Scientific Anglers Sonar Series Lines - 2016

Let me start this article with the one most important piece of knowledge you need to know...

All Scientific Anglers Premium Sinking fly lines from hover to full sink are now identified by the title Sonar. 

This includes hover, intermediate, sink tip or full sinking lines. So if your looking for your old Streamer Express, they're here, looking for your Lake Line, they're here too. New in the Sonar Series is a whole lineup of powerful Titan Taper Textured sinking lines. These new Titan's are already having a huge impact in the sinking line game.

Sonar Titan

The sinking Titans have arrived!
Several options here that I want to spend some time on. First understand that all Sonar Titan lines have the Mastery Textured surface. This alone clearly separates them from the other Sonar Series lines which have a smooth surface. Personally I think the next 3 lines I describe have a significant place in the future of sinking lines due to the popular taper design and the benefit of the textured surface.


Sonar Titan Clear Tip
Think powerful clear streamer tip!

Sonar Titan Clear Tip is a weight bumped, powerful taper for easy turnover of big flies, three color for easy length determination, textured for easy pick up and long distance shooting ability and formulated to suit most temperate environments.

Sonar Titan Intermediate

Many Streamer Anglers are discovering the benefit of going all in with full intermediate lines. Getting the running line under the surface improves your connection to the fly and allows for truer swimming action of streamers.

Sonar Titan Int/Sink 3/Sink 5
Triple Density Sinking fly line?! I am already hearing major buzz following this line. It starts with an intermediate running line section that seamlessly transforms into a type 3 sinking mid section that flows into a type 5 sinking Titan tapered head. Triple Density, full sinking, powerful Titan taper, braided core, made for temperate environments and textured for reduced friction allowing for easier pickups and longer cast. Streamer anglers even if you're not a textured line fan you might ought pay attention to this one. We could easily be looking at a game changer!

Triple Density

Non-Textured Sonar Lines

Sonar Sink 25 Cold - replaces Mastery Wet Tip Express
A 25' extra fast sinking tip with floating running line. The running line incorporates a large diameter handling section for better mending and line control. With a braided multi-filament core and Shooting Technology Plus the Sonar Sink 25 provides an excellent low tangle design which increases shooting distance. An excellent streamer line for trout. Measured in grains and formulated for cold-water.

Sonar Sink 30 Warm and Sonar Sink 30 Clear Tip - replaces Mastery Streamer Express
Two version of this popular sinking line. First the Sink 30 Clear is a 30 foot clear intermediate tip with a colored intermediate running line. The Sink 30 Warm is a fast sinking 30' tip with a colored intermediate running line. Formulated for warmer climates and ideal for big streamer fishing. Both lines feature different colors in running lines between various sizes to make identification easy. Sink 30 Warm uses a braided multi-filament core to aid in better sinking and strike detection while the Sink 30 Clear uses a Mono-filament core for clear tip stealth.

Sonar Sink Tip

Sonar Sink Tip
Exactly as the names implies. Sinking Tip, Floating body and comes in 3 different sinking densities, Type 3, Type 4 and Type 5. On this Sonar Series line actual sink tip length increases with line size. It makes sense to me that length of tip would be dictated by rod weight. The bigger more powerful rod can handle more sinking tip and larger flies. The benefit to the angler is you can now set up multi rods to better handle different fishing situations and remain with comfortable casting conditions.

Editors note: 

Too often I see anglers use the biggest sinking tip line they can get on smaller weight rods. We tend to always assume that we match our rods to our quarry. An approach that I have found that works better for me is to match my rod to the type of line and size of fly I wish to fish. An example is I will use up to an 8 weight rod for bass fishing. Most anglers I talk to think 8 weight is too big for bass angling but what an 8 weight can do for me is allow me to fish bigger flies and/or sinking tip lines all the while making casting much easier and less tiring and allowing me to reach further distances to provide more opportunity. Sure if a particular fisheries average size is 12" than an 8 weight is certainly overkill but in that type of fishery I am probably not going to be fishing as large of a fly or have the need to get down as deep. It's something to think about when choosing a rod for a particular species, also consider fly size, fly weight. fly wind resistance and type of line needed.

