06/06/2024
I don't write reviews enough, which is to say I haven't done one in a few years. That said, I was so impressed with the SA Amplitude Smooth Trout line, that I felt behoved to talk about it. I find that fly lines are like wine, ci**rs and scotch; if you're going to really like it, you know after the first taste or puff. Most new fly lines that I try, I get feel right of the bat whether or not you get that, 'Hmmmm... I like this.", or, "Yeesh... I'm not sure about this one.".
At any rate, I recently retired a line on my 5wt that I really disliked. I fished with it for a year and every time I took it out, I would remind myself, "Throw this piece of p**p out!". I had a new SA Amplitude Trout Smooth in my inventory so I lined up a reel and got to work. From the get, I knew the line was nice, but it wasn't until I spent a little time with it, that I really grew to appreciate it.
The Trout Smooth has a lovely, near perfect, progressive front taper that performs wonderfully at short and medium distances. The 5wt has a 68' head and lists at 140 grains. between 25 and 40', it is dream to cast and lands beautifully. There is nothing clunky or awkward about it at any distance and with a small dry fly on a 12', 5x tapered leader, my presentation really was better than usual.
Now, I said that the line performs very well at short to medium distance but, I was by no means limited to that. This morning, while waiting for bugs, I decided to kill some time with a wet fly. As I worked out line and gradually got into greater length, I wanted to push it. With a very old Gold and West, 9'5wt, (This is a very slow, early 80's circa graphite rod. It performs more like glass than graphite.) I really didn't feel compromised out to 70'. The line is try coloured and found that with about 3' of the bamboo, or the mid colour, inside my guides, I hit the sweet spot and the line had no issues hitting those distances. For sh*ts and giggles, I put the line on a 6wt, Helios 3D and had no problem casting the entire line. (Not that I ever feel a need for that, I simply wanted to see how it performed on a modern, very fast rod.)
Over the past 15 years, I've had several different "Finesse" type trout lines and will say that the this SA line is a new favourite.
The only negative thing that I can say about it is, it didn't blow my mind roll casting it until I found the sweet spot at about 30'. However, once I figured it out, I found it rather nice to roll cast with both "Touch and go", casts and with an anchor.
I did not try this with an indicator rig and likely won't but as a dedicated dry fly line or for light nymphing and swinging, this is by leaps and bounds, the nicest line that I have used in a while.
Great job, SA!
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