I was approached by a Norwegian company Arctic Silver to try out some of their new fly lines.

 

They sent me over two fly lines to try out, the Compact Beast 8wt floating line and the Classic Beast 8wt intermediated line.

 

I was fishing in the Burnhouse Lochan Fisheries 25th anniversary final competition on the 9th of October 2022 and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try the lines out as I knew it would be a full-on day for casting, and depending on the conditions would either need a floater and an intermediate line, so hey an added bonus.

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I was allocated platform 14 up at the shallow end of the fishery, so the floating line was perfect due to the very shallow water being fished.

 

I set up my 1st rod with the Compact Beast Floating Line, set up with a 15ft leader of 10lb fluorocarbon and 2 droppers, with a size 12 cormorant on the point and 2 size 14 buzzers on the droppers. I got some great casts out over the water despite the windy conditions, and within the first 20 minutes had two fish to the net, the line handled the fish just perfectly.

 

Line Specifications: -

Length: 30,48 m/100 ft

Head: 9,14 m/ 30 ft in purple

Colour: Float - Light purple/white

 

This new series of fly lines has been designed to effectively cast a great line out with no problem at all even when casting into a headwind, which I experienced at the competition when changing pegs throughout the day.

 

A fine-tuned weight distribution, a short, but not too short, front taper, and a 4-meter handling zone are among the successful ingredients for combining line control with excellent turnover qualities, the line is perfect for even turning over some heavier flies like a snake or a humungous fly without losing control of the presentation of the flies or the line.

 

I found the Compact Beast a pleasure to use throughout the day, especially unlike some new lines whereby you have memory recall when retrieving and the line gets slightly twisted and tangled, this line didn’t so I could cast out a full line every time.

 

You can get the Compact Beast fly line in either Floating, Intermediate, or Fast Sink

 

My second rod was set up with the Classic Beast 8wt Intermediate Line, and yet again with a 15ft leader and 2 droppers on the line. This line was set up with a size 12 cats’ whisker on the point and 2 size 12 cormorants on the droppers in black and orange respectively.

 

Specifications:

Length: 30,48 m/100 ft

Head: 10,36m/ 34 ft in orange

Colour: Intermediate - orange/white.

 

Yet again as with the floating line, I found the design and use of this line an extreme pleasure to use, casting well without any memory on the line and shooting out a great distance without any trouble and of course presenting the flies how I wanted them so that they did not spook the fish when landing on the surface.

 

The Classic Beast fly lines have the same basic profiles as the Compact Beast lines but are distributed over a 1.5-meter longer head that will increase your potential for distance and presentation.

 

The Compact Beast and the Classic Beast lines due to their design and front tapers shoot like crazy without too many false casts to get your line out. Also due to the finer rear line after the taper, there is less friction on the rod rings which gives you a smoother cast and retrieval.

 

The lines only come in sizes 8wth, 9wt, and 10wt but are ideal for the fly fisher who likes to use bigger and heavier flies, and even though I’m not a Pike Flyfisher, due to their design and makeup they would be ideal lines for getting the massive pike flies out there.

 

And a wee added bonus the fly line boxes that the lines came in, can act as an extra fly box if you need it as they have spaces to hold up to 72 flies.

For information on your nearest dealer within the UK, Europe, and the USA check out the parent website at https://www.arcticsilvershop.com/dealers 

 

Star Review 5*