You are actually casting the whole line. Sink tip casting is lobing a dense piece of sinking material attached to a light, non dense floating line. Because a large portion of the line sinks, it keeps my flies “in the zone” and in front of the fish much longer. This is probably how they were originally meant to be fished and can produce results with minimal amounts of effort. Either way, the Bank Shot line is made to order for this. While retrieving your line it is typical to also adjust your rod and the angle … In fact, you don’t even have to know how to cast well in order to use this method effectively. We all use Orvis lines, ranging from Hydros to Access and everything in between. Fish lower on the river to find fresher fish. First, let me discuss our “go-to” setups. Most often this is the water steelhead will be in even if there is no pressure, especially when water temps are warm. Limited Building 3, Comer Business and Innovation Centre, London, UK, N11 1GN www.neptunedocs.co.uk The closest good place and time for swinging flies on a floating line are our Valley Rivers in spring (March/April/May with no flooding) and in the Fall (Sept/Oct/Nov) when the Halfpounder Steelhead (12″ to 22″) are in the rivers with warmer water temps and bugs hatching. when to use sink tip fly line. When I am fishing soft hackles and other traditional wet flies, I always prefer a floating line. Sinking tips come into play for me when the water is too deep to effectively get to fish level, but even then, a change of angle with a floating line and proper mending should get me where I want to be most often. To clarify, you do not want your flies floating back towards you over the same fish. Arguments can be made as to the optimal speed of your swing. ~Alex, Sorry, I forgot to mention Phil! The water is quite low, so I fished a sparse marabou streamer on a floating line and no split shot. You cast directly across a swift current, which flows from your left to right. How to attach a sink tip leader to a floating fly line. They are for swinging flies or stripping streamers. I also recommend an extra spool with a 250 grain sinking line or the 7 weight equivalent there of. Reteiving – The figure 8 is one of the best retrieves to test out. Steelhead want to feed or "take" upwards during the chase response. Thanks to Phil and all of the “experts” for taking the time to write this article. By minimizing line mending you can keep the fly line belly large, causing higher fly speeds on the swing but with higher fly position in the water column. ​Fishing pressure is often a big negative to finding taking fish. Unlike the Scandi head, you never fish a Skagit head without a tip. This will help sink both the fly line and the fly more quickly. That was during the summer and water temps were warmer. Start with an 8 ft 10-pound test tapered leader, then … Instead we carry a wide variety and weighted streamers. Honestly how the hell do you floss a fish on a floating line and hairwing. The heavy fly is my edible weight, and the dropper is my fly du jour or hatch-matcher. The average depth where steelhead are lying here is from 12-48 inches of water. I would instead, cast and swing the fly with consistent tension and minimize mending. John Herzer, Blackfoot River Outfitters (Missoula, Montana): Around Missoula, we primarily fish from boats, so we rarely use full-sinking lines or even sinking tips longer than ten feet when fishing streamers. Further back near the flyline/leader connection? Watch a grou E. don't be tricked to fish along the bottom. You can usually tell after a couple of casts if the fish are hitting streamers, as they will be very aggressive. After solving the line question, my next question is what flies … Unfortunately you can get stuck catching fish! The best way to attach the leader is using a loop to loop connection. Depending on water conditions, I use 200- to 350-grain sinking tips in my everyday trout, steelhead, salmon, and smallmouth fishing. Personally, my boat roads are Orvis Recons because they are great casting, user friendly, and incredibly durable, holding up to long rides in the rod holders and hundreds of days on the water. sinking vs floating fly line. Low water is the only time I fish this particular set-up; for most of the season, I prefer a sinking PolyLeader and a three-foot section of level 2X or 3X. I will add some split shot, and then adjust accordingly. There are times of high water with extra swift currents when I’ll add some sink putty to the leader instead of shot. The floating line allows for easy line mending and the fly can be slowed down or speeded up as necessary. When swinging flies the belly determines the speed at which the fly moves across the current. How do you flossa fish on the skagit with 3 foot leaders? Maggie Mae Stone, The Tackle Shop Outfitters (Ennis, Montana): When using wet flies and streamers, I always think about the depth of water I may be fishing and the speed of the current. I enjoy tying and fishing streamers but have not found a good way to carry the bigger ones. Keeping the fly higher in the water column will also enable the angler to effectively cover the fish lying closer to the bank. by Jordan Oelrich ... Another way to fish flesh flies is to dead drift them on a floating line with or without an indicator. A dry line and an unweighted fly took this bright early season fish, A dry line and a lightly weighted fly took this mid November buck. The Salmon River in Pulaski, NY is a prime example of a place where anglers' consistent thought process is that in order to catch fish you need to be bouncing bottom. My favorite modern single hander for fishing skaters is a 10’ 7 wt with a full floating Air-Flo line. Haiti Relief Fund at Work in Haiti. If your fly line doesn’t have a loop on the end you can use the same nail