fly line for 10 foot rod

[conehead]

I fish a 10' 7wt rod, a Redington RS3. I've enjoyed the rod for fishing steelhead on smaller rivers ~20-40' wide. I used to line it with an 8wt RIO Steelhead/Atlantic salmon line, which was great for roll casting and lobbing bobbers, weight, and eggs. But when I switch to swinging flies, I'll put on an 8' section of T8 or 4' foot section of T14. I've even tried to cast longer sections of T14 when the water gets high (it's just disgraceful). Anyway, I don't need to cast far, I just want to be able to do single and double spey casts and maybe a snap-t every now and again and I need to be able to cast a heavy sink-tip, it doesn't have to be long, but it does need to be heavy (this is my opinion, based on experience, but you may disagree). So is there a line out there that will not overload my 10' 7 wt but yet be able to turn over heavy tips while using single-handed spey casts? I think the lightest RIO Skagit line is still too heavy. Also, I'd rather not have to splice lines together, but if thats what you are thinking, I'm open for suggestions. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Nick Pionessa]

probably the best line for tips is the rio clouser followed by the airflo ridge nymph. both have short aggressive heads and fairly blunt front tapers which make them turn tips better. the steelhead line is a much longer taper which distributes the grain weight out over a longer taper where the clouser line has the same grains in a more compact configuration.

t-14 on a 10' 7 is always going to be tough in general. you may want to try some t-8 instead. it sinks at a rate of 7-8 ips vs 8-9 for t-14 and is only 8 grains per foot but smaller in diameter so it sinks almost a fast. it does have a lighter core so it doesn't work as well with really bulky flies but most stuff is just fine and it casts way easier on a singlehander. the 10 poly leaders in extra super fast sink do about 6 ips too and are a joy to cast compared to t-14 since they are tapered.

[Steve Dobmeier]

Your crux is coming from already overweighting your 7wt rod with an 8wt line and then trying to cast heavy sink tips with it. An 8wt line has a heavier grain weight to it and would probably cast your 7 wt fine without adding sink tips. But the second you add a sink tip and a weighted fly, the rod is now way overloaded and won't respond to what you trying to make it acheive. Casting t-14 is not going to be graceful but can be done. The biggest thing to remember is timing. Using sink tips means that you have to speed up the casting process so that it doesn't sink to far when you make your anchor. When using real heavy sink tips and weighted flies, most of the time it is easier to use a snap-t or double spey that it is to use the single spey. The single spey has a tendency to be alot harder to execute with real heavy sink tips and flies because of it being a splash and go cast. As far as suggesting a line to use on a single handed rod for spey casting, I would use a line that has a more aggressive head taper to it. The Rio Steelhead/Atlantic Salmon taper is not a very agressive line, hence the reason your not getting the cast that you want. Rio's Clouser, Air Flo Sixth Sense, or Rio's Gold, are lines have a much more aggressive head to them. Hope this helps.

[conehead]

Thanks guys...

Any thoughts on RIO's T11 that just came out? Also, for the lines you guys mentioned, would you over-load it or stick with a 7wt line?

Thanks again...

[SteveKowalski]

I fish a 10 ft 7 RPL with Rio clouser 7 wt. and it's a pain to push a ton of weight with. You probably do better than I with the 8wt. line, but your pretty well maxed out. The most I can move well is 4 ft of deep water express ( not sure what the "t-" equivilant is )
You might want to look up the front taper of your 8 and cut back to the level belly (add a loop to the taper tip for floating situations) so you are not trying to throw a heavy tip with a line that tapers down just before and looses the momentum.
All the multi-tip lines are looped at the end of the belly for floaters and sinking tips. which is what you are trying to do.
Try a 4 ft. section and a Rio 12 ft 7.6 ips. sinking leader.
I have run this on my 7 and it gets down well, and shoots like a rocket.
You can pull off a double spey, just don't let it settle, touch and go.
Adjust your cast - further upstream, and mend more to get a good drop, and you should be able to get down to where you want.
You don't necessarily need more weight, plus "you'll throw your arm out, kid"
and then you will need a spey rod.
Where are you using all this weight?

Hope it helps,
Steve K.

[conehead]

Ok, I'm back. Thanks for the replies so far.

I've done a little more research and found SA's single handed skagit lines. It looks like they have a 320 gr/22' for a 5 wt, a 360 gr/23' for a 7 wt, and a 400 gr/23' for 8 or 9 wt's.

I'm looking at the 360 gr line for my 10' 7 wt. But I wonder what sort of tips I can run with that outfit. RIO used to advise that for a 10 foot rod the total length of tip plus head should be about 30'. With a 7' tip of T-14 I'd be looking at a 30' head with a total of 458 gr and with T-8 I'd be looking at 416 gr total.

Does anyone know how many gr's those polyleaders are and are these grain totals way too much for single-handed spey casting?

[pendejo]

conehead said:

Does anyone know how many gr's those polyleaders are?

Here's a table from the Rio website with the specifics about their polyleaders.

www.rioproducts.com/product.php?recKey=130

[Chris C Crane]

Is the intent to do "spey" casts with tight loops or to fish with lots of weight?

IMO- It will be very difficult to acheive both. For sexy tight loops reread all of the line suggestions above. To get down and dirty, I'd simply adjust your cast to a role/ lob cast and add as much weight as required to stay in contact with the bottom.
Some folks will cringe...but I fished a 10' 7 wt last spring in Michigan with a 3 inch weighted "slinky' rig -ala- chuck and duck style. You can forget about tight loops when you are chucking 2 ounces of weight. Does it work? ...yep.

I like two SA lines for my 10' 7 single hander. Mastery Distance and Steelhead. Both are about a half line weight heavier.

I also use a 3 foot section of t-14 with a short 5-7 leader and that seems to swing and cast really nice.