Viking Lars | Saturday, 6 August 2016
Intermediate flylines are great - let me say that to begin with. I use them in all of my fishing. A friend once said: "If all intermediates floated, I'd never use anything else". He was of course referring to the casting - nothing is as nice to cast as an intermediate flyline!
And they of course solve certain situations when fishing. I particularly like to use them in both big waves and and a flat calm. In waves I get much better contact with the fly and in a flat calm, I don't get the ripple a floater creates when retrieved.
I used to use clear intermediates a lot as well. Calling them intermediates, though, is a bit of an under(or over?statement. Everybody knows the sink quite fast and some years ago, a couple of friends actually did an article where they tested a whole bunch of sinking lines in a pool. Once was casting - the other was in the pool in scuba gear. If I remember correctly, the clear intermediates the tested sank at the same rate as type 3/4 sinking lines. Which of course is why you should be sceptical when you see a clear intermadiate marketed as "very slow sinking". Some of them might be - I haven't tried too many of the more recent ones.
I went off them after one experience some years ago. I was fishing (a flat calm) in a fjord (Mariager Fjord) with a camo Clear intermediate WF-line. The line was great, it cast so well and everything, but at one point it managed to catch the sunlight and it lit up like a 15m long, very thin, underwater neontube. That can't be good - maybe it can only be seen at a particular angle and thus unimportant in relation to the fish, but it really put me off.
Well, back to the winter of 2016. I was sharing a pixxa with Steffan Jensen fra Vision, and he mentioned a new line they were working on together with Claus Eriksen (probably the best SW seatrout flyfisherman in Denmark, and director of Go Fishing, a well respected Danish tackle shop on Funen). This time it was a clear floater. Remembering my clear intermediates I asked if it really did float, which he claimed it did (and it does).
Always interested in new flylines, I awaited the first reports from users and it has been received well, so when the opportuniy arose to test one, I accepted of course. It's now sitting on my desk awaiting it's first swim.
I look forward to testing it, checking tapers, floatability and I will try my best to make it light up like a neon tube :-). But - with Claus Eriksen behind it, I'm sure it's a great line. Claus relly believes it makes a difference in his fishing.
Have a great weekend,
Lars