knot loop used to make the sinking leader. Chuck Hawkins, Hawkins Outfitters (Traverse City, Michigan): I always use sinking tips when streamer fishing. Mending is the key when swinging wets and a floating line mends easier and keeps me in contact with my flies better. Rarely, we use floating lines with split-shot when using streamers. Most modern fly lines have an integrated loop on the end of the line. The floating line method is a more traditional presentation of a fly on the surface of the water. Jenny Mayrell-Woodruff, Woodruff, Flyfish Beaver’s Bend (Broken Bow, Oklahoma): I use a floating line with split shot more often because I am constantly changing locations on the river. If I really want to get down and penetrate the lower half of the run, whether it be four feet or ten feet, I generally use a sinking tip. Sink tips are MUCH harder to cast than a full sinking line. Our go-to set up is usually a 6-weight rod with a 4-foot fluorocarbon leader with an unweighted diver or streamer pattern or a 7-weight rod with a 4-foot fluorocarbon leader with a weighted (barbell-eyes) crawfish pattern (e.g., Ghetto Craw) with a mono weed guard fished with a slow retrieval rate as deep as possible and right next to the heaviest cover. Whatever system you … Cast across the stream and let the fly swing back across the stream till it is below you. And it’s full of great insights and info. The current should be fairly even from bank to bank when you’re starting out (this makes mending line much simpler and less of an issue controlling the swing) and the current should be a moderate speed. You can swing flies with any rod. As water flows get higher, this becomes even more so the case. Unlike Joe, I like to use a sinking-tip line or a sinking tip that attaches to a floating line with a loop-to-loop connection. Last week, we introduced a new weekly “Ask the Experts” Column and asked you to pose some questions for our panel of experts. There are several reasons: a sinking tip gets the fly deeper, I can fish much shorter leaders, they allow for greater accuracy than fishing a longer leader on a floating line, and it’s easier to throw a sinking tip than it is to throw a heavily weighted fly with a floating line. With an integrated sinking tip or full-sinking line, you need to continue to strip the line all the way in before you can recast. There are multiple factors, which determine when we have our client’s use sink tip lines or use floating lines. Especially early in the season, until mid-late November, I would try to fish faster runs in-between the pools with this technique. Very often, the best way to approach swinging flies is to keep the fly in the upper part of the water column. If I’m dragging bottom and getting hung up, I will take some off. This is when sinking-tip lines are at their best. Upper-water Column: We usually we will prospect with a floating line and an 8-foot fluorocarbon leader. If you find yourself without a sinking line and you know those fish are hanging out in deeper buckets (they’re not coming to the surface), then split shot works to get your floating line down quicker. I suggested making short casts directly perpendicular from his position to place the fly precisely on the boulders. I’ll look forward to many more. For example, if I’m fishing still water, I almost always reach for a full-sinking line, as the depth is usually greater than a river or stream. Fish patterns that are more natural or subtle in nature. And to that end, I will also adjust the weight of the sink tip to accommodate the current speed–obviously using a heavier grain for faster current and bigger water. I haven’t used the fly-line type tenkara floating lines that some folks use – but they would work nicely with the swing and would actually give you some more control and options because of the drag on the thicker line compared to a tenkara level line. Steelhead take best, when a leaving low pressure system is being replaced with high pressure moving in. They cast much easier than full-sinking lines and thus, they are more forgiving to novice anglers. In moving water/current, if you’re swinging flies and a floating line is causing the fly to rise and skim along the surface or just under it in water that’s more than a few feet deep, switch to sinking line. Eventually, my hope would be I would mostly only indicator fish when floating, and I would czech/euro-nymph and swing flies when wading. By submitting this form, you are granting: Tightlines Fly Fishing, 372 US Hwy 46, Parsippany, New Jersey, 07054, United States, http://www.tightlinesflyfishing.com permission to email you. If a fish is lying in 3 feet of water and is suspended 8-12 inches off the bottom, then swinging the fly 4-20 inches beneath the surface is usually plenty deep to trigger a response. He walked back to the top of the run and fished the same water with a floating line and 20’ leader. if that’s not enough, add split shot a couple inches in front of the fly. You may unsubscribe via the link found at the bottom of every email. I also find that novice fly anglers, with proper instruction, can handle a large streamer much easier when they have the weight of the sinking tip helping them deliver the fly. Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to answer, and especially ‘Ask the Experts’ for setting this up. They have no top water application. Finally, the current grabs the fly line that was holding in slower water, and pulls it out – swinging it, in effect, directly through the fishy water you’re hoping holds a trophy. After the fly landed, Mike gave a quick upstream mend and then let the fly sink and drift for about three seconds before bringing the fly into swing. Close to the fly? The first is what I call the "intercept" response. As the season gets colder, I don't necessarily change my technique, rather, I change where I apply it. As the fly line makes contact with the water, immediately throw an upstream mend in the fly line. Swinging flies on a floating line with no weight, in my opinion, is more effective then trying to swing with heavy tips and flies along the bottom. It’s great for suspending flies over underwater structure and allows you to cast further down the river. Mid-water Column: Before switching to a sinking tip, we will try a floating line with 9-foot fluorocarbon leader and a weighted (barbell-eyes) streamer pattern. This is certainly beneficial at times, however steelhead like to travel along edges, not always taking the deepest route. I can vividly remember an explosive take on a fast skated dry fly on the North Umpqua River years ago. On occasion the sinking line works great for Naknek and Kvichak … Great information, and a special thank you to Jeff Davis. Mending is the key when swinging wets and a floating line mends easier and keeps me in contact with my flies better. Now that we have the rod and line details out of the way, and a little casting primer, the next question is what fly are we going to use. Jeff Davis, All Water Guides (Austin, Texas): This is a great question and one that comes up often. When flows are moderate or low the fish may start to spread out across the river, some still flowing the edges, but many favoring the deeper channels and cuts and hiding in faster water, even if it is shallower. When swinging wet flies, I prefer to use one bigger/heavier fly and a dropper that is smaller and softer. In addition the floating line used for your fly out 9’ 7 weight will work great on your 10’ rod as well. Spend time swinging flies in water that is 3’-5’ deep. (Cast step, cast step....etc). Over mending causes the tension to come out of the swing and the fly to dead drift in the current. I like the flexibility of managing the depth with split shot, as well as removing the split shot if I need to switch up the method of presentation (dry fly, double dropper rig, etc.). During fall and winter fishing, I prefer a slow to moderate speed swing. Tim Linehan, Linehan Outfitting Company (Troy, Montana): When fishing streamers and wet flies, I let the situation, mostly water depth and current speed, dictate whether I use a floating or sinking line. If you find yourself in shallow water, a floating line with no split shot will work well if the fish are hitting your streamer or wet fly. Swinging is not hard to do. I just add or subtract split shot to help get my flies down fast in smaller pockets of fishy water, like the soft water behind a large boulder. That’s not lunchtime. As you’ll see from our experts’ answers below, there are many different ways to look at the question, and opinions vary. That’s research!!! With its powerful lower rod section, the New DEMON Spey effortlessly casts RIO’s 3D Scandi lines which are becoming very popular for sub-surface tight line swinging. Go Sox, cds . For the purpose of this discussion we are addressing fishing for Texas river bass (largemouth and guadalupe bass) with 6-weight and 7-weight fly rods in rivers that are rarely more than 10 feet deep. Sometimes downstream mends (and line stripping) are necessary to help swing flies through slack water areas at the end of pools and runs. With a full sinking line, the density is the same or very similar in the entire line. By dividing the river into three sections—upper, mid, and deep—we can create the best set up to address all the above factors and ever-changing conditions that we encounter on any given day on the river. Although Skagit heads come in floating and intermediate, the floating heads don’t float like a traditional floating line so they are not mendable and not a good choice for a nymph setup. The putty gets hung up less, casts nicer, and if it does hang up you can usually save your flies and just lose the putty. I string this twig up with a hand-woven, double taper Torenzio silk fly line that I dress each day before I hit the water. Your email address will not be published. Under those conditions, a sinking tip with fluorocarbon leader is the ticket. Your email address will not be published. Our boat rods are rigged as follows: We usually have four rods rigged and ready—2 rods rigged with floating line and 2 rods rigged with a sinking-tip line. If it is a large bucket or run, a sinking-tip line is my go-to choice. Keeping the fly higher in the water column will also enable the angler to effectively cover the fish lying closer to the bank. This response comes from their general predatory nature while in the lake or ocean and also while as a juvenile in the river chasing aquatic bugs and small baitfish, especially towards the surface. There are also occasions when the water isn’t that high, but for softness of presentation I want a unweighted fly. Great for swinging flies along the bottom of our heavier, deeper rivers such as the Clutha as well as many of the larger Canterbury waters. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact. Thanks again. Home » Haiti Relief Fund at Work in Haiti » when to use sink tip fly line. There are a set of casts that anglers have traditionally used with two-handed rods. Although there are times that it is necessary to fish deeper, many times the best approach is to actually stay higher. That’s said, there’s a lot of good advice here. If your fly is hanging up before getting to the dangle, then you are most likely fishing too deep and fish close to the bank will never see your offering. Sometimes, it all comes down to the kind of fishing you want to do, but sometimes, it’s just a question of preference. Make sure to keep the fly swimming and not slow the fly down with mending. To sum it up it’s all about depth and current speed. 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