The Airflo Saltwater Cold Striper Line Is Cooler Than Cool

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Photo by Louis Cahill

Photo by Louis Cahill

Saltwater fly fishing is not all fun in the sun.

A couple of my recent trips have been pretty cold and miserable. One thing that can make a cold saltwater trip especially miserable is having the wrong fly line. Most saltwater fly lines are tropical lines made to perform in the heat of the tropical summer. Cold weather puts very different demands on your fly line and one of those tropical lines that performs great in the heat can be a recipe for frustration when the mercury dips.

A lot of anglers don’t understand the difference and will turn up on chilly days with a tropical line. I’ve done it myself. When that tropical line comes off the reel it coils up in a bird’s nest on the deck and stays that way for the rest of the day. The result is a bunch of time spent untying knots and missing fish. It’s a bad feeling.

A tropical line just isn’t going to behave until the temperature is above eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Even winter fishing in the tropics can be sketchy. The air can be well over eighty degrees and the water still be below seventy. Your line comes out of the water too cold to preform as it should.

No one deals with this more than striper fishermen in the northeast. Those guys deal with brutal conditions. It was for them that Airflo designed their Saltwater Cold Striper Line. Designed with absolutely no memory and a super low-stretch core, this line performers when Mother Nature does her worst. Although it was designed for chasing stripers, I find I’m using this line for everything from blue water to redfish.

Airflo-Ridge-Striper-lineThe Airflo Saltwater Cold line is a joy to fish. I’ve fished it on some pretty brutal days and it’s never given me a problem. When I say it has absolutely no memory, I mean it. The line lays in nice open coils on the deck. With my line perfectly relaxed, so am I. I can focus on the fish and not my line management.

Most line manufacturers start with a hard material then add chemical softeners To help the line relax. For the Saltwater Cold lines Airflo starts with a soft, ‘zero memory’ material. No softeners needed. The material is been aerated to perfect brilliancy and bonded to a super low stretch core. Once bonded its tough as nails but still relaxed.

A relaxed line means better casting too, because you’re not fighting the memory of the line when making your loops. The line has an aggressive taper that turns over big flies extremely well and shoots like a cannon. It loads up a fast action rod and still delivers a nice presentation that’s both accurate and controllable.

The Airflo ridge technology increases distance by reducing friction, making this line great for the saltwater quick cast. The low stretch core, pioneered by Airflo, gives needed authority to your strip set, making for positive hook ups. That means landing more fish.

The Airflo Saltwater Cold Striper Line scores high marks all around. It’s already an important piece of saltwater gear for me and I suspect I will be fishing it for land-locked stripers in fresh water as well. So wherever you’re braving the cold, give this line a try.

With Airflo you’re cooler than cool. Your ice cold.

To learn more about Airflo check out Todd Moens awesome film “The Airflo Story”

Come fish with us in the Bahamas!

Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
 
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5 thoughts on “The Airflo Saltwater Cold Striper Line Is Cooler Than Cool

  1. I have this line on my 8wt and echo your remarks. I have used it to fish for striper throughout the year, steelhead in winter and even carp in hot summer months. It has yet to let me down.

  2. Hail hail Louis! I completely agree.
    I have been replacing nearly all my flylines with Airflo ones over the past couple of years and I am very happy with that decision.
    The Coldwater Striper Ridge is an excellent line which we use a lot for the “stripeless stripers”, a.k.a. seabass. But we mostly use it for pike fishing in shallower water. For deeper water we are total fan of the Sixth Sense series, especially the DI3 and DI7, with excellent bite detection and perfect hook set, even at 8 meters depth. The hang markers are also excellent.
    Check out the pikefishing here (use Google translate, it’s in Dutch):
    http://www.dyckers.com/blog/category/vliegvissenopsnoek/
    and here:
    http://www.0031flyfishing.com/flyfishing-articles/big-mama-pike/
    Nice movie here:
    http://vimeo.com/85909919
    As you can see, we are pretty successful with the Airflo lines.
    Another good thing about the Airflo lines is that they are non-PVC and they are not affected by sunscreen and stuff like that.
    Airflo is really pushing the envelope and I am also looking forward to trying one of their super-dri lines.

  3. That’s weird, my previous post did not come through? Can you still place it without links if that was the issue?
    Anyhow, out here in the cold Netherlands, we love these lines especially for pike, and the Sitxth sense series too.
    I have been replacing a lot of my flylines by Airflo lines and love them.

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