Some time back we featured the Barrio Outcast. After a name change, that fly line became the GT140. I described that 140ft line as ambitious – I doubt many of us need lines that long. However, there is a niche, and GT140s have gained a following amongst keen and competitive casters.

The GT90 is more or less a shorter version of the 140. The front taper is a few feet shorter, the short belly is shorter and the running line is tapered. Put it another way, the GT90 is a different line using the same basic idea of a short belly and exaggerated rear taper.

On a ‘normal’ WF line, the rear taper smoothes a change from thicker, heavier line to lighter, thinner running line. Lines which suddenly jump from thick to thin line, i.e. shooting heads, have great shooting characteristics but they don’t make it easy to false cast with more than a few yards of running line beyond the rod tip. Too much, and the line gets out of shape and out of control; too little and the head bumps the tip ring when we haul. A ‘standard’ WF line, with a head of around 40ft, makes it easier to carry a few yards of running line and smoothes that jump. However, I can still go beyond what that WF line will let me carry. I can still get things out of shape because the running line is too thin.

The slow rear taper on the Barrio GT lines allows me to carry more line, but for the same long carry used with a long-belly line the total weight I’m casting is less. The long rear taper means when space is limited and I need to false cast shorter and shoot more; this shoots better than a long belly, pretty much as well as that imaginary standard WF line.

It’s my long-winded way of saying this is a nice line to cast. As with the GT140 this handles nicely: very smooth surface; almost limp so little or no coil-memory and it feels supple when I retrieve. Mike Barrio decided to call this shade of pale olive ‘Mushy Pea’ … visible enough in the air for me to see well but, hopefully, not so loud it’ll scare those shy fly fishers who get spooked by anything but olive fly lines.

If the GT140 was designed as a distance line which fishes well, the GT90 was intended to be a fishing line which we can throw for distance. In my opinion, it hits the mark, casting short, the GT90 loads my rod well. As I lengthen it, the loading increases slowly and predictably making it easy to stay in control. Shoot is good once the belly is outside the tip and gets better as I carry more line; the limit there seems to be the length of my rod and my skill as a caster. Turnover is ‘punchy’ so my leader straightens consistently and, this being a floating line, the GT90 floats predictably. This is not an ultra-high floating line and after some time – as with just about all floating fly-lines – the tip seems to get soaked and floats slightly less well.

An excellent ‘all-around’ floating fly line at a very reasonable price!