From throwing big flies, to great roll casting and single hand spey casting, the Wulff Ambush line delivers. We use this line on multiple setups. The Wulff Ambush line excels on your streamer setup throwing large weighted flies effortlessly. Or, line up a couple weights and use it on your switch rod, or single hander as a great skagit style shooting head.

Product description from Royal Wulff

A recent addition to the Triangle Taper family, floating Ambush lines are our most successful introduction. A West Coast influenced design for single-hand casting, single Spey, Skagit, scandi, switch, and double Spey. Now in heavier weights to 600 grains. Originally designed for roll casting in close quarters, the short 20’-29’ heads are ideal for quick-loading. With J3 coating and welded loop. 195-600 grains.

Wulff Ambush Line – On the water:

The Wulff Ambush line is a very versatile streamer line. I have it rigged up on a 9′ 5wt Loop Cross S1, as well as a 10′ 8wt Echo Ion. The aggressive front “triangle” taper allows me to throw versitip sinking leaders and all but the biggest of bugs on the 5wt with relative ease. This makes for some fun bass and pike fishing as you are usually stuck using 7-8wt rods to throw these large weighted streamers and sink tips.

In smaller water the Wulff Ambush Line roll casts very well. Whether I am throwing a bunny leach, or flinging a nymph and indicator, casting in tight quarters is a breeze with this line.

The other advantage to the Wulff Ambush Line is that it spey/skagit casts very well on a single hand rod, and many people use it on their switch rods as well. We tested this out at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo. We got to test cast the 8wt switch rod from Mystic in the casting pools. The Mystic rep suggested lining up 2 sizes for spey/skagit casting. The Mystic Switch Rod, which we review here, was successfully turning over effortless skagit casts when lined with the 10wt Wulff Ambush Line.

When throwing indicators on the 8wt Echo rod we usually prefer a line that is meant for this purpose, but in a pinch the Wulff Ambush Line performs quite well. Casting an indicator, some split shot, and two nymphs is about as easy as it can be, and frankly is probably better than a dedicated indicator line. But the short head w/ integrated running line is not the easiest to mend on longer casts. In tight or out of a boat you could get away with just this line, but if you are bombing your indicator as far as you can you will appreciate the longer belly section on a specialty line.

There are not many con’s to mention with the Wulff Ambush line, but presentation is something that needs to be talked about. We wouldn’t recommend this line for delicate dry fly fishing. I don’t know if this should qualify as a con as this is not really the intended use of this line, but it is a fair point. Again, if you are in tight or in a boat you could probably get away with this line for dry flies. In tight, roll casting, I find the presentation to be adequate. And out of a boat where you are casting well up stream of the fish and then drifting along side of the boat, delicacy on the cast is not as important. The problems for me arise when I get the line air born. The heavy head can be hard to control, so if you put to much power into your stroke for the line you are shooting the head will tug at the end of the cast and splash down rather loudly. Now, I don’t claim to be a great caster, so your mileage my vary in this regard. But, I think its fair to say that this line isn’t at its best with a dry fly on the line and finicky fish in the water.

With that being said, the Wulff Ambush Line is superb at its intended uses. It has plenty of energy to throw large streamers and weighted rigs. It roll casts extremely well, and it is very capable of both double and single handed skagit casting.