Got two IG Speys today in the mail but didn´t have time to go down to the river and try them out. However, an hour´s worth of casting on the pond put a big smile on my face! Excellent lines! I bought the 10/11 65 ft floater for the 9/10 top of my B&W Kola 15,3 and the 11/12 65 ft medium sinker for the 10/11 top. These lines are very slick and supple, seems like real good quality coating. Nice and long front taper, though not overly long, and a decent back taper. The level tip was a tad too long so I cut it about 20 cm (since I either use 10 ft Poly leaders + 8-9 ft of flourocarbon or a really long fine tapered leader for "greased line" fishing I really don´t need overly long tips).
Turn over was fantastic, no matter how "bad" I was casting. I kept the colour change anywhere between the rod tip or at my hands and it loaded the rod well no matter what. With the colour change at the rod tip of course I hade to make a slightly bigger D-loop and use a bit of weight transfer to make most out of it. Since the line shoots so well there´s really no need to leave that much line out of the rod tip. It seemed to work best when the colour change was somewhere right between rod tip and reel, which means that the rod tip is somewhere in the middle of the rear taper. (Of course, since this was on still water it might be a totally different situation in real fishing situations!)
The lines had no problems turning over a 10 cm Cone Head Temple Dog and remaining straight in the air despite the blustery wind we had today. Especially the combo of the med sink and the B&W rod was heavenly. Very responsive. All I had to do to cut through the wind was to squeeze the rod slighly harder in the forward delivery, without actually applying more power, resulting in a very sexy tight loop indeed.
The taper also allows good feel on shorter distances (something I think my sometimes Windcutter lacks). Mid distance casting is of course done without shooting any line, since the head is 65 ft and with my leader set-up (around 18 ft) I only needed to shoot about 15-16 ft to put the fly 30 yards out. Easiest 30 yards I´ve ever cast! Turn over was still excellent. By the sound my reel was making when the running line I had pulled out shot off, I can tell that great distances will be no problem with this set up. I made myself stop right there instead of trying to cast even longer. Always better to really get to know the combo before attempting those 40 yard casts. (You know, waiting for that "zen spey" feeling when the line just shoots and shoots and you have no idea why, since you hardly used any power at all )
My only complaint is that the colour change on the med sinker could be more radical. This version goes from a moss green head to a foam green running line, which makes the transition a bit hard to see in certain lights. No big deal, I´ll make a tiny marker on the running line with a few turns of tippet material anyways, indicating when I got the colour change at the rod tip. The floater has a yellow head and a light blue running line = good contrast.
Would be nice to try it out along with, say, a Rio MidSpey. Compared to my WC it´s smoother thanks to the longer head (and longer rear taper) and a bit more supple. But the IG:s can still be treated as shooting heads (or short head spey lines). Why I don´t know. A person more trained in the physics of spey casting and taper profiles could probably explain. I managed to keep my rather compact and economical casting style even when casting with the whole head out of the rod tip.
Would be interesting to hear what others have to say about these fine little lines!
Turn over was fantastic, no matter how "bad" I was casting. I kept the colour change anywhere between the rod tip or at my hands and it loaded the rod well no matter what. With the colour change at the rod tip of course I hade to make a slightly bigger D-loop and use a bit of weight transfer to make most out of it. Since the line shoots so well there´s really no need to leave that much line out of the rod tip. It seemed to work best when the colour change was somewhere right between rod tip and reel, which means that the rod tip is somewhere in the middle of the rear taper. (Of course, since this was on still water it might be a totally different situation in real fishing situations!)
The lines had no problems turning over a 10 cm Cone Head Temple Dog and remaining straight in the air despite the blustery wind we had today. Especially the combo of the med sink and the B&W rod was heavenly. Very responsive. All I had to do to cut through the wind was to squeeze the rod slighly harder in the forward delivery, without actually applying more power, resulting in a very sexy tight loop indeed.
The taper also allows good feel on shorter distances (something I think my sometimes Windcutter lacks). Mid distance casting is of course done without shooting any line, since the head is 65 ft and with my leader set-up (around 18 ft) I only needed to shoot about 15-16 ft to put the fly 30 yards out. Easiest 30 yards I´ve ever cast! Turn over was still excellent. By the sound my reel was making when the running line I had pulled out shot off, I can tell that great distances will be no problem with this set up. I made myself stop right there instead of trying to cast even longer. Always better to really get to know the combo before attempting those 40 yard casts. (You know, waiting for that "zen spey" feeling when the line just shoots and shoots and you have no idea why, since you hardly used any power at all )
My only complaint is that the colour change on the med sinker could be more radical. This version goes from a moss green head to a foam green running line, which makes the transition a bit hard to see in certain lights. No big deal, I´ll make a tiny marker on the running line with a few turns of tippet material anyways, indicating when I got the colour change at the rod tip. The floater has a yellow head and a light blue running line = good contrast.
Would be nice to try it out along with, say, a Rio MidSpey. Compared to my WC it´s smoother thanks to the longer head (and longer rear taper) and a bit more supple. But the IG:s can still be treated as shooting heads (or short head spey lines). Why I don´t know. A person more trained in the physics of spey casting and taper profiles could probably explain. I managed to keep my rather compact and economical casting style even when casting with the whole head out of the rod tip.
Would be interesting to hear what others have to say about these fine little lines!
