Now is not the "Winter of my Discontent”, in fact, I’m full of content. Summer Steelhead are in the rivers, which means that in the off light hours, I’m skating flies. Woohoo!!! I am a big fan of Scandinavian lines for floating applications especially on the newer, lighter and shorter spey rods. However, sometimes their longer taper doesn’t hold up well with the obligatory upstream wind. Hence, the beauty of the Scientific Anglers Scandi Extreme Head that turns over faster than my border collie wanting her belly rubbed. I’ve paired the 400 grain 34 foot version with my Sage TCX 6119, my favorite summer Deschutes stick.
SA has put a few extra features that make this line easy to use. First, printed onto the line coat is the line description, line weight, and an arrow to identify which end is the tip. More advantageous, the tip section is colored blue to contrast the rest of the line. This serves as a visual cue to the section of line that should stay anchored during your casting stroke. With this visual cue, I’m much less likely to “blow up” my anchor and go “supersonic”. Given my reliable anchor, I can use a 5 foot polyleader with 5 foot tippet that lets my skater come immediately tight.
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| My Wife, Liz loves her SA Scandi |
I have found that a nice and steady, but not too quick casting tempo works well with this head. The head comes in 40 grain increments with small welded loops that go through the line guides with barely a bump. Now, if I could just stop pulling the fly out of the fish’s mouth once it boils. To quote the band Dire Straits, “ ...slippin and a slidin, skate away that’s all”.
-Charlie Chambers
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