50+ Series Intermediate

At the suggestion of my local fly shop and Cortland dealer, Adventure Angling, I took a 50+ Tropic Intermediate 350 along on the ride down to Argentina's Paraná River for Golden Dorado. I was concerned the 350 grain line might be a bit heavy for my Bob Clay spliced joint quad bamboo #10/11. I had other lines, mostly Cortland, in the 300-325 grain class such as the Tropic Redfish #10 at 305 grains. As it turned out, the 350 grain 50+ Intermediate was nearly perfect for the river conditions & the large Golden Dorado flies. Most of the flies are at least 6" long tied full with schlappen feathers, bucktail, bead chain eyes & a flared deer hair head. The Golden Dorado have very sensitive lateral lines so the flies need to push water and make their presence known especially in murky water. The fishing is a thousand casts of chuck & duck from a boat to the banks and to mid river structure. While huge, the Paraná is relatively shallow and the Dorado are not shy about breaking the surface. An intermediate line is perfect. I found the line loaded well on one false cast & was gone. It was blazing hot, up to 104º & feels like 108º. While I was careful loading the line to prevent twist, the line did have an unfortunate tendency to twist up and kink. When it did, it typically stopped a cast about 15 ' short of its intended destination. When it didn't, it shot very well. The low stretch core encouraged a very positive strike if the Dorado took immediately. Although the twisting was…