After my boat incident and spending quite a few weeks trying to reach fish that where just that little bit too far out I decided to try and Airflo 40 plus fly line – and I’m kind-of glad I did.
To start with I didn’t have the best buying experience from Iain Barrs online shop but I’ve bought from him before and I know he’s good. After a bit of a delay Iain managed to get the line to me along with some complimentary flies. Thanks Iain!
Out of the box the line looked fine so I spooled it up and got it ready. While winding it on to the spool I was holding on to the line with my fingers to guide it into place and by the end of spooling my fingers were bright orange! The line itself is yellow on the head with a bright orange backing line which looks really good but I’m not sure the colour of the line should have come off onto my hands so easily. Has anyone else had this problem?
On first outing it took a while to get used to. The head section seemed very heavy, which I guess it should do to be able to shoot the line out, so I had to change my casting style a little. It took a while to work out the right technique but once I had it really did fly out a very long way. Now I’m an ok caster, not great but not terrible. I can single haul ok but sometimes have trouble getting the timing right on a double haul. The way to cast this line is to make sure you airialise enough line and get the head section out of the rod tip. Once its head to a single or double haul to load the rod tip and then watch it fly. I’m sure a good caster with a good double haul would get this line to travel a very long way but even my mediocre casting got it pretty far. Far enough to get into fish I wouldn’t have been able to reach with my other lines.
After a few casts I noticed it wasn’t lying very straight so gave it a few stretches. By the end of the day it still had a few kinks in it and the tip had started to sink. On its second outing the memory wasn’t great and the line just wouldn’t sit straight. Again I had to stretch it to try and straighten things out a bit. I’ve got £20 lines that sit much straighter with less memory.
So, should you get one? If you want to cast a long way and reach more fish then yes. If you want a quality line with no memory that stays afloat then I’m not so sure. I’m currently enjoying using it but it won’t be my go-to line. I think it’ll only come out when I need that extra distance.