# Rio direct core flats pro feedback?



## 994 (Apr 14, 2008)

Looking for a new line to pair with a Winston Nexus. Anyone have any experience with the Rio flats pro? How is it for close quarters when those fish pop up out of nowhere?

I have Wulff BTT on my other 8's but was thinking about switching it up. Relatively same grain wt.. 243 for Wulff vs 240 for Rio. Also considering the BTT shorts which comes in at [email protected]'. Had this on my Tidal last year and really enjoyed the versatility.


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## Rick hambric (Jun 24, 2017)

im curious too. looking to put it on an exocett.


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## mcraft173 (Apr 21, 2014)

I've lawn cast the line at the black fly flood tide festival. It was paired with a top line sage rod (dont remember which) and it was a rod I dont fish so its hard to make a good comparison. The line casts really well, and that always the case for me when casting yarn and not flies. I spoke to the rep who I speak to every year and by all accounts fishes often and knows what hes talking about - not just a rep/sales guy. He told me two interesting things about this line:

(Disclaimer - there was beer involved in my discussion with the rep - so my recollection of our conversation may not be 100% accurate) I also do not support or discredit his or rio's claims about the line.

The first and most interesting to me is the taper design. I dont have the taper chart in front of me - but the big selling point seems to be the extended or heavier rear taper which aids casting distance, while still having a heavy enough head for turning over chunky flies. I asked how grain weight compares to their redfish lines (since they are notoriously heavy) and he mentioned that grain weight comparison is not always a great measuring stick because how the weight is distributed along the taper plays a big part in how heavy the line casts and feels (I dont know how true this is - but it sounds good).

The second thing mentioned was that the flats core is zero or extremely low stretch compared to other fly lines that may stretch up to 30%. I'm pretty skeptical about this. The argument is that the less the line stretches, the more efficient the cast is and the more energy translates into the cast itself. Common sense tells me that fly rods are more flexible than fly lines are elastic and that for this to be a real issue, you would have to time your forward and back casts perfectly and achieve "maximum flex" with the rod before the line stretches. With the coatings and composite construction of fly lines, I just dont see how a line could increase in length 30% during a cast and recover back to its original length. Or maybe it stretches 30% early in use and stays that way, but then you have a zero stretch line. Maybe one day I'll take my line off my reel and see if it is 130' compared to the supplied 100'.

All that said - its a very nice casting line. I'm not sure its a "game changer." It does appear to use new/different materials and it appears to be a new or unique taper (at least for rio). I'm not sure any of that warrants the $120 price tag. I would have no problems buying it at $90 bucks if I needed a new line. 

It also sounds like this line is supposed to be do it all flats line with similar taper philosophy to the bruce chard tropical punch lines offered by SA and Airflo which is a heavy front loaded head with a long chunky rear taper that is "supposed to" cast heavy flies long distances in strong wind but also load closely for pop up fish.


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## brokeoff (Sep 2, 2016)

Rick hambric said:


> im curious too. looking to put it on an exocett.


Which wt?


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## mcraft173 (Apr 21, 2014)

So I just looked at their website/taper chart. The long rear taper section I mentioned is what they are calling the "handling section"

Also I did forget about that the tri colored line. It's a little gimmicky, but I really liked it and it helped me gauge how much line I had out.


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## lsunoe (Dec 5, 2016)

I was considering that line with my Salt HD 10wt but I couldn’t justify the price of it without trying it out first hand so I stuck with the BTT. I’m curious to hear from some people on here that have tried it


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## texasag07 (Nov 11, 2014)

The stretch the rep is talking about is when the stripping to hook a fish or when you are stuck on a tree etc. there is some stretch in the line when setting the hook hard on a large fish or let's say you hang a fly in a tree. When you directly pull straight on the flyline to try and freeze break off a fly you can feel the stretch in the flyline.

They are saying the core in the new line doesn't stretch as much.

Essentially this is similar to the pros and cons versus the stretch in mono vs braid.


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## Rick hambric (Jun 24, 2017)

brokeoff said:


> Which wt?


8wt maybe a 10


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## brokeoff (Sep 2, 2016)

Same. Deciding between this and an SA Mastery Saltwater.


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## el9surf (Dec 23, 2008)

Wondering if Rio was able to stiffen up the braided core so it's not susceptible to coiling.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Mike said he was saving up his coins for that line. At a $129, it better cast like a dream cast when I get to Heaven. 

I haven't tried it out yet, so I'm curious and would like to see a real world review compares to some of the other top lines preferred by members of this fly board.


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## Steve_Mevers (Feb 8, 2013)

Backwater said:


> Mike said he was saving up his coins for that line. At a $129, it better cast like a dream cast when I get to Heaven.
> 
> I haven't tried it out yet, so I'm curious and would like to see a real world review compares to some of the other top lines preferred by members of this fly board.


The price of fly line has gotten insane! I bet it doesn't cost them $20 to manufacture it.


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## jsnipes (May 1, 2011)

much more curious in the 'handling' component, that is intriguing. many lines w/ little or no stretch already.

i was told it's a half wt line heavy (vs a full weight in normal rio lines). would be curious to try, esp if it's less tangly than the airflo lines.


