I know this has probably been covered a little in this forum before but I need a refresher.

I'm looking for a good bet on a multi-tip fly line for salmon and steelhead, mostly medium-sized rivers with casting in the 20-60 ft range, mostly with an 8 wt 9.5 ft one-hander. I'm thinking floating running line, and want a reasonably low profile connector to get out of the guides. Versatility in fishing the floaters and sinking tips is the goal. Does anybody have advice on a good bet? I've been told Rio's versi tip setup is good, but heard good and bad reviews about the connectors and stability of tip sections.

Thanks in advance for the help,

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I have a couple of the Rio's. They are pretty good. The connector isn't invisible, but it's reasonably small.

I only use them when I'm going to be using the wet lines. For dry line fishing, it's noticeably worse handling than a normal dry line.

I have them in 6 wgt, 8 wgt, and 7-8-9 spey.

I have a rio spey line, and the interchangeable tips is okay for spey because the distances are such that fouling the joint on the guides is less likely.

I also own an interchangeable line for my 6 wt. I have found that the joints were hard to work through the guides and working in close was really tough. I have since retired the line and now use integrated lines, like teeny lines. It means I have to carry an extra spool or two, but I am able to work the water more effectively.

Hope this helps.

Tight lines,
Spookalotafish

for sink tips i like teeny lines.....take the 24 fsink tip and 12 ft off of it had loops to all the ends and u have mulit tip line. also use a stillwater clear intermid.(slow) sink link. can covera lot of water that way

Fishbadger,
I use both the Airflo and Rio multi-tip lines. The Airflo has better loop to loop connections. They are smoother then the Rio. The Rio running line has less memory then the Airflo. Both come with four heads. A floater, intermediate, 3" per second and 6" per second head sink rates. If you are using a fast 8Wt, I would go with a 9wt line. If I remember right, both lines are in the $125.00 range. Cabela's sells a multi-tip system for around $89.00. They used to be $59.00 which was a deal, but they raised the price. Someone had mentioned to me that Airflo made the line for Cabela's and wanted them to raise their price to protect Airflo's price point on their lines. A buddy of mine bought one. It looked a little different then the Airflo I have, but he has been very happy with it.
The other option you have is to make your own running line out of a floater. You can then make your own heads out of whatever you want. Stuff like LC-13 or T-14, which sinks real quick.
Good Luck,
Brian

Fishbadger,

I don't have any experience with factory made multi-piece lines. I've been splicing my own since the mid 70s, and will likely continue to do so, so that I can have the combination I want, rather than what manufacturers and marketers think I want.

My recommendation is to start with whatever WF8F line you prefer. Cut the forward 15' from it, and make the loops you prefer - small, large, stiff, supple, make it your way. Then buy shooting heads in the sink rates you want. You get 2 tips from each, and 3 from an Air Flow. Add the kind of loops you want to each of them, and you've got everything covered, from the surface to the stones on the river bottom.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Thanks for the advice on that. . .I hope to swing for some metal with that info!

My winter steelhead fly rig is pretty extreme, but then I can dredge the bottom of the Hoh when it is damn near out too. What I do is start with a 12 weight saltwater taper dry line, get a 30 foot chunk of Deepwater Express, cut it in 3 pieces (5, 10, and 15 feet), get some hollow dacron squidding line and a loop hook (all this stuff is available at the fly shop in Lacey and the loop hook comes with instructions), make loops for the ends of your lines and superglue them on, and just loop on the piece of DWE that you want. Of course you had better be using a spey rod, or do what I did, which is make a flyrod out of a 12 foot Lamniglass bobber rod blank, because that 15 foot chunk of DWE that you will need on the Hoh looped on to the end of your 12 weight line will add up to 16 weight Yeah, kind of extreme, I know, but with this rig I can fish any water at any remotely fishable height, the stuff sinks at over a foot a second, and with a rag fly is just as effective as bait casting as you are bouncing the bottom all through the drift. The loops go through the guides real well, especially important when landing a fish. I've caught hundreds of steelhead, right up to a 21 pounder, with this setup