Fly Lines - Expensive Fancy Tapers?

[Wildfisher]

It's 2 years since I started selling Wildfisher Fly Lines.

The best seller, by a fair old margin is the #5  River Don Heron Grey ............. profile ?  ............................... double taper.  :lol:

Seems that many  fly fishers, as well as looking  for good value are also quite a traditional bunch at heart. Mind you, I suppose for  intelligent and stealthy  wild fishing, the stability,  versatility and ease of  a good old  DT is pretty damned hard to beat.   :

[Buanán]

It's 2 years since I started selling Wildfisher Fly Lines.

The best seller, by a fair old margin is the #5  River Don Heron Grey ............. profile ?  ............................... double taper.  :lol:

Seems that many  fly fishers, as well as looking  for good value are also quite a traditional bunch at heart. Mind you, I suppose for  intelligent and stealthy  wild fishing, the stability,  versatility and ease of  a good old  DT is pretty damned hard to beat.   :

I've never thought of myself in those terms But I do like a double taper, maybe it's a lack of line control on my part but I prefer heavier lines in a wind and found myself searching high and low for a double taper in a heavier weight of line. I recently bought a couple of DT salmon lines from John Norris for £8 a pop  , you can't fit much backing on a normal trout reel with one of these, but as I'm only catching half pounders at the moment the lack of backing shouldn't be an issue.

I also bought a midge tip WF line (5' of intermediate at the start if the taper) thats proving very useful in the burns, £12.99.

[Traditionalist]

you can't fit much backing on a normal trout reel with one of these,

Cut the line in half and just use one half on the reel. 

TL
MC

[Buanán]

Cut the line in half and just use one half on the reel. 

TL
MC

Thats what I did with the last 120' DT, took around 30' foot off. The trouble is that I'm left with a rather blunt attachment to the backing, it would take a monster dod of glue to smooth it off and even then there would be a problem getting the line through the end ring en route to the reel. Don't fancy that much so these lines I'll just leave as they are and make do with less backing. Keeping them whole also gives me the option of loading them onto my bigger reel should I end up on the end of my double hander. 

[Traditionalist]

Thats what I did with the last 120' DT, took around 30' foot off. The trouble is that I'm left with a rather blunt attachment to the backing, it would take a monster dod of glue to smooth it off and even then there would be a problem getting the line through the end ring en route to the reel. Don't fancy that much so these lines I'll just leave as they are and make do with less backing. Keeping them whole also gives me the option of loading them onto my bigger reel should I end up on the end of my double hander.

Doesn't usually matter.  Use a loop connection

http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/fishing-knots-gray%27s-loop.htm

and there is no problem going through the rings.  If you use half a line which is 60 feet, then you are not going to be casting it like a head on a single hander anyway. The sixty foot head will work on the double hander as well.  Also, you get two 60 ft lines.

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

many would say the image of double tapers is traditional, maybe even old fashioned, but function knows no such restrictions, they have the same benefits today that they always had,

Especially for small river trout fishing DT is hard to beat.

I have taken a lot of business from some other small suppliers who appear to have lost focus on  actual fishing with ever more  exotic products and ever increasing  prices to match. It was obvious right from the start I would, that's why I started!  :lol:  It's not getting into the novelty and / or  "magic bullet"  market  I  suppose. There are no wallet-driven quick fixes in fly fishing and my market is very much the ordinary fly fisher with his feet on the ground and head way below the clouds taking in  the view of the water he is about to fish.  "Experts" and casting  nerds will never be happy no matter what  you give them, so why bother trying?

As Malcolm said there is a market for novelty / specialty lines, but it will always be small compared to that of the good old main stream where people actually get out there and fish. It's a crazy old world of short lived fads, brand new "must haves"  and here to day superseded tomorrow products.

The good old DT just goes on and on and on and my sales stats really show that. I have sold 100's of the damn things!  :

[Buanán]

Doesn't usually matter.  Use a loop connection

http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/fishing-knots-gray%27s-loop.htm

and there is no problem going through the rings.  If you use half a line which is 60 feet, then you are not going to be casting it like a head on a single hander anyway. The sixty foot head will work on the double hander as well.  Also, you get two 60 ft lines.

TL
MC

Thanks for that, I may try that with my partially cut DT, cut it down 30' more and try that loop arrangement and see how I get on. Your right of course, I don't use this line in a standard single hander fashion, rather in wild windy weather where the best I can manage is a switch or roll (I don't know which) and that works a treat, especially when a back cast just gets blown forwards or as sometimes happens, blown flat, in a hurricane  :lol: 

[Wildfisher]

Wildfisher DT - £12 each special  WFF member price (what  other forum values its members as much : )

Cut it in 1/2, add a braided loop to the cut end, attach backing.

You now have 2 fly lines suitable for 99% of all the fishing you will ever do.

£6 each.

Hard to beat eh?

:lol:

[Wildfisher]

However this is quite separate to this thread which is all about what people find popular and why and clearly for normal trout fishing a lot of people like DTs for these purposes. By the way I already own 2 (or is it 3) Wildfisher WF lines and they are as good as I need for ordinary fishing. I'm not a DT fan.

That's right, Spey lines etc should really go in another thread.  By the way, WF#5 River Don Heron Grey is the second most popular line. I have sold 100s  of those too.  Like Malcolm I use WF most of the time.

[Inchlaggan]

WF for me, but then I have never tried anything else......