Striper fly line for delta and East Coast

[JWilli]

I have been using lead core (LC 13) for all of my striper fishing in the delta. It's cheap and shoots pretty well and also works in a large range of water temperatures.

I will be fishing the delta this fall, but will also make a trip to Connecticut next spring. I would like to use an integrated line that will do well on my TFO 9 wt in both environments. I have been looking at the RIO InTouch Outbound Short (I/S6). Is this the best one to get?

John

[Tony Buzolich]

I'm not familiar with the line you mentioned and it may work fine. I am familiar with Rio's Outbound Short in a sinking line and like it fine, but my all time favorite is the Airflo Sniper line in a #7 sink rate. Totally no stretch so you feel everything, made of urethane instead of vinyl coated so it never cracks and casts beautifully without memory coils and kinks.

You don't need to over line the size either, use a WF 9 S 7 and it'll be perfect for your rod. You'll love it, Tony

[JWilli]

Tony
Thanks for the input. I'll look into the Sniper. As an aside, I have only one experience with Airflow products and that was not a positive one. I trusted their welded loops only to get a very rood surprise of the terminal end opening up. Lost a nice tarpon. Since then, I always nail knot any welded loop.

Thanks,
John

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Some years ago the East Coast Striper set up was a 9' #9 line fly rod with a full Intermediate line for wading in the surf.

If you are in a boat you probably have four rods set up with different lines. Floater, slow sink, medium sink and super sink.

[James]

I have to agree about the airflo lines. They cast great, and the no stretch is awesome, but the quality SUCKS!

I've had more breakage with those sniper and Tarpon lines. Went to boca grande this year, and broke off a 150# Tarpon on the welded loop, that was the first fish on my trip( fish of a lifetime), it was fine for other Tarpon I hooked, after my guide tyed a Albright knot with a 50# butt section.

I went through 3 sniper T-14 lines last spring, cracking on the T-14, delaminating, extra. And my old faithful Rio T-14 custom is still good, and that is the nonstretch one. They are coming out with a low stretch running line for all their Striper lines. WAIT FOR THOSE!
Airflo seam to not hold up, sure every is nice straight out of the box, but I fish alot for stripers and live on the delta, so I put stuff to the test. And I'm a bit hard on my gear.
STICK WITH RIO!!

[Hogan Brown]

I fish the Air Flo sniper lines exclusively in my boat with my clients for stripers April-October. Best striper lines I have used in nearly 18 years of guiding. I have fished and guided with airflo, rio, and Scientific Anglers lines over the years and they all break, delaminate, and fail...just the nature of fly lines and heavy use.

[Dan Blanton]

I have been using lead core (LC 13) for all of my striper fishing in the delta. It's cheap and shoots pretty well and also works in a large range of water temperatures.

I will be fishing the delta this fall, but will also make a trip to Connecticut next spring. I would like to use an integrated line that will do well on my TFO 9 wt in both environments. I have been looking at the RIO InTouch Outbound Short (I/S6). Is this the best one to get?

John

John,

I long too used LC-13 but when I started guiding many moons ago I found that my clients had difficulty dealing with a loop system in heads. Finally SA and then Rio came out with the custom-cut T-14 integrated lines with a .030 diameter intermediate shooting line. For years now I've been using the RIO Outbound Custom Cut t-14 line. I love it for the deeper water presentations in the delta and anywhere else a super-fast-sinking line is required. The RIO CC comes with a 35-foot T-14 head. I cut it down to 28-feet for both my 8- and 9-weight rods. It casts brilliantly and fishes very well. They also make a CC T-11 integrated Outbound line. I use this line on my 6- and 7-weight rods, 30-foot head.

Dan