Get it down. Down where the largemouths hug the bottom in their pre-spring doldrums. Down through that suspended pod of stripers as they push their way upstream to spawn. Down into the deep intercoastal holes where the specs love to congregate. Down.

But I don’t want to be chuckin’ and duckin’. No new clouser earrings today, thank you very much. No waterhauls or lead ropes draped across the boat. Give me something I can cast.

Oh, and I need some distance. I’m not asking for much.

Last spring I spent a week in the Baja, chasing roosters up and down the beach, and was impressed with the RIO Tropical Outbound Short that I had carried along. The RIO Shorts are built with short, 30 foot, aggressive front tapers to load fast and get big flies to big fish as quickly as possible. The 9 wt 375 grain intermediate I had worked like a charm in both the surf and offshore – except that one morning when things got chilly. With the temperatures in the low 70s, the line stiffened up and coiled like a slinky, giving us a frustrating hour or so before the sun really got going.

There’s no Baja on the calendar this spring, sad to say, but the local spawns of shad and striper, some early bucketmouths, and a trip or two to down east salt all screamed for a good sinking line. There’s a dept charge, or two, in my fishing closet, but that Outbound would have been just right. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be seeing the warm side of 70 for a while and the cool coiling Tropical just wouldn’t cut it.

Timing is everything. Just as I started my search for a new line, RIO came through with the Outbound Short Type 3 and it hit my sweet spot. The Type 3’s 30ft sinking head has a moderate descent rate (3-4 inches per second) and leads to an intermediate running line, giving me a non-hinging and easily controllable natural sink, perfect for the slower rivers and intercoastal tides that I will be prospecting in. With the Freshwater version, cold is no problem (there is a coldwater saltwater line, but not currently in Type 3) and RIO’s slick XS technology makes it cast very, very nicely. My 330gr 8wt version shoots like a son-of-a-gun.

This line’s two times out - one for speckled trout and another for slumbering bass - have me hooked. It’s a pleasure to cast (and I never thought I’d say that about a sinking line) and easy to manage. You can bet that this RIO Outbound Short Type 3 will be seeing stripers, shad, and whatever else is hiding down in the spring water column real soon.

Get it down.