on days above a hundred and can tell you that when I switched to an SA Bonefish taper line I easily got another 20 feet of distance and had a tough line that handled the conditions much better. The combination of sand, salt, wind, and temperatures on the Texas Gulf are nothing like summers in Arkansas (or southern Missouri, where I grew up).
Sure, you could try to make do with one line for all occasions, if performance, comfort, distance, and ease of use were not important to you. And while I’ll agree that line manufacturers have gone overboard with all their specialty lines, I do think that the marked differences in freshwater and saltwater fishing conditions warrant a fundamentally different type of fly line.
If you are willing to fish in 100 degree temperatures I’ll definitely take your word for it. I’m a fully fledged Yankee and I’d spontaneously combust in those kind of temperatures. :lol:
I will say that the opposite end of the spectrum is true as well. I have Bonefish lines on a 6 weight and 7 weight that I use for early season lake fishing here in PA because I got them on closeout for cheap. 40 degree temperatures and 40 degree lake water don’t seem to harm them one bit.
My best guess is that the truth is really somewhere in the middle.
My experience over here on the s.e. North Carolina coast, fishing mainly for red drum (a.k.a. puppy drum, red fish, spot tail, channel bass), I sure would’nt go the expense of salt water lines; especially if it were going to be just for a visit.
I do use a 9wt “stiffer” line (Fenwick SF series), however, where I usually fish … the mouths of the tidal creeks in the salt marshes … can be real hard on a line. An oyster bed can make short work of a fly line. For that reason I had been using the el cheapo SA lines sold at our local Wally-Mart, and they’ve caught as many fish as the more expensive (three times as much) Fenwick line - albeit the Fenwick will cast a tad farther.
Bottom line … unless your moving to the gulf coast and plan on regular salt water fishing, I’d save myself the expense of additional fly lines. What you have will work; and if you damage the line and have to replace it, you’ll still be in business for fishing the White!
