If you’ve listened to Phil’s two-part series on making sense of Stillwater fly lines, you probably get why this topic is so important. For anyone new to stillwater fly fishing, understanding fly lines, leaders, and tippets can be confusing. But when you’re fishing lakes, knowing your gear options, especially the right fly line, leader, and tippet, is key to success.
Show Notes with Chris Walker on Stillwater Fly Lines, Leaders, and Tippets
Today, Chris Walker from Rio Products joins our Stillwater guru to dive deep into fly lines, leaders, and tippets tailored for stillwater fishing. This episode is packed with solid info to help you get your setup dialed and catch more fish on the lake.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Phil’s two-part series on Stillwater fly lines:
Littoral Zone #5: Making Sense of Stillwater Fly Lines with Phil Rowley
Meet Chris Walker
Chris Walker has run the product development team at Rio Products for over seven years, working on everything from picking materials to designing fly lines, leaders, and tippets. Before this, he was a manufacturing engineer at a semiconductor factory.
Chris has a degree in material science and engineering and has been fishing his whole life. He grew up in upstate New York chasing smallmouth bass and carp, spent some time striper fishing in New England, and fished the Great Lakes tributaries for a while. After a few years in North Carolina chasing false albacore and trout in the mountains, he now lives in Idaho, where he fishes for trout a lot.
Stillwater Fly Lines
Chris says stillwater fly fishing is one of the most interesting parts of fly fishing because there are so many ways to do it. You’ve got everything from big heavy rigs with indicators and long leaders, to super light setups with tiny midges fishing shallow water. He’s designed lines for all kinds of situations, from shallow to deep.
Chris says he loves working with experts and then designing fly lines that really fit what anglers need for these different styles and places.
How Fly Lines are Made
Every fly line has two main parts: the core and the coating. The core is inside and gives the line its strength and stiffness. It’s what keeps the line from breaking when you’re pulling a fish. The coating makes the line float or sink and helps shape the taper for better casting. Rio uses two basic core types:
- Monofilament cores
- Monofilament cores tend to be stiffer and clearer. They are suitable for clear intermediate lines, especially in tropical or stillwater fishing.
- Braided cores
- These are more supple and have less memory, which makes them great for low-stretch and smooth casting.
Chris says that with monofilament cores, they look at a few things beyond just strength. Diameter affects stiffness. A thicker core is stiffer and stronger. But a big part is how the core is made. They can tune the core to be either the strongest for its size or more supple and easier to straighten.
For tropical lines, they pick the stiffest and strongest cores. But for stillwater lines in cold water, they go for the most supple core that’s easy to pull off the reel and lies nice and straight. It doesn’t have to be the highest break strength. The goal is a line that works well in cold, low temperatures without memory issues.
Check out this video by RIO on how fly lines are made:
Line Memory vs. Line Twist
Line memory and line twist are two different problems anglers often face. Memory happens when the line sits coiled on the reel and wants to stay that way. It usually gets better the more you cast and straighten it out.
A line twist, on the other hand, happens when the line actually spins around itself, often caused by certain casting styles like the Belgian cast or by a spinning fly or indicator.
How to tell if it’s a line twist or memory?
If it’s a line memory…
- The line holds the coil shape from being wrapped on the reel
- Gets better the more you cast and stretch it out
- Usually doesn’t get worse during fishing
If it’s a line twist…
- Line spins around itself like an old phone cord
- Gets worse the more you cast without fixing it
- Check by pulling the line between hands; if it spins, then it’s a twist.
How to Fix a Line Twist
- If you’re in a river, the easiest way is to take your fly off, let about 60 feet of line flow downstream in fast water, and let it untwist for a couple of minutes before reeling it back in.
- On stillwater, you can tow the line behind a boat or float tube, but it takes longer.
- Another trick is to cast out your line onto the water and spin your rod and reel in your hand the right way. (This can fix the twist if done correctly, but will make it worse if you spin the wrong way!)
Check out this video on how to avoid twists in your fly line:
Turnover
The key to casting heavy stillwater rigs, like indicators, long leaders, and weighted flies, is turnover. Turnover means the line straightens in the air and delivers the rig on a straight path.
The challenge is that these rigs are heavy, so the line needs enough power to turn them over. You can get more power in the taper by putting more weight closer to the fly, which means a shorter front taper or “front-loading” the taper.
For example, Rio’s Stillwater Floater has a short, about three-foot front taper, designed to give that extra power without forcing anglers to use heavier rods. It’s all about matching the taper to what the rig needs.
Roll Casting and Line Control
Chris explains that the back taper is really important for roll casting. It controls how much weight is in the D loop, which powers the cast. A longer back taper means a smoother transition from thick head to thin running line. That helps you pick up more line off the water and carry it farther before shooting the line to your target.
