Leland on the Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Taper Fly Line
For single-handing
big flies or heavy nymph rigs to trout or steelhead, our go-to fly line is the
Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Taper. Anywhere in northern California and beyond,
this fly line provides quick loading, easy mending, a powerful turnover and high flotation – for those times when you need to get your fly in the zone in a hurry. Next time you’re fishing the Trinity, the Lower Sac, or
that technical tailwater in your neck of the woods, string up with the Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Taper, and you’ll be converted.
Leland on Specifications
With a
short front taper that’s perfect for turning over chunky indicators and split shot, the Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Taper has found a permanent home in our tailwater kit. But this fly line excels in other scenarios as well: Thanks to a
long rear taper and a twenty five foot belly, the Impact Taper hold loops at distance, making it a great line for
swinging flies through a broad tailout, or
chucking dry-droppers in against a deep cutbank. What’s more, the Ridge Supple Impact Taper fly line has
super-low stretch for sensitive strike detection and instant hooksets. This
all-polyurethane fly line won’t crack with age like PVC lines, and thanks to Airflo’s Ridge fabrication and their XT teflon coating, it
shoots with astounding ease.
Specifications:
- Fly Line Density: Floating
- Fly Line Taper: Long belly, weight forward with two welded ‘Micro Loops’
- Total Head Length: 51 feet (for 5 weight line - varies by line weight)
- Running Line Length: 54 feet (for 5 weight line- varies by line weight)
- Total Line Length: 105 feet
- Core: Low stretch ‘Power Core’ – supple braided monofilament
- Coating: Ridge Ultra Supple Polyfuse XT Polyurethane
- Line Weights: 4 through 9 weight
- Color: Hot coral
Leland on Airflo Fly Lines
Airflo is a stand-out among fly line manufacturers in several ways, but one of their defining characteristics is their use of polyurethane (PU) instead of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to build their fly lines. As plenty of people know, PVC is non-recyclable, and its manufacture entails a less-than-friendly solvent process with controversial environmental upshots. PU, on the other hand, is easily recycled, lasts longer in UV environments, and doesn’t require plasticizers to stay supple over the years. Airflo is so confident in their PU fly line technology that they offer a 5-year No-Crack Warranty.
What’s more, Airflo fly lines are built on incredibly low-stretch cores – 6% or less. For strike detection and hook setting, this low stretch is essential – ask any experienced tarpon angler. But one of the less understood merits of a low-stretch core like Airflo’s multifilament Power Core has to do with casting. If a line stretches less, it offers better energy transfer and enhanced loop stability, especially at distance. For those who haven’t spent any time around casting tournaments, it might be hard to believe, but low stretch fly lines like those from Airflo are less prone to ‘jumping’ and are invariably more accurate. Power Cores are also supple over a much wider temperature range than monofilament, making line management easier in a host of fishing situations.
Leland on Ridge Technology
Most basically, Airflo’s Ridge fabrication affects the way Ridge lines interact with (1) your rod’s guides and (2) the surface of the water. In combination with Airflo’s Teflon-driven bonding/coating technology, the Ridges that run the entire length of the line help to minimize the amount of guide/line friction that occurs during line-shoot. This enables the caster to achieve greater distance with less effort – and as a likely result, better accuracy. On the water, Ridge lines hold air bubbles in their grooves, providing for higher flotation and less contact with the water. For our part at Leland, one of the unexpected upshots of this air-trapping was how it diminishes surface tension, and how easily and quietly the lines can be drawn out of the water for the backcast. This has relevance in all technical fly fishing scenarios, from tarpon flats to spring creeks.
Leland on Airflo
With a huge following in their native UK and across Europe, Airflo is undoubtedly one of the preeminent names in fly line manufacturing. Since their start in the late 1980s under UK angler Paul Burgess – when they defined themselves through a move away from the traditional solvent-based PVC fly line technology of the day – Airflo has stayed at the forefront of fly line design and development, with a slew of patents to show their industry leadership. Airflo was the first firm to develop density compensation (DC) and the welded loop, which are now industry standards.