Sonar Specialty Lines

Sonar Titan Big Water Taper (Slow Sink and Max Sink versions) - This big water Textured line is created to be the strongest of its kind. With a 100lb tropical formulated monofilament core and the strong turnover power of Titan taper the Big Water is designed for species such as Giant Trevally, Arapaima and all Blue Water species. Two formats, Slow Sink and Max Sink

Sonar Saltwater Intermediate - Clear head for stealthy presentations

Sonar Stillwater - Full clear intermediate sink line ideal for lake angling

Sonar Hover (Freshwater and Saltwater versions) - When you just want to get your line under the surface chop. Both versions are built with hover tips and floating running lines.

Sonar Uniform Sink - A graduated sinking line to get a straighter connection to your fly designed for lake and stillwater applications

Sonar Custom Tip - Lets and angler customize a heaving sinking tip line to their own personal needs.


A lot of changes with Scientific Anglers for 2016 and while many changes also bring some confusion I can easily say after learning all the changes, today's Scientific Anglers is much easier to understand and has much more to offer. S/A has always built high quality durable fly fishing lines and continues this tradition and commitment into the future.

Please don't hesitate to shoot us an email or give us a call with fly line questions. Remember this, the right fly line matched to your rod will bring out it's best qualities! The wrong line on the best rod will make you question your ability as a fly angler.

Learn about the floating Titans
Scientific Angler Wavelength Titan - Prepare For Launch

Greg Darling 

Gorge Fly Shop Internet Sales Manager | Product Specialist

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

Scientific Anglers Wavelength Titan - "Prepare for Launch"

When you hear the word "Titan" do you think about fly lines? Or Saturn's largest moon Titan, Or the Titan Missile that was in use for more than 45 years that included early manned space flights known as project Gemini, Or the Greek Mythology were the Titans are giant deities of incredible strength who ruled the legendary Golden Age. The common denominator of the word Titan is clearly defined by size, strength and power. Can a fly line really be compared to such greatness!

Wavelength Titan

Wavelength replaces the Textured series. A short history...first came Sharkskin than Textured. Textured was a softened up version of Sharkskin. In 2014 Sharkskin was refined into Sharkwave. For 2016 Textured gets refined into Wavelength. Within the Wavelength Series you will find MPX, Titan, Trout, Nymph/indicator, Grand Slam and Tarpon. For the purpose of this article I am just going to focus on the Wavelength Titan and Sonar Titan sinking lines.

Wavelength Titan

Titan

Titan came out a few years back after all the hype of the Sharkskin/Textured lines had come and gone. I said it as soon as I fished with the Titan that this was probably the best ever of the textured lines that I have ever fished (and I've fished them all) but unfortunately no one will be willing to try it after so many mixed reviews regarding Sharkskin. I liked the Textured Titan and continued to use it despite the hazing I took for fishing with a textured line. After a couple years it gradually grew a steady following. In that period I found several other dedicated users with similar opinions about the line. S/A noticed and decided to lock in this taper and expand on it. Look today and you will find this specific "Titan" taper in the Wavelength, Mastery and Sonar Series of lines. I think that says something for it. It's here to stay. What makes this particular taper successful is while in general it is a bumped up shooting head type of line that provides easy turnover of large flies it also incorporates enough rear taper to make it far more friendly and versatile than other shooting head lines. More versatile in the way of easier mending, more flexible pickup / cast positions, better shoot-ability with its textured surface and just more friendly fish-ability.

Conquered with Titan

In general most shooting lines are very straight forward, you strip in to the head, make your cast, strip back in to head and repeat. This is great when all you're doing is bombing distance cast. But the problem with this is what happens when you get that surface strike and go to set the hook...Swing and a miss! You want to get that fly back on the target as quick as possible but your standard shooting head line has you scrambling to strip back to the head to make another cast. Your traditional shooting head line is in the thin running line section and cannot transfer the energy properly to get the fly back to where the strike occurred. You struck out! Titan gives you that little added benefit of getting your fly back and getting the hit with a little bit of added rear taper that allows for a more flexible pick up point. Titan also requires less energy to lift off the water due to it's reduced friction from the textured surface allowing you to utilize that energy into the backcast for increased rod load enabling an easier long forward re-cast back to the specific target. I have witnessed and done this time and time again and the benefit is clearly evident especially when you are target specific fishing.

