We caught up with Mike Barrio and talked to him about what exactly goes into developing a fly line.
You’ve been making lines for a while now Mike, what made you decide to produce your own?
When I opened Haddo Trout Fishery in early 2002, I found myself watching my customers casting all day, every day and like any fishery owner, I wanted them to do well and enjoy their time on the water. As an observer, this became increasingly frustrating, as a large proportion of the anglers struggled to turnover a leader and they frequently put their potential fish down with splashy casting. A lot of this was down to casting ability of course, but many of the lines emerging at that time were of the “brick on a string” variety. Apparently these lines would go further, but anglers were not finding them easy to control.
Had you ever got involved with line development before?
No I hadn’t Pete, I don’t think there is such a thing as a fly line design course at a college anywhere, you’ll hear people in the trade describing it as a bit of a black art and I guess there is a lot of truth in that. As a youngster in New Zealand I fished bait in the sea and Mepps type spinners in rivers and lakes, then one day as I was making my way up a river gorge, I saw somebody fly fishing for the first time. I was hooked, I just sat there fascinated by the flight of the fly line as the angler cast his way up the river and I just had to learn how to fish like that! …… The fascination continues 40 years later!
Was it a case of sitting down at a desk and designing something new or did you feel the lines on the market needed tweaking a little with their profiles?
In the early days it was mostly a case of studying why I thought some lines worked well and why I thought others didn’t and then incorporating those ideas into prototype lines. I simply wanted to come up with a versatile easy casting line that would help my customers at the fishery with presentation and turnover. This resulted in our first fly line, the Barrio Mallard, which is still one of our most popular lines today.
Did you have to play with a lot of prototypes before you decided you had the one?
Oh yes, bits of line everywhere. I would spend hours cutting out sections of tapers, measuring the start and finish diameters, weighing them and then splicing them all together to produce a dummy line that I could cast. Then, when the idea came together, I was able to send the specification to the factory to ask for a prototype line to be manufactured. Nowadays, with more experience, I can put ideas down on paper and have the confidence to ask for a prototype without producing a dummy line.
If we looked at a front taper for example and you wanted one that would turn over a heavy fly, say a tube on tungsten. I guess you’d want it to be pretty abrupt but how much work will go into just the front taper to make sure it is right?
Firstly, the front taper is just one part of the design, as everything within the full profile must balance if we are to achieve a good casting fly line. We need to be thinking about where to position the main mass of weight within the head, about an appropriate tip diameter for the job, how steep the taper should be in start and finish diameters and the taper length will also need to be assessed. The fly line core would play a role in the design too, as would the coating. We may also find that we need to add some compound tapers ( varying tapers within a taper ) to the front taper.
Is there the perfect line or do you feel that one is needed that is fit for its fishing purpose?
I think all of our fly lines are very good general purpose fishing lines. Some are obviously better in certain situations, for example one might be better for shooting line, while another is better for line stability when carrying a lot in the air and another might be better for roll casting, all of which offers the customer choices to suit their personal preferences and their most common fishing conditions. Does the perfect fly line exist? I don’t think so, but we’ll keep trying!
Do you trial your lines on a variety of rods and with differing ability amongst fishermen?
Yes, very much so. Local anglers have always been very keen to try prototype lines on their rods and help us with feedback and ideas! Then we have our Barrio Pro Team members, very experienced anglers and casting instructors who fish all over the world and can put our products in the hands of fishers in so many different locations and conditions.
Your switch line looks really interesting can you tell us a bit about it?
The Switch rod thing is interesting, I couldn’t really get into the idea of a rod that you could switch between single handed casting and double handed casting, possibly because I don’t think a fly line design can do both well, as the line would either be a bit light for DH use, or a bit heavy on a long rod to be comfortably managed single handed.
I could see Switch rods growing in popularity, watched people using them and came to the conclusion that in Scotland at least, the fun appeared to be in using them as lightweight double handed rods mainly for Spey and roll casting. So we set about designing a line to suit this fishing style and capable of carrying polyleaders in all densities. The Switch lines are proving very popular!
The GT125 replaced the GT140 as your distance casting line with tournament casters in mind. Is it a hit with them and do they like what you have done with the new version?
Interesting question! Due to the success of the GT125 in casting competitions, there is a perception out there that the GT125 is solely a distance casting line and this happened before with the GT140. The reality is that an awful lot more GT125 lines are used for fishing than for distance casting, the stability of this line in the air and the great turnover and presentation that the line offers are obviously very useful in most fishing situations. I fish the line a lot and apart from the turnover, I particularly like the ability to lift this line off the water quickly at distance and be able to cast to a rising fish without having to retrieve line first.
At the same time a good question! It is always going to be difficult to make the decision to replace a popular line, but by attending casting events and watching video footage, it became increasingly obvious that there were only a handful of people in the world with the casting ability to truly gain the full potential of the GT140 head in a distance casting competition. Yes, we could all cast the line a long way, but the reality was that the head was a bit much for most of us. So after a lot of research and feedback, we shortened the head to a length that would suit far more people and then set about balancing the tapers to suit the new length without losing line stability and that magical turnover at the distances involved. The GT125 is certainly a hit and all the feedback has been very positive indeed.
Are there any plans for further lines?
Yes, we are currently working on two salmon lines and I’m very excited about these, as the line profiles are simply superb. We are currently doing extensive testing of new cores and coatings for them which takes time obviously and we are hoping to be able to launch them in early 2014. At the other end of the scale, we are also working on a light line design for small streams, the development of this line is proving great fun too.
What sort of fishing do you enjoy?
I’m a trout fisher at heart Pete and I love being on the river. But since I’ve been in Scotland I’ve grown to enjoy fishing lochs a lot more than I used to and to be honest, as long as I’m fly fishing …. I’ll try anything!
One day, one venue where?
I’d love to go back to New Zealand ... but you’re going to have to allow me at least a month!
Mike Barrio's fly lines are available through his website. Visit it HERE