If your heavy section is too short, you can’t lift enough line when there’s a lot of thin running line between you and the head. More mass in the back taper loads the rod better, helping with accurate and precise casts.
Chris says it’s totally different when you’re fishing delicate dry flies. Instead of a big, heavy indicator and weighted fly, you’ve got a long, tapered leader and a really light, fine fly. Now it’s not about power, but finesse. You want a long front taper and a relatively light head so you don’t kick the fly over hard.
For maximum accuracy, you’ll have a long head and a long rear taper so you can carry line and don’t have to shoot to reach your target. It’s all about turning the fly over delicately so it lands lightly and doesn’t spook the fish.
Sinking Lines
Chris says the main thing with sinking lines is how deep and how fast they sink. The tricky part is that sinking depends on how long you wait and how fast you retrieve. Any sinking line, whether it’s a slow type 3 or a fast type 7, will eventually get to the bottom if you wait long enough.
To control sink rate, Rio changes the density of the coating (not the total weight) so faster sink rates have a thinner but denser coating. Rio’s Fathom series offers type 3 to type 7 sinking lines with the same weight but different sink rates.
Sink Rate vs. Grain Weight
Grain weight is just how heavy the line is. It’s a unit of weight, similar to pounds or ounces. In the past, lines were sold by grain weight, and people thought heavier grain meant faster sinking. However, sink rate now depends on the coating density, not just its weight.
For example, Rio can create a floating line and a sinking line with the same grain weight; however, the sinking line features a denser coating with tungsten, allowing it to sink faster.
Tip: When choosing a line, Chris advises focusing on sink rate, not grain weight, to understand how your line will behave in the water.
Sweep Lines
Chris says sweep lines are different from regular sinking lines. Usually, the tip sinks fastest to keep the line straight and reduce slack. But sweep lines have a slow sinking tip, a faster sinking middle, and a slower running line again. This makes the belly the deepest part, with the fly trailing higher.
Density Compensation
The tip of a sinking line is the thinnest part and has the least coating, so it sinks slower than the rest of the line. To fix this, Rio uses density compensation — adding a denser coating on the thin tip section. This keeps the tip’s overall density the same as the thicker parts of the line, so the whole line sinks evenly in a straight line.
Hang Markers
Hang markers are small bumps on the line that indicate when to start the hang. Rio’s hang markers are made by sliding a thin plastic sleeve onto the line and welding it in place, creating a smooth, easy-to-feel bump.
This bump doesn’t mess with casting or shooting through the guides, but you can clearly feel it when stripping in line. Plus, it’s a different color, so you can see it coming too. Chris says it’s like a little “wake-up call” telling you you’re near the end and it’s time to initiate the hang.
The Ambassador Series
Rio collaborates with local fishing experts to design lines specifically tailored for their unique fisheries. An example of this is Phil’s lake lines, where they added a tippet ring at the end to eliminate worries about welded loops hanging up in the guides.
The series also includes switch lines made with Pyramid Fly Company for Pyramid Lake’s big cutthroats, and saltwater lines developed with Sarah and Brian for false albacore fishing in North Carolina.
This series combines RIO’s line-making expertise with ambassadors’ deep local knowledge to make fishing easier and more enjoyable.
Leaders and Tippets
Leaders and tippets are mostly made from two materials: nylon and fluorocarbon. Both materials are thermoplastic polymers, meaning they can be melted and reformed. The process starts by melting raw nylon or fluorocarbon and extruding it into the shape and diameter needed.
- Tippets are simpler to make because they have a level diameter throughout, so the material is extruded into one continuous filament.
- Leaders can be trickier because they need a taper. While cooling, they use different draw rates, stretching the molten material more at the tip to make it thinner, and less at the thick end to create the butt of the leader. There are many manufacturing techniques and trade secrets behind doing this well and consistently, but that’s the basic process.
Nylon vs Fluorocarbon
When choosing between nylon and fluorocarbon, the biggest difference is price. Fluorocarbon is much more expensive.
But fluorocarbon’s main advantage is its density, which helps sink flies faster, making it great for nymphing or indicator fishing when you want your fly to hang at the right depth longer.
Fluorocarbon also has different optical properties because of its refractive index, which changes how light bends and affects how fish see your fly underwater.
Check out more about Rio Products here: RIO Products
Check out RIO Products on YouTube
Explore more tips on Phil’s RIO Products Playlist
Stillwater Fly Lines, Leaders, and Tippets Resources Noted in the Show
RIO Products How to Clean Lines YouTube Video Part 1:
RIO Products How to Clean Lines YouTube Video Part 2: