In your opinion, what is the best quality fly line? In my mind, Rio Gold sets the standard, but I'd like to hear other thoughts.

Also with amazon, it seems there are many other lines coming to the market that are either new or re-branded knockoffs. Have you found any of these that meet your quality expectations of a "good" fly line? I'm not talking about a for-the-money comparison, but a true quality vs. quality evaluation.

I picked up some blue halo line about a year ago and have thought about switching all my reels over. It may not be as good as the rio gold but i like it better than the grand. I have done everything I can to try and loosen up the rio grand and it wont.

In my opinion it depends on the rod but having said that I seldom use fly line anymore (just my fishing style).

I really like the Scientific Anglers Mastery Series for floating and sinking line. Aqua nova makes a really good x-fast sinking line. I normally buy my line from eBay at pennies on the dollar. I tear up lots of fly line on carp, buffalo, sharks, snapper, etc. At $100 a pop that gets cost prohibitive.

I'd have to go with RIO, Airflow, and Scientific Angler

No personal experience with it, but I have heard several people complaining about problems with Rio lines cracking. May have just been a bad batch. I have had extremely good results with quality and durability with Scientific Anglers Mastery lines. Since I do a lot of ultralight flyfishing, I have also had outstanding performance and quality with Barrio Small Stream lines (which incidentally cost less than $40).

Larry

I run Airflo Forge, is pretty versatile for trout river lake and nymphing. Really impressed with it and leaves a few pennies in the wallet

COFF, great question. With new technologies and materials, I often wonder if I'm missing out by not trying the new stuff. But buying a line to 'check it out' is expensive and, if you don't like it, a waste of time and money. Twice I've had a guy in a local fly shop tell me the $35 line performs just as well as the premium line. Twice I've made the mistake of trying it. Nope. Not even close.

I fish SA and Rio lines. Assuming correctly matched line to rod, I don't think I can tell any difference between the two in terms of casting or performance. However, as Larry 'Canoeman' mentioned, I do think the Rio lines wear out.....crack.......sooner. The SA lines seem to be more durable.

Regarding Rio lines, my faster action rods preform better with the Grand but I've got a 4wt dry-fly trout rod that fishes much better with the Gold. On a whim, I decided to give the Rio In-Touch Gold line a try on my dry-fly trout rod. It's a $99 line. Ouch! To my pleasure, the line performed noticeably better than the standard Gold, especially when making tight quarters casts like roll and single-handed spay. However, I was extremely disappointed when the line fell apart.......cracked......in about half the time I would expect from a premium line. But, I liked the line so much, I bought another one. It too fell apart way too soon. I love the line but I won't be buying another until Rio can make it more durable.

I'm sure there will come a day when a manufacturer produces a new line that gets rave reviews from professionals and enthusiasts alike. We will read and hear about it. I look forward to that day but, meanwhile, I'll probably stick with the reliable SA and Rio lines.

I really like the Rio Perception Trout lines.

I like RIO a lot.