• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
- Plan Your Next Adventure -

Deneki Outdoors

Alaska | The Bahamas | Chile

  • About
    • Jobs
    • Blog
  • Locations
    • Rapids Camp – Bristol Bay, Alaska
    • Alaska West – Western Alaska
    • Andros South – The Bahamas
    • Rio Salvaje – Chile
  • Air Taxi Service
  • Memberships
  • Search

Dec 23 2011

Airflo Rage Compact Head

Airflo Rage Compact
Tom lets his Rage fly.

Many of us who learned to spey cast using Skagit-style systems have never felt that comfortable casting floating lines.  There, I said it!  Your fearless editor was raised on T-14; I’m really bad at casting even Scandi heads.

These days in the Pacific Northwest, lots of us fish Skagit heads and sinktips most of the time.  But on certain rivers at certain times of the year, dry lines work great!  The problem is, even if you’re a more versatile caster than yours truly, it can be hard to switch back and forth between Skagit/sinktip and the Scandi and longer-belly line systems that are more appropriate for fishing on or near the surface.

Enter the Rage

Airflo has just come out with a new head called the ‘Rage Compact‘.  It’s a floating head that’s designed to load your rod more like a Skagit head.  Simple as that!

We spent some time this fall fishing the Rage Compact, and we think that Airflo has hit the mark with this one.

  • It feels much more like a Skagit head – we just made our normal, slow, “raised on T-14” casting stroke and out she went.
  • It punches through the wind just like a Skagit/sinktip sytem.
  • You can fish tight spots with little to no back-cast room…just like with today’s shorter Skagit heads.

Our buddy Tom Larimer had a lot to do with the design of the Rage Compact.  He’s got a lot more detail in a post on his blog about the design of this head – you can check that out right here.

If you’re a Skagit kind of person who’s been looking for a floating line solution, it’s here – and it’s called the Rage Compact.

Here’s our Product Review Policy and FTC Disclosure.

More Gear We Like

  • Our Big Gear Roundup Page
  • Very Handy Soft Cooler
  • Sage TCX Switch Rods

Filed Under: Gear Tagged With: Airflo, Rage Compact, reviews, Spey

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. SteveO says

    January 18, 2013 at 10:47 am

    Interesting. I was looking at this line from the flip side. I’m a better Scandi caster who was looking for an easier Skagit-like to cast. Any others like me out there who have tried the Rage?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

All Blog Posts

Recent Posts

  • 6 Must Haves You Need When Traveling To Alaska
  • The Art of Bear Viewing: Power, Patience, and the Perfect Moment in Bristol Bay
  • Your Drag Is Wrong. Here’s How to Fix It Before a Fish Fixes It for You.
  • Tying the Egan Poacher: A Jiggy Fly Pattern for Swinging Trout
  • Start Shallow, My Friend: The Spey Casting Gospel You Keep Ignoring

Top Posts

All About Spey

All About Trout

All About Bonefishing

All About Gear

Subscribe

Footer

  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Photography by Matt Vaughn, Peter Viau, Tosh Brown, Abe Blair, Kyle Shea and Kara Knight.

Contact Information

Headquarters:
6160 Carl Brady Dr.
Anchorage, AK 99502

U.S. Information and Reservations:
800-344-3628

International Information and Reservations:
+1 907-563-9788

info@deneki.com

Locations

Rapids Camp
King Salmon, Alaska

Alaska West
Kanektok River, Alaska

Andros South
South Andros Island, The Bahamas

Rio Salvaje
Puerto Montt, Chile

Air Taxi
Alaska

Copyright © 2026 · Deneki Outdoors · Privacy Policy · Site by 21 Designs

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we assume that you are okay with it.