One of the largest selling points about Airflo lines is their longevity, which has its source in the material used in manufacture: polyurethane (PU). Like other urethanes, which are used in car dashboards, boat paints, and car paints, PU is highly resistant to UV and chemical damage, and won’t leak solvents over time to crack as other fly lines can.
Integral to the long-lasting performance of Airflo lines is Airflo’s two-layer extrusion method, called Polyfuse XT. Utilizing a specialized extruder which is like a ‘nozzle inside a nozzle’, Airflo can seal two separate layers of polyurethane around a fly line core, and adjust the ratios of each material as the core passes out the extruder. The middle layer contains the defining elements of the line (whether microballoons, for flotation, or metal dust, for sinking ability) while the outer layer seals the line and contains all the slick-shooting properties that should be concentrated on the exterior. As a result, Airflo lines are less porous and consistently last longer.
Whether you’ve been fishing Airflo for years, or have just started to catch wind of their virtues, you should know that Airflo fly lines are hugely impressive, and Leland is thrilled to have the opportunity to carry them.
Airflo on the Ridge Supple Impact Fly Line
Whether your preferred technique is indicator nymphing, punching large dries into the wind, or pitching your ‘hopper dropper’ into that ‘killer’ crease - then the Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Fly Line is the line for you. Based or our hugely successful ‘Nymph’ taper, the Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Fly Line is a capable performer and favorite of many of our staff when ‘one line fits all’ is necessary. The Airflo Ridge Supple Impact Fly Line's Power core gives high energy transfer and helps set hooks at long range.
Airflo on Airflo Fly Lines
Only Airflo lines are made from UV resistant super tough polyurethane.
There are no liquids used in the manufacture of Airflo lines and
therefore they last longer than PVC lines. With dry lubricant in the
outer coating, Airflo lines stay cleaner than other lines and don’t require as much care as PVC lines.
Use an Airflo Turbo Shoot cleaner or other thin non-sticky cleaner/protector
like STP Son of a Gun. By cleaning your line you help the front of the
line float and keep friction in the guides from degrading line
smoothness. You can use any brand fly line cleaner or conditioner on any Airflo fly line. Airflo lines are hardly affected by DEET
and other chemicals that would normally ruin a fly line. You don’t have
to worry about getting insect repellant on Airflo fly lines.
Airflo on Airflo
Not happy with the PVC fly line technology of the day, Paul Burgess, a mad keen flyfisher,
who also happened to be a qualified engineer, set about changing the
process by which modern fly lines are manufactured. Moving away from
the traditional tower system, Paul began extruding fly lines with computer controlled systems that allowed for control over production accuracy previously thought impossible.
That was the late 80s. Now, over 20 years later, Airflo is the world's leading manufacturer of solvent free fly lines
and is responsible for developing a series of innovations unparalleled
by any other line manufacturer during that period. Whilst we may not
have invented the fly line, innovation has been a keystone at every stage in our development, being the originators of Polyurethane coatings, creating the first welded loops, developing low stretch cores and even the world's first density compensated fly lines.
More recently, we've developed an advanced range of fly lines with Ridged coatings that reduce surface friction and improve shootability - each breakthrough offering a truly tangible improvement, not some invisible technology developed in the minds of the marketers.
'Green' or 'Environmentally Friendly' is something all fishing
companies like to claim, and whilst we are more than happy to make you
aware that our coatings are kinder to the environment, it was
originally the search for a polymer that didn't leach solvents, was unaffected by UV and ultimately just lasted longer that lead us to pursue polyurethane as an alternative to solvent based PVC.
The final result is what we believe to be the world's most advanced range of fly lines and, judging by the bandwagon we've created with our continuous stream of innovation, most of our competitors would seem to agree.
