Cortland's SYLK Fly Line
DT 4 Floating Fly Line
Recently I received an unusual freshwater fly line to review. Made by Cortland, it's called a "SYLK" 444 line. This product is intended to mimic the look and felt of the old silk fly lines. By the way the line came with an a fly-fishing instructional DVD, which I watched. It was well produced and would definitely help out someone new to the sport. Kudos to Cortland.
When taking the line out of the box, I couldn't help but notice that the tip of this double taper fly line looked pretty thin. So I measured it. It was .0345" I didn't have another 4DT to compare it to, but I did have a 4WF. Its tip was .038. That supported my feeling that this SYLK line was on the skinny side. In fact it is about the tip diameter of a 2WF fly line. I measured the belly of the line too. It was also narrow at .042. Clearly delicate presentations weren't going to be a problem. Next I weighted the first 30 feet of the line. My scale reported 108 grains, making the line a tad light, closer to be a 3 weight. Color wise the line is a dirty yellow; what Tom Waites would call baby-shit brown.
This line is specifically designed for a slower action bamboo or fiberglass fly rod. No problem. I had just the right stick for this test, an 8' Winston glass 4-weight. This rod is a real charmer, ideally suited for small streams, especially those where small flies and light tippets are necessary. In fact you have never fished a glass or cane rod for trout, you're missing out my friend. They are not only effective light tackle rods, they are a great deal of fun. I wound the SYLK fly line on a 30 year old Orvis Battenkill III, and made plans to go fishing.
A short drive took me to the Salmon River in Colchester, Connecticut. This is a beautiful, freestone stream, heavily wooden through many of its reaches. After suiting up at the car, I worked my way down to one of the larger pools on the river. Frankly I didn't have any idea what to expect from this SYLK line, but my very first cast told me that this was something special. It suited the rod perfectly. It cast very accurately, landed lightly and gave me narrow loops. Those narrow loops combined with thin diameter of the line, also made casting at any distance a piece of cake. I was very pleased. Weeks later I used it on the Willimantic River's Trout Management Area. Here again the SYLK was a real pleasure to use. Believe me, this line is winner. If you have slow action rod in need of a fly line, try this out; I promise you're going to like it .
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