gfen wrote:
Taper effects the ability to cast and turn over the fly. An aggressive taper will help you get your bulky bass flies out into the water, but I'm not so sure it would be good for steelhead fishing, as the flies are pretty different.
Rather than casting out big hunks of hair and foam, steelhead flies tend to be smaller and less wind resistant, but possibly as heavy (out of my element here). Steelhead taper lines tend to be longer tapers, to help with delivering these payloads vs the short, aggressive heads on bass lines.
Then you have to wonder about water temp. Cold vs warm water means different materials used in the line itself. Lines made for warm water are apt to have more memory and not as supple in the cold, I freely admit I don't know what the drawback to the inverse is, but I'm willing to bet it has to do with tackiness of the line coating.
Finally, salt versus fresh... This is probably the least different part. Saltwater lines are probably less buoyant (look Jay, I sounded it out and it worked!) in freshwater than salt owing to the higher specific gravity of the briney deep. A freshwater floater might be more floaty in salt than not, but I can't imagine that relly makes a difference.
Some websites (Scientific Anglers, for one) will give you taper details for many of their lines. Take a look at some of these to get a feel for what it means, and what a "species specific" line might mean, and remember in the grand scheme of things that for many years, your choices were weight forward, dual taper, or level...and people caught fish.
Using the Big Bug line in the salt water would probably be just fine.