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## Gshok (Jan 14, 2016)

Extremely disappointed in almost every aspect of this line especially the price. It felt like a very heavy front taper and overpowered the sage x 8 wt that I fished it on. Had major coiling and tangling issues right out of the box and never made it to day 2.


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## Rick hambric (Jun 24, 2017)

Decided to roll with sa bonefish amplitude for my new 8wt. Sticking with Airflo tarpon for my 10.


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## rakeel (Apr 9, 2014)

I casted the 8wt line awhile back at a local fly shop with a Winston rod, but I don't remember which rod. It was able to load the rod for short quick casts and could also be shot for long shots however after casting it for about 10 minutes I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't even pay normal line prices for it.

Maybe I'm just too novice and just missed what's so special about the line but my main dislikes about it were first, it's really really slick. The coating is really smooth and I guess different feeling. It reminded me of the super cheap line that came on my first starter combo. I could get over the cheap feel however the slickness is just too smooth. It's great for shooting line however I could see it unintentionally slipping when I don't want it too or keeping me from getting good strip sets when my hands are soggy. The other thing was it seemed to coil worse than other lines despite the claims that it wouldn't. I halfheartedly stretched it but it still coiled. I did like the taper of the line but I'm pretty sure you can find that same taper in other Rio lines. I personally really like the Rio Permit line for an all around line.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

I was field testing for Monic back around the late 90's and they were trying out a 90lb braided line core with the regular PVC coating. The hook sets were tremendous. I buried the hook in a 140lb poon jaw bone so hard with a strip set that it was nearly to the shank. You could bang the eye balls out of the dock snook eye sockets with one hard strip set , so I loved that. But the outside PVC coating would still get memory really bad and ended up being a pile of tangled mess and very frustrating to deal with. So I sent it back to them with my thoughts and reviews.


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## Martin Carranza (Jan 19, 2016)

mosquitolaGOON said:


> Looking for a new line to pair with a Winston Nexus. Anyone have any experience with the Rio flats pro? How is it for close quarters when those fish pop up out of nowhere?
> 
> I have Wulff BTT on my other 8's but was thinking about switching it up. Relatively same grain wt.. 243 for Wulff vs 240 for Rio. Also considering the BTT shorts which comes in at [email protected]'. Had this on my Tidal last year and really enjoyed the versatility.



Try Rio's bonefish quick shooter. best out there


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Martin Carranza said:


> Try Rio's bonefish quick shooter. best out there


Martin, with all due respect.... compared to what? It's the same line as a Rio Redfish. It's good in the right application, but not the best, IMO.


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## el9surf (Dec 23, 2008)

The bonefish quick shooter is a perfect match on my sage bass rod. It has become my go to redfish stick when the water is dirty.

Bonefish quick shooter on my nrx feels overloaded and very clumsy. It's definitely not what I would consider a versatile line, but it does quick deliberate shots well, hence the name.


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## Martin Carranza (Jan 19, 2016)

Backwater said:


> Martin, with all due respect.... compared to what? It's the same line as a Rio Redfish. It's good in the right application, but not the best, IMO.


In my opinion compared to Cortland, S.A. and Airflo in the same category. I get to use a lot of lines and Rio's Bonefish Quickshooter/Redfish line is the best of them all, a
gain, my opinion.
Right now I have rigged Rio's QS/RF on 5 rods, all Thomas and Thomas Exocett and Solar, from 6 to 8 wt. Loads super quick, turn over leaders from 7' to 16', last quite long despite the abuse I put these into, and all I have to do is rinse them often and use line cleaner every few months. 
I fish these lines perhaps 150 + days per year for bonefish, snook, permit, redfish, tarpon and whatever is in front of my fly; if it decides to bite


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## Steve_Mevers (Feb 8, 2013)

Backwater said:


> Martin, with all due respect.... compared to what? It's the same line as a Rio Redfish. It's good in the right application, but not the best, IMO.


Agree, thats why I carry a couple 8wts with different lines, for different applications. Just like there is no perfect boat, everything is a trade off.


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## coconutgroves (Sep 23, 2013)

texasag07 said:


> The stretch the rep is talking about is when the stripping to hook a fish or when you are stuck on a tree etc. there is some stretch in the line when setting the hook hard on a large fish or let's say you hang a fly in a tree. When you directly pull straight on the flyline to try and freeze break off a fly you can feel the stretch in the flyline.
> 
> They are saying the core in the new line doesn't stretch as much.
> 
> Essentially this is similar to the pros and cons versus the stretch in mono vs braid.


Count me out - some stretch is good and acts like a shock absorber on fast running fish. I actually switched over to mono leaders for permit and for the butt and class section on my poon leaders to give a little play when they make fast, quick runs. It has helped. I would not want my fly line to feel like braided line - yuck.

And lines can be too slick. I had a Cortland I was trying out and it was way slick. I couldn't get a good hookset on tarpon with it, so I found my self trying to wrap it around my line hand to compensate for it. Ending up ditching it.


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