That Old Feel of Cork

I wound my fingers around that grip and a smile crossed my face. I wasn’t standing at last in one of the rivers of my heart, though not within a hundred yards from bright waters, just standing in the yard, a double tapered line strung through those guides for the first time in months. The breeze held a chill despite the sunshine, but the motions of those first casts warmed the blood in that left arm, and the smile remained.

There was a question in the corner of my mind since I wrote the last words of my January column for the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild’s Gazette: just how would my Leonard 66ACM cast with a six-weight line? Feeling better a little every day, I decided to seek the answer.

I placed an LRH wound with a DT5 line in my right pocket and a Princess bearing a DT6 line in the left, and out to the lawn to see what that lithe shaft of vintage bamboo could tell me. The Red Gods as I lofted the first cast, pushing that cold breeze right in my face, felt just like old friends.

The five-weight felt familiar, and very capable to flex the rod cleanly. I tossed a few casts to limber up the house shuttered winter muscles and then traded reels. The Princess bore the same make and model of line, one of the 406 double taper lines. My Leonard rods are well acquainted with the 406 DT lines, performing better than any lines I have tried on all of them. Number six rolled out a longer cast in the face of that breeze, with no trace as over loading the ACM.

The legend of the Leonard ACM rods describes a special-order taper, designed to the desires of championship caster Authur C. Mills, with a heavier butt and a lighter tip. That lighter feel in the tip is clearly telegraphed to my hand, but its quickened enough to handle either line weight. With either line, the rod performs best with a light touch.

The true test to determine which line is my top choice will need time to get the rod on the river. Spending a day fishing through all of the changes the trout and those Red Gods have to challenge me will make that choice crystal clear!