“You’ll feel the difference on the first cast.”
That’s the promise that Airflo makes in its advertising. For once, that’s an advertising promise kept. I can honestly say that the first time I cast the Airflo Super Dri fly line, I was aware that it was unique. A product that clearly stood out. In fact, that’s exactly what I thought the first time I touched the line. It feels different in your hand.
I’ve become numb to words like hydrophobic and nano technology. Where fly lines are concerned there’s often a lot more marketing than science involved in those kinds of claims. That honestly was what I thought when I saw the name, Super Dri. I was wrong.
There are a couple of qualities that make this line stand out.
The slickness in incredible. Like no fly line I’ve ever touched, and it lasts. It’s not just a coating that wears off. It appears to be made into the line. The line stays slick and remarkably clean. This makes the Super Dri fly through the guides like no fly line I’ve ever seen. There is a significant increase in distance.
“Zone Technology” is a fancy way of saying that the line changes hardness at different points in the taper. The head is soft and supple where it needs to be, while the rear of the line is hard to help it move freely in the guides during double hauling. This is a simple idea with big rewards. The Super Dri is a serious distance machine with none of the line coiling issues inherent in shooting lines. The line has amazing float-ability. This means easy mending, better drifts and lifting a lot of line off the water with ease.
What really makes this line stand out is simple. It actually is different. Airflo lines are made from polyurethane, as opposed to PVC used by other line companies. Some of the characteristics of the line are inherent in the material and others are engineered. While all of this is made possible by the materials, it’s worth noting that Airflo designed and produced new machines to manufacture the Super Dri line. This is the culmination of years of design and vision.
The Super Dri is available in five different tapers.
The Exceed
Designed with a little extra weight in the front head to load modern fast action lines with ease.
The Elite
An all around trout taper that handles a variety of fishing styles allowing you to go from nymphs, to dries, to streamers without missing a beat.
The Distance Pro
An extra long belly allows great distance casting with control as well as enhanced mending at long distance.
The Mend
An extra thick front taper turns over heavy nymph rigs with indicators and mends like a dream. A must for the hard core nympher.
The River and Stream
This line has an extra long front taper for super delicate dry fly presentations at any distance.
No matter what kind of trout fishing you do, Airflo has you covered with a line that follows through on its promises. You will feel the difference and that means one very simple thing. With a line that performs better you will catch more fish. End of story.
The guy at my local fly shop has nothing but good things to say about the Airflo lines. I am really looking forward to trying one of these Super Dri lines. I always respect and appreciate the G&G product reviews so the fact that ya’ll are just as excited about these lines means they have got to be good stuff!
My good friend and fellow guide and I both bought Airflo Super Dri exceed fly lines for our 6 wt. rods. They’re fantastic. I don’t have enough good things to say about them so far. They really are very slick and shoot amazingly far. I can strip in all my fly line after a drift and shoot all the slack line I have out on one forward cast. It’s incredible. And I wasn’t using shoddy line before the Airflo; I had SA Sharkskin GPX fly line spooled up before. If you’re in the market, take the plunge and you’ll be loving life!
Thanks for the product review, Louis.
How does the Airflow Super Dri compare with the Scientific Anglers SharkWave line with regards to shoot-ability, distance, etc.?
Airflo lines have been on all my rods for the last 3 years and I have absolutely loved them. Trout rods, two-hand, and switch, they have choices for everything and they do the job better than all other lines I’ve tried from other mfgs. The Super Dri just raised the bar not only for Airflo, but for all other companies to aspire to. Great review, and I concur!
Not trying to bash the topic, but I need to address some specific differences here.
First lines are not equal. I mean the lines sold a certain weight, are actually a bit heavier than they ‘should’. SA’s GPX are known as half weight heavier and same goes for Rio Gold, also a very popular line.
Second, the tapers of lines are so specific, you can’t compare lines just like that. Longer front taper versus a line with a shorter and more aggressive taper? Totally different beasts. Trying to cast a heavy nymph rig or a hopper dropper rig on a line with a long front taper will make you curse. Not fair because it’s made for delicate one dry fly delivery.
Third, a brand new line on your reel always casts wonderfully. Heck it’s clean and well lubricated. So tell me after two dozen trips how the line still performs.
this guy knows whats up. Reviews should really be done after a multiple trips to the water.
Jay,
You bring up a good point when talking about tapers and “bump lines” (both the Exceed and Mend are). However, you’re last comment about how new lines cast brings up some great points that G&G didn’t mention.
First off, Airflo infuses Kevlar into the lines which makes the coating very slick. So slick that there is no post production lubricats added. The lines shoot fast because of the technology, not a lubricant that will indeed wear off with time and use. More so, polyurethane is a nonporous material. Consequently it doesn’t dry out and crack over time and it resists collecting dirt and grime. I can tell you honestly I have Airflo lines that have seven guide seasons on them and they cast exactly the same as the day I first spooled them up. Finally, polyurethane is resistant to the harmful effects of DEET, sunscreen, gasoline and UV light. Basically the stuff is bomb proof.
To correct a comment above, it’s the Rio Grande, not the Gold, that 1/2 weight heavy.
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Thanks for the review and the comments . I’m a Chironomid lake fisher and will order a Super Dry Nymph line. I’ll post a few thoughts and observations once I use the line.
Cheers
David
I find that my airflo lines tend not to fit on their designated line weight reels. Has anyone else had this issue?
I’ve never had that problem. You may be using too much backing.
I’ve experienced this. I replaced a 4wt Rio WF line with a 4wt Airflo SuperDri WF line on the same spool with the same backing, and it overflowed the spool. I had to remove backing to get it to fit.
I sent a question to Airflo support to see if they had heard this before and they said no. They suggested that maybe I had a 5wt line (which I didn’t). It was labeled 4wt, and my rod didn’t feel ‘overlined’ when it cast.
My suspicion is one of 2 things:
1) Airflo makes their lines slightly heavier than Rio causing more line volume. -OR-
2) The SuperDri lines have a slightly less dense chemical composition compared to my old Rio line. Because of this, they need more volume to achieve the same mass of line.
Regardless, it’s a great line I’ve been using successfully on that same 4wt for over 2 years.
That’s interesting. I purchased a wf 5 super fri elite line. I tried it on a Bozeman 3-2-5 that I had been using with 5wt Rio gold and the airflo didn’t fit. I pulled off almost all the backing leaving only about 30-50 yards and it still didn’t fit. It wouldn’t fit on my hatch Finatic 4 plus either (previously lined with 5wt gpx). Most recently I put it on a nautilus NV-G 5/6 and once again it wouldn’t fit – I took off a hundred yards of backing and still wouldn’t fit. Finally I just cut 15′ off the end of the line and whip finished a new loop. I wonder if the line had been mislabeled at the factory – or as you mentioned the airflo line is more voluminous than other equally weighted fly lines.
http://www.hatchmag.com/blog/how-its-made-fly-lines/771642
This video could answer a few of your questions. I saw it in the video/read it on another post that because of the ridges the line diameter is actually thicker, but if you measure on the grooves then it’s AFTMA approved.