The RIO Gold is the flyline I fish most during the year. I use it as a WF5F on my Orvis Revon 5wt and as a WF6F on my Loop Evotec Cast Medium Fast 6wt. Both rods perform very nicely with these lines, no matter if it is dries, nymphs or streamers I am using: it is the great versatility I appreciate most about the RIO Gold.
The casting properties of this line are very nice, although the high degree of versatility also means, that this line cannot compete with special tapers for specific purposes: the SA Mastery Titan or the Guideline Bullet Evolve surely cast a streamer more easily and a delicate front taper like the Royal Wulff J3 allows for a super subtle presentation of dries… but if the flyfisher knows how to use the various techniques, no situation will leave him unprepared with the RIO Gold!
This flyline is also quite durable, and withstands even my intense fishing trips in any kind of weather, from freezing cold, far below zero, to almost tropical heat in summer. My biggest pike I caught on the WF6F while fishing for perch… I saw this beast-of-a-pike and switched to a larger streamer and a wire leader on my 6wt! The emerging heavy fight with this pike of 114cm was not much of a problem for the RIO Gold, the line took it all. The core probably has a 20-pound braided core, like most lines have, so I was able to fight hard! 20lbs is far beyond the strength of most fresh water fish in Europe. I use the exact same line nymphing for barbels or presenting a dry on an unexpected hatch while fishing streamers in spring.
The coating is surprisingly durable as well, but I use a little bit of linedressing from time to time, just to make sure it will serve me well for many more trips, as the price of this line is not among the cheapest. There are good lines on the market from around 50€ to more than 100€, so the RIO Gold is somewhere in the middle.
The only drawback of the RIO Gold are the prewelded loops! On all three of the lines I so far owned, the loops opened sooner or later. Of course this can be easily fixed, but it is a pity to have this little flaw on an otherwise perfect line.
TO CONCLUDE, the RIO Gold is my favorite line at the moment, especially for trout and grayling and everything that might happen unexpectedly during a trip. The prewelded loops could use some improvement.
++ versatility
+ durability
+ casting properties
o mid-range price
– badly welded loops