Scientific Anglers Clear Tip Line Review

Here in the Driftless, our tiny spring creeks can be frustrating! Fish seem to spook from 40 feet away even before you start casting on some days. The shallow water, slow flows, and crystal clarity can drive even the best anglers to insanity. Stealth is key to being successful in the Driftless.

We’re always looking for even a small advantage to being more stealthy here. The first, and easiest, answer is to simply increase leader length. That isn’t always an option here. If you have never fished the Driftless before (and we highly suggest you do sometime soon!), it is a small creek, short game fishery. This is a putt putt course, full of obstacles and angles, and short distances. Many of our casts are 20 feet total. If we start with a 9 foot leader, that only leaves us with 11 feet of fly line out of the tip of the rod. This can be difficult in most of our settings to get enough line speed to turn the leader over and present the fly, not to mention having to curve around vegetation or a tight corner etc.

So where does this new line fit in? The first 10 feet of the magnitude line is CLEAR! That is an automatic, baked in 10 foot ‘leader’ before we even tie an actual leader on. So with the line, and a shorter, more manageable 7.5 foot leader, we have 17 feet of stealth between our fly line and our fly. We can not stress enough how major this is for spooky fish in our tiny spring creeks.

After a couple months of testing in all conditions, we have found the line to be an overall excellent choice for most Driftless conditions. Performance and durability have been excellent, and it only needs a few extra cleanings as you will notice dirt build up on the clear tip more than you would a regular line (you should be cleaning your lines fairly often anyways!)

The drawbacks are:

Cost: This is an expensive line using some pretty cutting edge stuff on it (EST+ PFAS Free,eco friendly coating, new clear floating technology etc) the box price for the smooth is $150. Please don’t cast your new line on the grass or in the parking lot!

Range of use: While this is good for 90% of your fishing in the Driftless, the core of the fly line to make the clear floating tech work is different than standard lines. It tends to coil in the winter, and feels gummy in the summer. If you fish the normal season in the Driftless this will not be a problem however. It only lags behind in the hottest and coldest conditions here.

Memory: Keep in mind the core of this fly line has much more memory than what you are used to. While performance wise, this is not a problem at all, if you are a lazy angler and keep your rods strung up between fishing sessions, the fly line will develop a kink at the tip of rod where it is stored. This is not any kind of major problem as it can be smoothed and straightened before your next fishing session, it is just an inconvenience.

Overall, we are in love with the magnitude line and highly recommend it to anyone who wants a super simple way to increase their stealthiness on the water!

From underwater, the clear line looks like a disruption in the water, not an intrusive shadow!