I have used the Airflo 40+ lines since they came out. Thay always made getting a line out easier as a beginner even though presentation suffered somewhat. Over the years, and my casting having improved, I still used them for distance situations but have returned quite a few of them to Airflo after the join split, which was a consistent weakness. To be fair, Airflo always replaced them in a timely fashion but it was a hassle and meant you did not have a line for a week or two.

A couple of years ago, Rob Edmunds told me they were planning a “one piece” version and I have been keeping an eye out for this ever since. They launched the two versions a month or so ago with reviews in Trout Fisheman and I managed to get my hands on a Di3 “Expert” and Di7 “Extreme”, which I have tried out over the last few weeks. As before, the Expert has the longer head, in fact it is even longer than before at about 15-16 mts, I would say, which means you need room to cast it if you are bank fishing, but it turns over much more like a normal line and does not land like a bike chain as some of the earlier versions did.

Yesterday, I fished Grafham from a boat with the Extreme and, I have to say, I was terrifically impressed – with a head of about 11-12 mts (which is longer than on the previous Extreme) and some improvement to the taper, it is possible to get it out with just two false casts and it really flies out. Again, it lands much better than predecessors and turns over well cosidering the weight and the fact that it is effectively a factory made shooting head.

The join, or lack of it, is immaculate on both – all you can see is that the colour changes from a fluoro orange in the Extreme or yellow in the Expert to the colour of the head, which is now the same as per all the other Sixth Sense lines (ie black for Di7, blue for Di5, etc) , no bump and no weakness as far as I can see. It did not come with a loop so you need to add that and also a “hang marker” which I think they are putting on some other lines as standard.

As a line for pulling lures on a boat or getting extra distance from the bank, I think these will be very hard to beat. Unless you are a wading bank angler, I think I would recommend the Extreme over the Expert.

Charlie