The new Beulah Aero Head is a modern mid-belly spey head designed to reestablish the presence of mid belly lines in the modern spey world. Traditional mid belly lines accommodated longer spey rods that were commonplace years ago; however, as the sport has evolved we now use rods between 12′-13.5′. This mid-belly taper is designed to be fished with the spey rods we find ourselves fishing with today. Similar to a Scandi head, the weight is in the back of this shooting head, and I found it casts and turns over very comparably to one. As you move toward the front of the head, it tapers down and becomes narrower and lighter–an “old-fashioned” line style with a modern taper. It is also different from traditional mid and long belly fly lines in that it is not an integrated full line but rather a shooting head, allowing anglers to continue to fish and experiment with new and improved running lines as well.
I cast the 510 grain weight 7/8 Aero Head on a Beulah Platinum 7132-4. This particular head is 47 feet long (they range from 44-62 feet depending on the rod you put it on/grain weight). I was casting it with a 13 foot monofilament leader with a small traditional wet fly, which is fished very effectively with a mid-belly line. Heavy flies and sink tips are not what this line was designed for. In my opinion, this is the line you want to fish during shade sessions when you are swinging flies on or near the surface for steelhead. What I noticed immediately about the line is its awesome mending capabilities. Due to its longer length, I also found it convenient not having to strip in large amounts of running line between casts like you have to with scandi and skagit heads. After adjusting my swivel speed and the size of my D loop I found myself seamlessly shooting line and carrying a nice, tight loop across the pool I was fishing. Honestly, it felt to me like a Scandinavian head that was simply twice as long as usual and because it felt like a scandi head, I treated it like one, using a similar casting stroke and primarily employing single speys as my main cast.
The Aero Head's debut on the Town Run
If you enjoy fishing Scandi heads with traditional wet flies or dry flies for steelhead in the Summer, I highly recommend you give this line a shot. But even if your experience is limited, this is a great line to fish because it allows you to cast immense distances and turn over flies well. It also bridges the gap between older spey techniques and modern equipment and spey fishing styles. Available in grain weights that accommodate 6-11 weight spey rods, this line retails $69 and is available in all sizes both online and in the shop.
Just got this line and used it on the Deschutes the same day it arrived at my front door. This line is very nice! Used it with a 9-10 foot mono leader. had to make my own front loop with three nail nots but not a big deal. used 30lb Amnesia running line at first and this line could shoot the 100ft of amnesia and some backing. Crazy! will be experementing with more traditional running line in the next few days to help with better turn over. casts longer than my scandi line and turns over small steelhead flies well. This is a very easy midbelly line to cast compared to many others of simular length I have tried. Its strenghts are: Less stripping in running line than using short shooting heads, Shooting distance is very good so you can cover great distance, Mending ability is good due to long length. when needing to cast shorter distance or cast larger flies I would choose a scandi or skagit head. This line does not do well when you have the head pulled well into the guides due to the weight being in the back of the line. Over all. this line is fun and a great tool.
I’ve had a mid belly for a few years, glad to hear they’re becoming trendy now, in fact I need to get a new pair of chest waders because the old ones are getting tight…..
What weight do you recommend on a Winston Boron IIx 7133?