Had my first proper play with the olive SLX #4 yesterday at Parkhill Loch and then on the river at Kemney.
To compare, I started off with £50+ of Joan Wulff Signature with a 32' head. This has been my go to line for the river and for fishing dries/small buzzers. I had 20 minutes with that line to "dial in" and then swapped to a more conventional £60+ Cortland 555 Rocket Taper WF#4. The rod was a #4 Orvis Zero Gravity 10.5 flex (so fastish)
Both these lines I am used to and I know that the Wulff needs to have the entire head out before the rod starts to work and that the 555 requires a bit of a haul to get it to shoot well.
So onto the SLX.
First the colour. Its a lovely subtle Olive, but has the knack of being visible on dark and light water. This I liked. I know some of you like the orange, and I do indeed have an Orange 6 weight, but there is something about this olive version that is just "right" when fishing tiny dries and buzzers. In the air is was easy to see as well, so looking back at my back cast I could track the line against the sky or trees.
The feel. Like all of Mikes lines, the line feels smooth and lays nicely on the water. I needed to strectch the line a little at the transition to the thinner line as it has a little kink, but as soon as I did this, it laid out fine. I put it down to being wound on a small reel with tight coils.
The cast. I got some line out the tip and started to do mini rolls until the entire olive head was out. Now, single handed spey casts are new to me, so I was not expecting much, but, I was managing to get the line out without to much issue, certainly well enough to present a fly good enough for a fish to take. My "energised" speys need work, but again I was able to shoot a bit of line, certainly more than I expected.
Change of direction. Now..this is where the line really came into its own. From straight out in front, a snake roll cast to the left then into a single spey saw me move the fly 90+ degrees no problem and put the fly down gently. Going the other way, a circle C into a spey and shoot and again, the fly moved 90 degrees. Its nice to be able to just flick and shoot the fly to different fish rising without overhead casting. From a boat I think you could have a lot of fun with this line.
Silly casting. Now, I know the SLX is not designed for overhead casting as such, but wow, does it do it well. Head on the transition point, roll into the air, a double haul and shoot and you can add an extre 10-15 yards no issue. I can't remember how long the SLX is but I had 6-8 turns of the line on my reel, the rest was out in front of me on the water. Not bad for a 4 weight and me. Its maybe not the most delicate of landing due to the profile, but it is more than good enough to present a fly to a distant fish.
On the river. I used the line for about an hour on the river, taking 5 small Brownies from a bit I would not of been able to fish with an overhead cast. River was runnibg left to right so I had to use a fairly large change of direction to get the dry fly slightly upstream of the fish to allow a drift over them. I used a snake roll to do this and the line/rod managed this without fuss. The line picks up nicely and leaves very little "rip" in the water, meaning stealthy casts to wary fish are possible.
So, what do I not like about the line. The only thing I can think of, and I can remedy it myself, is that the transition from olive to white is gradual (the olive fades out) so its not the easiest thing to see. A black marker pen will sort that though.
For a line costing a great deal less than my other two lines, I can see this as my go to line for still water and running. I love it!! The #4 is very sweet indeed. I am going to try it on my Sage XP next...I hope that this combination is going to be the beez kneez!!
Thanks for a great line Mike et al.
