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SA Skagit Line with Integrated Tip

6.1K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  GPearson  
#1 ·
Anyone have experience with this line ?

Regards,
sixheads
 
#2 ·
Was wonderign same thing!! Looks like it fits the bill perfectly...Seamless...

Any reviews would be great!!!
 
#4 ·
I fished this line in a 520 several months ago. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that SA was targeting a very narrow window of beginners. If you are on speypages, you either don't fall into this catagory, or won't stay in it for very long. Sooner or later, a dedicated beginner is going to want to try different tips, running lines, and heads. My guess is that a lot of people who buy this line will ultimately end up chopping it. This is a good line that is well suited for casting heavy rigs.
 
#5 ·
Well, I love the...

480gr on my Dredger. Casts and shoots very well. It seemed to me that I still have more depth control with fly weight and leader length and so the integrated tip simplified things.

If it has to be the unweighted intruder, my other spool has the running line and skagit head of my choice for T14 or the other tips in my wallet.
 
#6 ·
We wanted to come out with these lines for a few different reasons.

First was for part timers and beginners as bendow suggests. Can't tell you how many new to spey guys we would outfit for their first spey trip only to confuse them and send them running the other direction when we started talking multi tip lines. The same guy/gal had maybe steelhead fished for a while but had handled everything with two rods, one rigged with a dry line and one with the type IV 12' tip or a T200. To keep things simple again for those that choose it, we wanted a option that would allow 2 rods, one dry and one a sink tip. I watched new guys loose their first ever steelhead hooked when they were new to fighting fish with a long rod and not used to loop to loop connections. This line helps with the bump, bump, bump through the guides.

The second was for the little lines and switch rod spey fishing streamers for trout. I never change tips much for this and am stripping the fly a lot. Nice to remove the loop to loop connection when it might enter the guides on every retrieve.

Lastly, I, for years changed tips all of the time, run to run, as needed when fishing sink tips. A buddy and I fished a Skeena system river for two weeks, he fished the same 12' type VI the whole time while I changed tips a zillion times. At the end of the trip we had hooked a lot of fish and I had one more them him. The big difference was he had a lot of extra time to relax and enjoy the scenery. Same thing on other trips so over time I started to fish more simply, spend more time fishing the water and spend less time messing around with tips. Steve Choate and I were discussing how we both felt that we could fish a ton of different situations (especially on certain rivers) with 10-12 feet of T-12 by using different casting angles, mends, length of leader and un-weighted or weighted flies. Turns out managing our fishing was more fun then managing tips. Reading the water and making what you had work was fun. We both liked the idea of a simple line and promoted the idea to the powers that be at SA. Also, in Dec's book he mentions that he mostly uses about 12-15' of type VI for his sink tip fishing and rarely changes during particular seasons.

So this third reason is very different then the MOW approach but I believe both are great tools. I have made and used MOW type tips a bunch (and now have some of the Rio supernice dudes) and will still use them but on rivers where less is more I will use the integrated lines. I think for beginner and advanced these will be great lines. It might be the folks in the middle that want to experiment with lots of things that might not have a place in their "tool box" for them.

On the integrated lines I usually do customize per rod and bulk of situations. Typically this means I am cutting 1'-5' of the tip so I often start with a line a touch on the heavy side if I know I am going to be trimming.

Hope this helps explain the line a bit. I do get asked about it a lot.
 
#9 ·
I have used the 360 here in OH on some small water. First thing I did was cut off the running line and weld a loop on the back end. I am limited in reels so basically I am a head guy. I was going to cut off the tip but decided to fish it first to see how I liked it. I am happy I did because I really liked having to think about each cast and how I was going to "get down" or not get hung. The line turns over cones and small lead eyes just fine. Was getting it to work with some big lead eyes and 4" of rabbit on a big waddington but it wasnt ideal. I really liked the way it lays out flies that are supposed to be used with this outfit. I am looking forward to using this line here more in summer for smallies. But I dont think its going to work to well for skaters.
 
#10 ·
really want to see this line as an interchangeable tip model, with the integrated running line.
The SA Supra skagit has an integrated running line and interchangeable tips.

6wt= 450 grains head= 26' ,
7wt= 500 grains head= 27' ,
8wt= 550 grains head= 28',
9wt= 600 grains head= 29' ,
10wt= 650 grains head= 30'
 
#14 ·
Of course Poppy is spot on.

If you wanted the Extreme's short taper you could cut the sink tip off and put a loop on the front. I did this (cut the sink tip+ about 5') to one to customize for a single hand 9' rod. Works great.
 
#11 ·
I picked this line up, I will use it for swinging larger flies in a deep cut for stripers. In this area I usually don't use anything but a fast sinking line, so it should do what I need it to. When the water warms up and the bass come back I can give a more detailed report.

I did test cast it once and the lack of loop to loop connections was very nice. It will make it more friendly for beach fishing too where the whole head usually gets stripped in.
 
#13 ·
Late last summer I used one with a stripping basket and switch for overhead casting for hybrids/wipers. I under weighted by a couple sizes and it made for a great seamless shooting head. Looking forward to hearing how it works out for your stripers NJFly.
 
#12 ·
I see good use of this line for chinooks,and when flows are high. I been using snow-bee 3D lines with integrated sink tip type 2 and really like them for steelhead.The seamless part of this lines would make a great line for those out of control chinooks.Good fly selection and some mending should take care of depth control . :smokin: