Hi y'all.
I recently fished in Southern Florida mangroves from shore, and have found myself overgunned with my 7wt setup for the little fishes at mangrove margins. I am now thinking about getting a warm/tropical sink-tip line for my 8' 3wt rod, using absolutely the smallest shrimp and crab patterns. My reel is a Lamson Speedster -3+.
I came across two options: (1) Cortland 444 Clear Camo Intermediate WF4I and (2) Rio Outbound Short WF5I.
For (1) Cortland 4wt: the 120gr looks about right, and similar to the SA Amplitude Infinity WF3F I use in my home trout streams up north. However, Cortland website lists the line as use in cold and warm waters only, but not tropical (70F+ temp). Will I have trouble using it in Florida winter (70-90F air temp range)?
For (2) Rio 5wt: the head weight is listed as 200gr, just slightly above the 190gr head weight for a WF4F Amplitude Infinity – a true 4.5wt line. Is this too much overloading for a 3wt rod?
Other suggestions welcome! Truly appreciate your help!
Posted by kingofbun
2 Comments
What depth water are you fishing? if you’re just trying to get your flies down, any reason not to just run heavier flies? running heavy flies on a float line can give lots of jigging action, something that’s very common in Scandinavia fishing coastal flats for sea-run brown trout, especially in lower water temps.
I use the outbound short in 5 and 6wt, and it’s a good line, but I would be hesitant to use a 190-200 grain line on a 3wt rod. I’m unfamiliar with being somewhere that’s too warm for lines, so I can’t comment on the cortland. One option I might consider is just getting a sink tip leader? Or run what you got and use fluoro leaders.
Fluoro was my intro into sinking flies, and it’s still my preferred method, I’ve also never fished in FL, and my idea of subsurface usually just involves droppers. So Im sorry if that doesn’t help at all.