RIO GrandSpey

Dana,
Michael and Young now has the Grandspeys in, the order of them arrived this past Friday October 18th/02.

I have cast the 9/10 Grandspey on my Sage 9140-3 Euro. First thing I can tell you is I concur with the above thoughts, it is an awesome line. Damn does this line every have grains though! It loads and turns over well at all the distances I could cast it, and it loads well close in out to far out. I think the 9/10 might not be the best match for the 9140-3 though, and the 8/9 will probably be a better match if you want some more distance taked on.

The one thing I like about this line from what I have seen is it turns over with authority primarily due to the grains in the front section. Now I haven't cast tips or heavily weighted flies on it yet, but just by how much authority (but it doesn't "over" turn over or "tuck") it has when it turns over, I can tell it will be a formidable line to work with winter fish where tips and/or heavily weighted flies are called for. It doesn't fake the authority and then wimper out with a flimsy tip like other lines I have tried. It lets you know what it wants to do. The line does eat up space on the reel though, probably even more so than the XLT, due to the Grandspeys less dymanic taper. What I mean by that is it doesn't have a thick belly which tapers down to a wisp (which I would describe as dynamic). It has a thick belly which tapers down to some meat in the tip/front section.

Thanks Simon, I appreciate your efforts in helping me choose my long belly line.

Scott

Dana,
Yup, the Graphite 3 brown blank, the same one Tyler Owns.
I found out the hard way exactly what you just recommended when I had about 80-85 feet of the line plus leader outside the tip, or around there. I reasoned though after as well, on top of a recommendation from Tyler, that the GS 8/9 has an 1100 grain belly @ 90 feet, and the 10/11 Accelerator which has 1000 grains belly @ 80 feet (considered to be a great match for this rod) so that also suggests that the 8/9 is the best match as well as yours and Simons recommendations (he recommended it to me at the time, but stubborn me wanted to try the 9/10 for some reason). The 8/9 will definatley give me some more line on my Evotec 9thirteen, something I don't mind considering the 9/10 filled it up with not much backing room (I would definatley need GSP, and even then I question whether I could have gotten 100 plus yards of 50 # GSP on there with the 9/10!).

My one concern with this line, and it's nothing to do with how it casts, is the line ratings; it really puts a spin on the whole system considering how much more "grainy" these lines are compared to the accelerator and other Rio lines and how the line ratings are much different to that of the accelerator, even though Simon pointed out that if you continued the taper of the Accelerator 10/11 back 20 feet to make it 100 feet it would weigh around 1460 grains. The 10/11 Grandspey 100 foot belly weighs 1500 grains.

Dana, my question to you and anyone else, and this is an entirely different topic, has there been any strides set up for spey line ratings versus the AFTMA system? Or are we gonna stick with the sort of trial and error system where we ask around which line might be the best match for a particular rod, etc. ?? Considering how diverse spey casting is, I wonder if that is how it will have to be considering a 9/10 traditional action rod an a 9/10 fast action rod will usually cast different weight lines on average. And then factoring in the style of line (IE shooting head, midspey type line, or long belly) as well.

More to think about I guess.

Scott

Wow

Have been out to a local river for the past two weeks with my 8/9 Grandspey, which I mentioned I use on my Sage 9140-3 Euro action. Fishing for Salmon, as well as doing a bit of casting in between to get a bit of fish fighting practice, as well as some casting practice on a fairly large river.

First and foremost, I installed a perfection loop at the end of my 8/9 GS so I could loop on Poly Leaders (soon to be those 12 foot Rio sinking leaders as soon as Michael and Young flyshop get them in). This perfection loop is made of 40 pound Maxima for stiffness/abrasion/durability reasons. I put a Super fast Sink poly leader at the end. Wow. Casts like a rocket. Even at moderate distance no where near the running line, the line would shoot 3-6 feet. I guess the grains at the end of the line really help. Was impressed with how well this turned over as well.

Related question: Does anyone know if the Airflo sinking leaders are Density compensated? How about the Rio Sinking leaders? (Just out of curiousity).

Now this 10 foot super fast sink airflo polyleader, when I was focused on actually fishing, I don't think was getting down. So two weeks in a row, I've had to resort to looping on a sink tip to the perfection loop at the end of my fly line on the Grandspey.
The sink tip is a 15 foot type 5 sink tip from my old 10 wt. SA Mastery Tri tip Spey system. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing this tip weighs around 150 grains or so maybe? Anyways, besides the point. Considering the obvious hinge (the perfection loop of mono which really hinders the transfer of energy from the fly line to the sink tip), it still cast admirably well enough to fish it. I was quite impressed. Also consider it is recommended that you CUT the line 15-20 feet back usually to install sink tips. Hell with this line I wonder if even need to cut it back! (Not saying I won't cut it one day possibly, just trying to make a statement about the ability of these lines to turn over with authority). All in all, once again, maybe I'm beating the dog again by saying this, but Nice Job Simon!

Thanks for the tips guys.

Flytyer, I read your description, and it sounds far from something I do, although I bet if we both looked at our results they would just about be the same I'm guessing.

Ryan, I didn't find hinging to be all that much of a real issue today with the Poly Leader (only with the sink tip which is much heavier obviously). Maybe if I had a heavier one though it might become one? Also, you said about looping it right to the butt. Do you mean forming some type of a loop with the fly line itself at the tip of the line where you would normally join the leader, and then looping onto that? I know you can install a kevlar loop, or something similar at the end for a more durable permanent connection, something I may consider most likely.


Usually when I construct/work with a sink tip system I purchase those Kevlar loops by Cascade fly tying materials, comes in packs of 4. Now I've started buying the sections of the kevlar tubing. The advantages of this, with a little work from myself and a little Zap a gap glue is I can make the distance between my loop and the end of the inserted fly line a little smaller whch is less distance between fly line to sink tip, or fly line to fly line when looping things back together.

In the grand scheme of things I am hoping to not have to cut my GS 8/9 to put tips on it. I would like to see if I can get by with a sinking leader and a slightly weighted fly, or long leader and heavily weighted fly, if possible, however I will probably end up having to cut it anyways to install loops if I want to fish 15 feet of leadcore, if neccessary during high/dirty water or in deeper runs/pools.

Recall talking to a friend who works at the local fly shop and he is playing with that blue plasticy coating crap (not sure what it's exactly called, feel free to fill me in, but I think the blue plasticy coasting crap sounds about right?) that comes in those bottles (like the bottles that head cement, or Dave's flexament comes in). He says what he does is strips the line to the core (at least he's been doing this lately apparently), and then creates a loop by splicing the core back into itself, and then "double dipping" the loop into this plasticy stuff, and letting it dry, to form a plastic layer on top of the core. Now if this turns out like it sounds it will (I will ask him a bit more about it when I see him next, I didn't inquire much last time I talked to him), it will be a pretty nice looking and performing loop. I was hoping if all works out well, I could do this to the mono loop I have at the end of my GS 8/9 and form a supple, yet durable plastic loop which in theory will hinge less, if not at all. I'll see what happens and if it works I'll fill you in, but judging that I've never heard about this before, I'm guessing maybe it's been tryed and it sucks? Or maybe it's something new? who knows.