I'm building this blank up for a friend as a Christmas present from his wife. Mostly it will be used for fishing in lakes, tossing reasonably good sized streamers.
Any suggestions on what line would cast well on this rod for this application?
He's new to flyfishing, so he isn't going to be banging out 80 foot casts, I was thinking about a line that will perform well all around for him.

Thanks,
Troy

I enjoyed fishing that rod with streamers and poppers using a Scientific Anglers Aircell Supreme 2 WF-7-F. Great rod and great line.

For all-around use, it's hard to go wrong with an Air Cel Supreme II by Scientific Anglers.

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The S.A. Headstart is designed for beginners. Loads up easily and should work perfectly for streamers. I would be tempted to get the 6, but the 7 might be better.

The Cortland 444 is always a good bet. Not too expensive and something that will last a long time if he takes care of it.

I should have clarified in my original post that I was also wondering about line weight. Would this blank cast better with a 7wt (a lot of the Sig V's seem better with a line 1wt heavier than suggested) or a 6wt.

Thanks!
Troy

Troy,

I use a Rio Rio Grand 6wt line on mine and I think it works great! The deal is, if you will be casting mostly farther than 30 feet, you might want to stay with a good 6wt line. If you plan to use the rod for close in nymphing or similar, a 7wt may be more realistic. In my mind these blanks load well by matching the line weight to the blank and overlining slows them (MHO). If I were to give advice, I would say to buy a 6wt line that loads in close and you will be happy.

Dan Craft

Troy, I'd second Dan's comments. For lake fishing I use a 6WF floating line on mine and the great thing about this blank is that you can continue to load up the line with different rates of sinking leaders and it won't go soggy on you. I have another 6 weight rod that casts as far with the same line and floating leader, but as soon as I want to get my flies down with a sinking leader, it is overpowered. Dan seems to have created that good balance between a fast tip for short loading and plenty of backbone for really long casts - great stuff! This has become my 'go to' rod for lake and boat fishing for trout, especially when it is windy. If your friend has any problem loading the rod in close with a 6 weight line (which he shouldn't), stick a floating poly leader on the end for that little bit of extra weight. Jim

If the blank does not have any numbers on the CCS Data Site, then I would go up a weight. On the St Croix SCIV's I find one weight higher works well

This is also a " personal " thing as to how it " feels '. Try several lines if you can

Try the "headstart" line, its good stuff, especially for larger flies. Big fat head = easy loading = great line to learn with. I found it to be my favorite line for shorter distances with large salmon/steelhead flies. I can effectivly fish these lines w/ one or two backcasts all day long in smaller streams. Very reasonable price too. I do overline my FT by a line wt or two with these lines, depending on the situation. For distance casting, I use a Versi-Tip at the D.C.'s suggested line wt.

I agree with Dan and would favor the RIO rio grand series 6 wt or the SA Mastery series GPX, both of these lines are slightly heavier than their AFTMA weighting would suggest as they claim for "today's newer high modulus rods to load more easily" but then that's a different thread.