Having read so much about the Cortland Nymphing Line I was all but ready to give Cortland a slating for their lack of comms following numerous emails to them about grabbing hold of one from the US, they’re not here for some time… heck! they’re like hens teeth there so what was the chance?

Low and behold an email arrived this afternoon from Artie Loomis (No not him!) and thereby restoring my faith in them… good on you Artie, the 140gr is winging its way as I write ~ thanks.

However, on assuming I wasn’t likely to get one sent for a test, I’d taken the idea and concept to make ‘thine own’. With a cupboard full of fly lines in all shapes, sizes and colours, I set to…

In the hunt for 45ft of taper with a weight of 140 grains… sheesh!

Marking and micro gauging every foot of each potential candidate over a 45ft distance to identify a taper. With many not changing but a jot, it can get rather tedious… I never thought I’d get so excited to see the micrometre change by 0.01mm ~ is it?…is it?… is it?… uugghh no!

After a few hours I’d cracked it, doh! it was so obvious once I’d realised. Chopped and marked the line was reeled up then out it went for a few casts on the rod, ooooh it was so sweet if I say so myself… and I do (so there), tomorrow afternoon it gets a fish for real… not in big water unfortunately but fishing water all the same.

The final fly line (#6 weight) and my faithful must have scales and gauge

Please understand this stuff isn’t necessary by any means, there’s hype to it no doubt and maybe nothing in it you couldn’t probably achieve with any other line (Perhaps)… it’s just when someone sews a seed, I’m sad enough to have to do something with it, “now where’s my Prozac?”

If it all goes well I might share, if not this post will be hastily deleted forthwith…