Well my spool of 65 Lb. SpiderWire line arrived the other day and I made up a 12 foot long line and cast in the back yard on a pretty windy day, and I found it to be pretty impressive and much better than I expected it to be, and that was with out a leader and tippet on the line.
Then I took a hand tied tapered leader off of a Floating PVC T-line I had and added it to the SpiderWire line and did some more casting. With the leader but less any tippet material, the SpiderWire line cast even better in the wind with the leader than it had before with out a leader! The whole set up had the feel of casting with a Weight Forward Taper Fly Line. And I was amazed at how delicately the SpiderWire line cast and landed on the grass, and how super visible the line showed up against green tree foliage, gray fencing and blue skies. But I could tell the SpiderWire line will not handle wind as well as Fluorocarbon Mono and PVC Floating Fly Lines will, but it handled the wind a lot better than I thought it would. I was so impressed that I immediately went in and started making up second line for a T-fishing friend of mine to try.
In doing so I noticed that the SpiderWire Invisible-Braid label listed the line as being: 125 YDS. of 14 Lb Test Dia, which explains why in casting the line and leader it had a weight forward tapered line casting feel to it. The leader is made up of: 24” of Nylon RIO Steelhead/Salmon 16 Lb. Tippet material, then 18” of Fluorocarbon in size 3.5 Valcan Sanyo Stealth T-line, then 12” of size 2.5 Valcan Sanyo Stealth FC T-line, and 9” of Cabela’s No-Vis 8 Lb. test Spinning Line, with Perfection Loops at both ends of the leader to Loop-to-Loop the leader onto the SpiderWire Line, and 5X FC Tippet material to loop on to the leader.
The SpiderWire line to Lilian connection is made with a 20 Lb. Dacron Backing Loop, half-hitched around the SpiderWire line, then you tie a loose Overhand Knot at the end of the SpiderWire line and stick the knotted end of the Dacron Backing loop through the center of the loose Overhand Knot. Tighten the SpiderWire Knot down to form a Stopper Knot and pull the Dacron half-hitch up tight against the stopper knot and you are done after a second tightening of both knots. This makes for a very tight, compact and secure joining system that is also light in weight. The Lilian also needs a stopper knot tied in it. To connect the line to the rod, you just half-hitch the line-Lilian loop on the Lilian behind its stopper knot, and tighten. To release the line from the rod, you just pull on the Lilian loop tag-ends behind the knot in the Lilian loop and the Lilian loop comes right off of the Lilian.
I just got a fishing report Back from John on how the SpiderWire Line did under actual fishing conditions. He liked how the SpiderWire line needs no stretching, how well it casts, how easy it is to hold up and off of the water, and that it did float flush on the water if the fly he was fishing was not too heavy and pulled the line underwater. It was breezy on the pond this morning and the 65 Lb, SpiderWire line handled what wind he had Quite well. The line and knots also went on the Small Side of the Two-Line Tenkara USA Line Spool quite nicely, with his Floating PVC Rigs Floating Tenkara Fly Line occupying the wider line slot. All in all, he was pleased with the outcome and he caught some fish to boot. The water was 80 degrees and the air temp was 92 degrees when he left before noon. We are to be in the 100 to109 degree range in a few days and I am not looking forward to that…Karl.