Double taper lines are suitable in all weights and for all
occasions. They roll cast, mend well and you can turn them around
when you wear one end out.

riverman That's definately the traditional statement about them, but
riverman I've heard that, in reality, DT lines are dinosaurs. Silk
riverman lines were expensive, and used to get waterlogged, so DTs
riverman were used so you could reverse the line and have an
riverman economical dry, waxed end. But modern lines have a different
riverman wear pattern: the tips wear, but you can trim that part off
riverman back to the flare. The rest of the body wears so slowly that
riverman by the time you need to reverse the line, you probably have
riverman bought several replacements already.

Some people say that WF lines tend to wear at the spot where the thick
part ends. (I think Mike also made that statement in the Baltic
clave.) That makes sense, if we assume that modern lines really do
wear from casting (I have no first hand experience on that).

riverman And all that time you were waiting to make use of the
riverman reversibility of the line, the thick body of the the DT line
riverman just made for more heavy line to toss around, and that
riverman you're better off just cutting the end off your DTs for
riverman shooting heads.

In that statement, I guess you're assuming that you want to shoot
line. Because that's when the thick body is a disadvantage. Otherwise
it's an advantage: if you want to roll cast, spey cast, make long
overhead casts (without shooting line), or mend line, you need the
thick body to transfer the energy all the way down the line. In
addition, when you've got more than 30-40 feet of line out, the thick
body makes it possible to load the rod to the fullest. Assuming that
the rod can take it.

For example, with two handed rods, it is possible to make _very_ long
spey casts with a DT line. I've done it, although unfortunately can't
do it consistently :-). Such casts make fishing in large rivers really
enjoyable, because you don't have to retrieve the running line between
the casts, as you would have to do with a WF line.

In addition, I think that making long casts without shooting line is
one of the most beautiful things in fly-fishing. :-)

--
Jarmo Hurri

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