The best uses I have found for this line is predator fishing such as bass, pike and musky. It can be a good carp line if your bugs are on the big or weighted side such as in the picture above. That is a great lakes carp caught with a weighted craw pattern. Titan was perfect for that catch. It can also be a great trout streamer line both from a boat or wading, easily handles nymph/indi fishing from a boat too. I'm sure you could find other uses as well. Tell us what you use it for in our comments.

In my words Titan is a modern powerful big fly, easy turnover taper that excels at shooting distance and yet retains some handling properties of a bumped up general purpose fly line.

Specific Textured Characteristics - The Good, Bad and Myth!
Titan is a textured line and while texturing has some great characteristics it has also has some bad rap mostly originating from the original Sharkskin Series of lines. Let me address the good, bad and mostly myth about these lines.

Tamed with Titan!

They will cut your hands! While the original sharkskin was very roughly textured the Wavelength lines are no were near as sharply textured as sharkskin was. Is the textured surface noticeable, sure! My take on this is you are going to be handling and stripping line all day than you really need to wear some stripping gloves no matter what line you fish with whether it smooth or textured. If you can't stand gloves than get some Stripping Guards by Buff. The payoff of gloves or stripping guards with any fly line is better strips and no line burns.

Noisy in the guides! Again nothing compared to the original sharkskin lines. Do they make a little noise, yes! Is it a problem, No! It's actually a benefit that I will explain next.

Less friction! Textured lines strip easier, haul easier and lift off the water easier. I would question anybody who wants to make an argument about this! I very much appreciate less friction after long days of repeated target casting and stripping line.

Higher floating! Not only is this a great feature in itself but also contributes to easier lift from the water.

Shoots farther! I want to mention that not only it this noticeable with a new line right out of a package but textured lines continue to shoot great day after day and year after year. My original Textured Titan line is 5 plus years old with countless hours of use and still shoots and performs great!

Heat resistant! I don't know if this has anything to do with the textured surface but I noticed this past summer in mid day high temps when a couple of my OTHER lines where reaching melting point and NOT behaving well while wilting in the mid day heat but my Titan continued on shooting with no trouble at all. Likewise I have fished it right down to freezing temps and still handles good.

The sinking Sonar Titan's have arrived!

New for 2016 for Scientific Anglers is Sonar Series. Sonar Series indicates any premium S/A lines that sink!
Three Titan options here that I want to spend some time on. First understand that all Sonar Titan lines have a textured surface. This alone clearly separates them from the other Sonar Series lines which have a smooth surface. Personally I think the next 3 lines I describe have a significant place in the future of sinking lines due to the popular taper design and the benefit of the textured surface.


Sonar Titan Clear Tip
Think powerful clear streamer tip!

Sonar Titan Clear Tip is a weight bumped, powerful taper for easy turnover of big flies, three color for easy length determination, textured for easy pick up and long distance shooting-ability and formulated to suit most temperate environments.

Sonar Titan Intermediate

Many Streamer Anglers are discovering the benefit of going all in with full intermediate lines. Getting the running line under the surface improves your connection to the fly and allows for truer swimming action of streamers.

Sonar Titan Int/Sink 3/Sink 5
Triple Density Sinking fly line! I am already hearing major buzz following this line. It's starts with an intermediate running line section that seamlessly transforms into a type 3 sinking mid section that flows into a type 5 sinking Titan tapered head section of line. Triple Density, full sinking, powerful Titan taper, braided core, made for temperate environments and textured for reduced friction allowing for easier pickups and longer cast. Streamer anglers even if you're not a textured line fan you might ought pay attention to this one. We could easily be looking at a game changer!

Triple Density

From the very first Sharkskin I realized that there was some benefits to textured lines. It just took a few years to bring out those qualities. I continue to use and test new lines all the time and in the past couple of years I find myself comparing lines to the Titan. That says a lot. Titan is not a line for every purpose or everyone but mark my words, "Textured lines like Titan are here to stay!"

Greg Darling 

Gorge Fly Shop Internet Sales Manager | Product Specialist

"Fly Fish the World with Us"