When I made my first major purchase in fly fishing, it was a new reel. It came naturally, that my second major purchase would be a new fly line for that reel. Well, that reel was a Battenkill Mid-Arbor, and that line, as luck would have it, was a Wonderline Generation 3 line in WF5F.
The line hit water before I ever took it home. Immediately after I made the reel and flyline purchase, I headed for the water, where I spooled up backing and the new line. A few casts later, I was glad I'd spent the extra money for the better line.
In the 6 months or so of "rigorous field testing" that I've given the line, it's still as smooth casting as the day I took it out of the store. The line is high floating and shoots through the guides easily.
It has performed well throughout three seasons of Pennsylvania fishing, throwing tight, round loops through fall and into the frozen winter months, and then out of the winter until just today, the opening weeks of spring. Even with chunks of ice flowing down the creek, this line still remained surprisingly supple. While it showed some serious memory after spending a few nights in the car, ten to fifteen minutes of casting had the memory loops worked out of the line and it was casting great. One thing to note, however: in the winter, tiny driplets of water will freeze to this fly line, greatly reducing its ability to shoot and giving it a sandpapery feel. This water on the line also means that your guides will freeze on a regular basis, no matter your best efforts to avoid it. When drifting, it usually picks up off the water with a minimum of fuss, though many times a loud rrrrRRIIIP!!! upon pulling the line off the water's surface is more indicative of operator error than a shortcoming of the equipment.
My main gripe with this line is the "welded loop" built into the tip for attaching leaders. Let's just say that if my vehicle were "welded" in this manner, i'd take the bus. While it worked beautifully for a few months, the loop just couldnt take a Pennsylvania winter with a non-expert caster. Just a few poorly timed casts in sub-freezing temperatures had the end of the loop (where it binds back into the line) beginning to lift and separate. This allowed water to get into the now-exposed core and from there it was a few short weeks until the entire loop came undone, forcing me to cut off the tip of the line and install a braided leader loop. This works just fine, but the loop was a really nice feature of the line and it's unfortunate that it couldnt stand the test of time.
Overall, I think that the Orvis Wonderline was a good choice for me. Any less experienced and I wouldnt have been able to really appreciate the benefits of a quality line, but now that I'm more experienced, the fishing I've done with it has let me know what to look for in future line purchases. Its shown me the difference a good line can make, and most importantly, I feel it has made me a better caster, by better translatinting my casting into how it behaved, helping me to develop good casting habits. Its certainly not the greatest line ever, but it does everything it sets out to do as a line.
I suppose I'll have to try out at least one or two more higher quality lines before I can make an accurate comparison, but from the experience i've had with the Wonderline, I'd feel confident recommending it to another learning fly fisherman.
