Salty Saturday - Adam Royter reviews the Airflo Flats Master
When Dave ‘DMFB’ Bradley tells you it’s a good line, you better bloody believe him! This line, developed with other notable ‘long pole maestro’ such as Clint Isaac and Micah Adams is a great mix of talent and technology.
Sticking with the Bonefish Taper I though might leave it a little short on turn-over at the end of a long chuck - but it seems the mix of this taper and the 10 foot of intermediate really help each other out. Just when you think it won't it does!!
I’ve always like staying connected and ‘having the feel’. These lines give that to you in spades. To be honest, a hookup at 80’ feels like your driving your lawnmower over a pile of bricks - that’s how connected to the hook your are! And putting the hooks in…don’t start me!! I tugged so hard on one fish I pulled his eyes closer together.
The core in the Flats Master is non-stretch so you get direct feed back and totally energy transfer from you to hook point. So big, fat, rusty barbed flies that guides give you will slide in like a double edged boot knife between the ribs of all but a few politician. Sweet, sweet justice!
Can I just do a shoutout to Airflo for making a fly line coating that’s not PVC. Polyvinyl chloride is so 1984 that Play School still had round window and Michael Jackson was alive, kicking Thriller and had his own face!
PVC attracts dirt regardless of what they tell you, cracks like an iPhone screen and will melt into a gelatinous pool of spoodge at the first sniff of DEET. All the things that duel layered polyurethane Airflo’s aren't and don’t. Hello awesomeness!
The Flats Master is a bit of a chicken chucker and will hold up and turn over quite an amount of wet rooster neck so don’t be afraid to haul like you mean it and punch out that extra 20 or 30. The stiffness is moderate to stiff which can get a little tangly when you hit the high 30’s and its been laying on the deck but a little swim fixes that.
I didn’t think I’d love this line like I do because a lines a line these days but there’s something about this that makes it better than most. Maybe it’s that little difference between hands on experience and manufacture. I don’t know. All I know is it works and works bloody well! Just like DMFB said.