Airflo Super Dri Xceed Fly Line Review

I’ve been fly fishing since I was 12 and have been guiding in southern Utah for the last four years.  My wife will tell you I’m a certified trout bum.   As such,  I’ve fished a lot of different lines and different brands.  The first time I noticed what a BIG difference a quality fly line can make in fly fishing was when I picked up a Scientific Anglers Mastery Series fly line on clearance for a five weight rod.  Since then, I’ve been a big fan of Scientific Anglers.  They’ve always performed great and held up nicely.  So, when SA introduced the Sharkskin fly line, I decided to try it out.  I got the line in a 6 weight GPX taper and spooled it up.  It was a nice line.  It cast well and mended easily. It was noisy, but nothing I couldn’t get used to. But, my six weight rod is used for streamer fishing and stillwater fishing.  In both cases, I’m stripping a lot of line and fighting big fish.  The texture of the sharkskin fly line ripped my fingers up and there were times I was bleeding like a madman.  Not cool.  It was bad enough that I just stopped using my six weight rod!  Thus, I found myself in need of a new fly line.  

I have never heard anything bad about Airflo fly lines.  Ever.  They were also the first to introduce textured fly lines, an idea I think is genius.  So they have my respect.  I started hearing through the grapevine that Airflo’s new Super Dri fly lines were the bomb.  They introduced a few different models. The first is the Airflo Super Dri Xceed, designed for fast action rods. The second is the Airflo Super Dri Elite. This is a classic trout taper. The third is the Airflo Super Dri Mend. This line is for turing over heavy stuff, like big flies and indicators. The fourth is Airflo Super Dri Distance Pro. This line is a trout taper but longer, designed for long distance casts and mending. The fifth line in the Airflo Super Dri lineup is the River and Stream. This one is your all around performance fly line, suited for technical water. These new Airflo Super Dri fly lines piqued my interest, since I’m a huge believer in investing in top notch, quality products that will stand up to abuse.  And, I needed a different six weight line. Then Jace, the other trout bum of Current Seams, bought the Airflo Super Dri Xceed fly line.  He was raving about it after one outing.  It made his Winston fly rod seem twice as nice.  So I was hooked.  I jumped online and purchased an Airflo Super Dri Xceed fly line for my neglected six weight. 

First things first.  If you need new fly line, get an Airflo Super Dri.  ‘Nuff said.  But, if you want details, we have those too.

 I’ve been fishing the Ariflo Super Dri Xceed for two solid months.  I’ve thrown a lot of dries with it, and I feel this is the ultimate test in fly line testing.  To fish dry flies successfully, a line that floats, shoots well, and mends easily is critical for drag free drifts and presentations.  This fly line is textured.  It has ridges running the length of the line, so there is less surface friction and resistance.  But, unlike other textured lines, this one isn’t noisy and doesn’t rip up your fingers.  You can’t tell it’s a textured line.  It’s great.  Also, this line isn’t made with PVC, like all other fly lines are.  It’s made with polyurethane, and Tim Rajeff wholeheartedly believes this is a better material for fly lines.  Tim Rajeff is a world fly casting champion and owner of Rajeff Sports and rod designer for Echo Fly Rods.  The dude knows his stuff.  His shop Rajeff Sports is the North American dealer for Airflo (Airflo is based in the UK).  So, while I don’t know enough about PVC vs. Polyurethane, I’m going to trust Tim on this one.  Airflo also engineered this line with Hydrophobic materials.  Hydrophobic means “water repelling”, or “does not mix with water.”  This term jumped out at me too because I’m a fan of powder dry fly floatant for soaked dry flies that are sinking.  The powder in dry fly floatants is called Hydrophobic fumed silica.  So some of the same stuff that dries out your drowned dry flies is incorporated into the Airflo fly lines to repel water.  And the results are apparent.  The Super Dri Xceed line feels super slick and mends like a dream.  And after a long drift, I can shoot every inch of excess fly line piled up at my feet with one cast.  This is easily 40 feet of fly line for me.  It’s phenomenal.  

The line doesn’t stretch, which I tested by tugging on it.  It was a very scientific test, I know, but it didn’t give at all.  The line also incorporates Airflo’s ZONE technology. The fly line is two different colors.  The belly of the line, which spends most of it’s time shooting through the guides, is a more subdued olive or moss color.  It’s not as supple as the head of the fly line, which allows it to shoot better through the guides.  The head of the line is a light orange color and is more supple for soft presentations and easy mending.  This seems like such an easy thing to do with a fly line that I’m surprised no one thought of it sooner.  But, often the best ideas are the simplest, and Airflo hit this one out of the park.  This line is so well thought out and put together that I am seriously contemplating getting it for my 4 and 5 weight rods also.  So, there you have it.  This fly line is a quiet beast and a workaholic.  It’s been really impressive so far and I’d strongly encourage you to give it some serious thought.

Airflo Super Dri Xceed Fly Line.  The Xceed only comes in one color, called Pumpkin.

Airflo Super Dri Xceed fly line spooled up on a Lamson Litespeed and rockin' a Winston rod.

FLY SPOTLIGHT - What we currently can't keep enough of in our boxes.

The Shop Vac

For such a simple pattern the shop vac seems to deliver in every season and is one of my go to flies.  It is essentially a zebra midge with pearl midge flash, white zelon etc. that supposedly represents the air bubble of small emerging bugs.  I’m not sure about all that, but I am absolutely sure that this thing works!  It, like a zebra midge, imitates a midge pupa or other small larva, cranefly, baetis nymph etc.  I have most recently been using it in olive green to imitate the caddis larva that our local waters are currently full of.  I like to tie mine with peacock herl at the thorax as opposed to dubbing, but that is just my preference.  For the past several weeks on guided trips I have started my clients on nymph rigs in the morning hours and on pretty much every rig I have tied on a shop vac with something like a stonefly or pheasant tail as the top fly with the shop vac on the bottom.  Easily 80% of the fish have been on the shop vac and when the bugs start really hatching I go to a dry fly.  You better believe if I dropped something off of the dry it’s been the shop vac as of late, and the takes continue.  I have tied them in many colors but I personally like olive, black and red.  If you don’t have shop vac’s in your box you better change that, and trust me you won’t regret it. 

Rising Bob's Tactical Curved Forceps

Anyone that spends a lot of time on the water fishing, whether personally, or especially  guiding, understands just how easy it is to lose precious gear along the river. A couple seasons ago I was getting pretty good at losing my hemostat/scissors for some reason and went through at least 3 pairs!  The last pair I lost that season was by far my favorite, and I couldn't remember what brand they were. After another two or three pair of hemoscissors since then, I finally found and recognized "The Pair." I had been trying to find them ever since the river claimed them. I found them online at backcountry.com .  That pair just so happened to be Bob's Tactical curved scissors by Rising. They are very well built, right here in the great state of Utah. I have had similar products from Dr. Slick, Orvis, Anglers Accessories etc. Some have been okay and some have been awful, but none have come close to Rising's Bob's Tacticals.  The serrated scissors cut like a dream and don't act like they'll go dull anytime soon (which is a huge plus for me). They are comfortable with the bigger thumb loop in your hand and feel heavy duty and built to last. I have the 6 inch pair and even at that big the angled tips allows you to de barb smaller flies. Also, the tips are magnetic, which come in handy many times.Overall I am very impressed with these and hope that I don't lose them anytime soon. That being said I do guarantee I'll lose them before I wear them out because they are a quality American made product built with ingenuity and obvious dedication to doing a job right. If that's the case I will head out and find another pair to purchase. I did go with the red pair so if I drop them I will have a better shot at finding them. Rising throws in a small tube of oil to keep them oiled up and working smooth. This is the first product I've tried from Rising and wasn't let down so I'll have to check out their other products. Go check them out at risingfish.net and track down a dealer near you on their dealer locator.

Bob's Tactical hard at work

William Joseph W20 Wading Boots

     As you see by both the Current Mag pack and Squall wading jacket review, we think highly of the William Joseph brand; their packs in my opinion are second to none.  This made the decision to try out the William Joseph W20 wading boots a no brainer for me.  However, after a few months of use the results of the W20 wading boots were not up to par with the previous William Joseph products we have reviewed.

            I have mentioned that between guiding in the summer months and spending a lot of time on the water personally, I am hard on gear.  I put a lot of miles on my gear and I am not a little dude at 250 pounds, so I go through boots specifically quite fast.  When I saw that William Joseph had a wading boot I knew I had to try them. 

            My initial thought of the William Joseph W20 wading boot was that I was very impressed by the comfort and lightweight feel of the boot.  They felt like hiking boots, which was nice for a guy like me that does spend a fair amount of time hiking in to rivers and stillwaters to fish.  I wear a size 10 ½ shoe so I went with a size 11 in the boot which worked great for me.  The sole of the boots have a different combination of both rubber on the heel and toes with felt throughout the middle of the sole. I wasn’t sure about this combination at first, but the rubber toe tips and heels are nice while hiking up and down hills (including in the snow), and the felt is of course nice while wading through slippery rock bottom rivers. 

So as far as comfort, lightweight and function the William Joseph W20 wading boots worked out pretty well, but as far as durability I am not impressed. After about 4 months of use the felt started to peel off the bottom of the boot, which even with putting a lot of time on the water, 4 months is not very long.  This is very frustrating for someone who spends a lot of time fishing and hates for gear malfunctioning to slow me down.  It’s also disappointing after telling everybody how impressive William Joseph products are.  William Joseph does have a lifetime warranty of all their products which is pretty cool and not something most companies do, so I’ll be sending in my boots when I have time.  I have since moved on and went with a pair of Simms boots which will give me the opportunity to send in the W20 boots and test just how “iron clad” William Joseph’s warranty is, as they claim.

    

We love summer!

We have neglected posting for sometime and have committed to trying to stay more up to date. So here is a little update on what's been going on. The last few weeks have been anything short of phenomenal on our Southern Utah waters. The runoff has died down and the fish are hungry and very cooperative for anything looking tasty, be it on top, or subsurface. We are just now starting to see fish get a little more picky and key in on certain hatches. The caddis have been hatching in abundance several times a day with other bugs coming out to play as well. End of May there was a short couple weeks of salmon flies and large stoneflies; now we're seeing green drakes come out and play. A couple of evenings ago there was the staple caddis hatch, green drakes, yellow adult stones, and other smaller mayflies. Plenty of food + plenty of fish feeding = a lot of fun. I simply love this time of year. The fish cooperate and make you look like you know what you're doing, also making it fun to try new patterns. Interested in a guided trip? Contact us!