Jim Teeny sink-tip floating fly line is soft as butter and smooth as silk. Supple, in a manly way.
Teeny sink-tip floating fly line cost me $52 for about 82 yards. Not so bad. Not like it’s a new spool of Sharkskin or anything, but still, when that sucker unspools on you as you’re trying to wind it onto your empty reel, it’s a major scare. I’ve had 9 foot leader unspool on me, ending up in a bird’s nest of fat-to-fine monofilament. But leader seems like a trifle, just a few bucks that can be tossed in the trash if the tangles are too much. Fifty-two dollars worth of fly line on the kitchen floor in a glowing green and impossible-to-see black rat’s nest, while dogs are lurking nearby? And kids are coming and going? That’s flat-out heart-attack-inducing. I have never worked harder or faster to untangle a tangle than I did with that Teeny line yesterday afternoon.
Teeny fly line lacks a built-in loop. So I tied my first nail knot to connect some 7 ½ foot leader to the black, sinking tip. Any trout worth his or her ancestry is going to spot that big, ugly nail knot at fifty feet in tea-stained water. I am doomed. But I positively cannot wait to try that line out.
How about a new spool of Scientific Anglers willow green weight-forward five weight GPX floating line? Yes, please. So that was the other line I spooled up on my new L.L. Bean Quest II reel. Bean calls it a large arbor, but it’s more mid-arbor to me. Not that it matters. I now have one reel, two spools, and I am ready for some fish-fighting action. Put the spare, Tenny line spool in the back pocket of my vest, and have my sights set on being a trout-snaring machine this season.
