Favorite saltwater lines?

Hey I’m planning a trip to the Yucatán this winter, and sorting out which rods/reels/lines etc to bring along. I realized that my experiences with saltwater fly lines is fairly limited, so I’m curious what you guys like and why. I thought it might be an interesting topic to some. So far of the lines I’ve used for saltwater, I was mainly fishing larger sized flies so I liked Airflo’s Tropical Punch, SA’s Mastery Tarpon, and Rio’s Outbound Short. Decided I am not as crazy about SA “textured” fly lines; although they do shoot extremely well, the texture really starts to cut up fingers. As I understand it their “sharkskin” lines are even more abrasive?
Anyway, what are some saltwater lines you like, and are there any you avoid?
Cheers,
JB

When fishing at Christmas Island, I found that I like the RIO Redfish line. The length of the head allows for a more delicate delivery of the fly and wasn't affected by light breezes. At Aitutaki, where the water is deeper on average, I found the Rio Bonefish lines better. As a rookie Bonefisher, I made the mistake of using a RIO, Tropical Outbound Short F/I at Turneffe and found that I still caught fish but spent more time snagged on the coral than I wanted. So, my favorites depend on the depth of the water fished.

Spring, summer and Fall are the best time for serious fly fishing trips to Yucatan but it is nicer down there in the winter.


Off the hot deck of a boat stiffer "Tropical" lines are better.

While wading your line will not get that warm so regular lines are fine.


For the mangroves or wading fishing a short belly or short head line is fine.

Casting from a poled boat usually requires longer casting so a longer head is good.


Most use 9' #7-9 line 4 pc rods for the average Yucatan fishing.


Most use knotless Rio 10' 10# Bonefish leaders.

Bill's answer nails most of it. The only things I would add are:

1). There are three kinds of fishing in the Yucatan. Open flats, rio mouths and wider rios, and narrow upper rios with restricted casting area. So you need a line that you're comfortable casting 2/0 flies 60 - 80 feet in the open water; a line that you can accurately throw a 30-40 ft tight loop into a narrow landing or under a mangrove bush; and a line you can roll cast reasonably well. If you can do those things you'll get your fly in front of plenty of fish.

2). Bill's recommendation of a 10 ft leader is fine for the wide open flats. But up in the rios you might shorten that and even go with something like a straight 6 ft section of 20 lb mono. Accuracy is your primary goal and a long leader up in those tight casting areas can be problematic. So a nice, short leader that can turn your fly over in a short tight loop is better. Plus the stronger line weight helps when retrieving a wayward cast into the mangroves (monkey fishing we call it, but if you aren't catching the mangroves once in awhile you aren't challenging yourself). Ditto for your fly line. Personally, I prefer the Rio Outbound Shorts for that fishing.

Thanks guys. All good points to consider.
DLJeff, you pretty much hit on exactly why I’m digging into this a bit more: we are planning on bring rods from 7wt-10wt, fishing mostly floating lines, but some intermediate possibly, and fishing quite a few very different situations. Planning on having as much variety of lines as possible. I have a few Outbound short lines already (wf10f, wf8f, wf8i), but thinking I would like another line or two in the 7-8wt range that would offer more delicate presentations, and probably a second 10wt line as well (gearing up for both my wife and myself).

Jason,
It's not as technical as it sounds down there. Casting ability is probably more important than what line you're using. We use floating lines 99% of the time. An intermediate is useful during the summer months when there is a large amount of floating grass. The intermediate sinks just below most of the grass and reduces the nuisance of flies fouled with grass. I have had a couple trips when a sinking line was needed. We found large schools of fish on outside flats that were 10 - 20 feet deep. Using a weighted fly and letting it sink helped but as soon as we started stripping the fly rose up too high in the water. Those trips were in Nov/Dec. With the cost of fly lines these days, unless you plan to be able to use them more in the future, I'd stick with floating lines that you and your wife can cast well. The flies typically aren't large - usually 2/0's that are maybe 3 inches long, sometimes even smaller. Bring spools of 20 and 40lb Ande mono or something similar. That'll cover you for leader and bite tippets. There are a few 40lb fish down there so a 40lb bite tippet can be good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DLJeff

... Casting ability is probably more important than what line you're using....

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Words to live by. Could probably say that about any and all equipment in most things I’ve done in life. Point well taken! On that note, we have both worked a lot on our casting over the past year... what a difference a bit of instruction and a lot of practice can make! I think we are both hoping to take quite a few more saltwater fishing trips in the future, and definitely still need at least one or two lines (I’m a firm believer in back ups) to have things covered.
Cheers, JB

Jason,
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