[SSPey]

We live in a time when there are abundant spey line choices available to us. Just a reminder to everyone of something that I reminded myself of tonite ... be careful to believe what's written on a box.

Lots of us here obsess about grain weights of lines. Charts, splices, tapers, etc. So tonite I brought home the portable lab balance, calibrated it, and weighed some lines and tips.

Several tips marked 9 wt and 11 wt were really 10 wts. ok, not a big deal, unless like me you upline your sink tips by one weight already, in which case you might be uplining by 2 weights without knowing it.

Full floater speys were generally only slightly off published specs in weight (20-40 grains out of 500-800 ... < 5% error) though often shorter than advertised by 3-8'.

One line was completely mislabled - weights and diameters matched the next size up.

There was no real pattern to any of this. The lesson for me is that obsessing about which line to buy based on published specs is probably not a good idea. I look forward to Sean's line exchange program for hands-on reality checks.

 

[voodoofly]

Where is the QA in spey?

Steve,

I weigh and measure all of my lines before I put them on reels. You would be suprised (and you are) by how much variation will exists. Some manufacture's are better than others (not going to name anyone). I too have encountered labeling as well as manufacturing errors.

G

 

[Jamey McLeod]

yeah

I just ran into this with a shorthead line a certain company was blowing out for $40.00. The body on mine is 47ft, while the body on a few friends lines are 52ft. Same line, same weight rating, who knows?????? I still like it though, and $40.00 is damn cheap.

 

[flytyer]

Steve,

I expect that as the new spey line standards lines get to market, the things you mentioned will become a thing of the past.

 

[Lohi]

...I expect that as the new spey line standards lines get to market, the things you mentioned will become a thing of the past.

I am afraid that the new standard has not much to do with the Quality Assurance of the line manufacturers. Mislabeled lines will still exist, whatever the standard. It would be very interesting to know, what are the manufacturing tolerances of a flyline in general, as far as the length, diameter and weight are concerned. Also the process how these are controlled, and how much "out of tolerances" stuff gets to the shops. Some monofil manufacturers indicate the line diameter and its tolerances (e.g. Stroft GTM), but it seems that most of the mfgs keep these secrects to themselves.

 

[JDJones]

Quality Control

The AFTMA specs for a 10 weight (single hand) fly line is 280 grains for the first 30 feet, plus or minus 10 grains. Which figures out to 3.57%. Pretty darn good all things considered. I don't know if there are any other specs as far as length is concerned. I expect not. Spey lines, until recently, have had no specs at all. But things are changing.
The manufacturer's have gotten together and decided on a standard which dictates length as well as weight.
We now have digital scales available to us at a price we can all afford. <$30
I personally know of people who have sent a bunch of lines back because they were not what they were supposed to be. The lines were replaced.
Things will get better. The line manufacturer's reputations are at stake here. So you can bet the pressure will be on to make quality control a priority. Competition will make it happen.

 

[Steve_sullivan]

I just ran into this with a shorthead line a certain company was blowing out for $40.00. The body on mine is 47ft, while the body on a few friends lines are 52ft. Same line, same weight rating, who knows?????? I still like it though, and $40.00 is damn cheap.

Was the company orvis? If not, I just noticed they have their Spey WF Type I Short selling for $40 plus dollars.

Also, cortland is blowing out the 444 SL - WF LONG BELLY SPEY LINE - $55.00 Sale~ $34.95

 

[Jamey McLeod]

yep

Sure was, I like the line though. The short head is a good fit with me.