A day out with the SLXi 'quick'.
I was up on a loch near me last Monday with some friends, a promising warm morning as we tackled up gave way to some tough conditions for early June. Once afloat we were faced with a
very cold wind and very little surface activity - despite copious hatches of olives and other goodies fit for plump trout to scoff on.
The wind was so cold I made the decision to fish the quicker sinking of the new Barrio SLXi from pretty much my first cast until the end of the day.
I had a good day finishing with 10 trout to about 2.25lbs (all returned) and out fished my boat partner for the day, not because he is a poor fisherman (far from it) but he didn't have what I did and that was the right tools for the job so he was always going to have a tougher day - he still caught fish.
Anyway, back to the line. The quicker of the SLXi exceeded even my high expectations in a boat fishing situation. On the day I quickly settled down into a nice easy rhythm with this line which (thanks to its heritage) roll casts delightfully and (despite being bloody cold) the nylon cored line remained supple and remarkably 'fankle' free all day. Even casting across the boat (ie. with a boat partner 'in the way') or off the wrong shoulder good long casts are really easy. I had added a short (sub 6ft) 'big butt' tapered leader to the front of the line and off that fished a compound leader with all sorts of ironmongery attached to it during the day. The SLXi carried them all with impunity and the quicker 3" sink rate was perfect for the conditions.
So what it boils down to is this, the SLXi - in either sink rate - is just a fantastic line and a great evolution of the original SLX. It's easy to cast, does what you expect, fishes as it should and is the right tool for the job.
I don't often say this, but I can't see how to improve the line - it's perfect.
H
