In the modern era of Spey fishing for steelhead and trout, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the huge selection of equipment on the market. In today's post I thought it would be helpful to put Poly Leaders under the microscope in an effort to distinguish them from sink-tips. More importantly, I want to help you decide when the right time to use these tools.
What is a Poly Leader?
Spey anglers have been chasing trout with the long rod for years. However, streamer fishing has been somewhat frustrating because there hasn’t been a Spey line designed specifically with the needs of trout anglers in mind… until now. Airflo recently released my newest line design, the Streamer Switch.
Check out this video with my good friend Tim Rajeff talking about Airflo's new Super DRI Xceed fly line. While Airflo Spey lines have become extremely popular over the years, with the introduction of the Super DRI material the company is finally making a charge in the single-hand fly line market.
Have you ever found yourself pawing through the depths of your gear bag, trying to find something you need quickly? Maybe the hatch is on and you're looking for your back-up floatant. Or you're on a huge school of bonefish and you need to replace your leader because the last fish tore you up in the mangroves. You need to access your gear quickly in these situations. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to find gear when you need it.
Airflo Fly Lines have gained huge popularity in the Spey world over the past few years. However, our trout lines have never gained much traction, in part because they honestly didn’t perform well. That is all about to change. Airflo is in the process of releasing a new family of lines called Super DRI. After casting them I can say they are the finest single-hand fly lines I’ve ever fished with.
I started fishing Airflo Fly Lines when I moved to Oregon, almost thirteen years ago. The first thing I noticed was the incredible feel of the lines. The polyurethane coating was very supple yet the lines had amazing loop stability during the cast. Plus, they were way more durable than other lines out there. In the end, I just loved the way Airflo lines cast.
The Airflo Skagit Intermediate is a new concept in Spey casting that will change the game of swinging flies for anadromous fish. By building a Skagit head with a short floating rear section coupled with an intermediate body, we took the ease of casting a Skagit head and combined it with the effectiveness of an intermediate Scandi.
Todays post is on building welded loops into 10' or 18' Airflo Custom Cut sink-tips.
I work closely with the folks from Deneki Outdoors with my hosted trips to Alaska, BC and the Bahamas.