I was going to do a review of the RIO Quickshooter Bonefish Fly Line. Then, I read the review of said line over at Flatswalker.com.
He crushed me both in time to evaluate the line, useful insight into what makes the line work so well and word-count.
Basically, a line should do what the box it came in advertises. It doesn’t have to have some trippy nano-texture copied from a Jesus Lizard or slide through the rod guides faster’n a greased up snake. It just has to not tangle, load the road and not fall apart too soon.
Classic. Read the rest of this too.
Here is what I had written about it:
If you look riiiiiiiight there, you can see the Quickshooter line.
The idea behind the Quickshooter is this… when you need to load a rod quickly, especially the ultra-fast rods you find on the flats today, you need a line capable of loading the rod with very little line out. This is a wading line for when you see the fish at 30 feet and need to send something pointy down range quickly.
I can say it works. Two of the fish I caught were while wading and one was probably about 35 feet away. I had no problem loading the rod quickly and making the shot.
I’d say I think the line is slightly less ideal for fishing out of a boat on a windy day when you want to keep line on the deck. The thin running line can get a bit FUBAR if not watched closely or if you are fishing with flats beginners who don’t understand their role in keeping your line from birdnesting.
I like the line and will fish it in the future for sure, especially if I think I’ll be doing a lot of wading.
*This line was sent gratis by RIO.
- If you liked the story above, check out these stories below
- Bonefish Fly Lines (0.877)
- Interview with Simon Gawesworth from RIO (0.877)
- Choosing your RIO Bonefish Line (0.877)
Tags: Flatswalker, fly lines, Rio
Hey, Bjorn. Did you fish the line from a boat and have that problem with the running line? I’ve only ever wade-fished it, so there’s that hole in my review. However, it seemed to me the running line was a bit less recalcitrant than most shooting head style lines.
PS “and in word-count”. Not exactly the basis for a good review, but I somehow can’t seem to help myself. 😉
I fished it both from a boat and wading. I liked it better wading than from the boat because of the running line. That said, any running line in a 20 mph wind is kind of a pisser, so, maybe it was more the wind than it was the line itself. Someone on FB asked if a mat would help, and yeah, I’d bet it would, a lot.
A mat? What kind? Never used one before. I have used a “stripping bucket” — one of those collapsible trash cans for collecting leaves or whatever. They’re weighted at the bottom and we strapped it to the casting platform. Course, all that was for tarpon and I never used it enough to get comfortable. Mainly you just toss the line into the cockpit and hope for the best.
They are coming out with these mats with soft rubber spikes that help keep the line from getting fubar. I have not used one, but I saw one on the boat at Deep Water Cay.