Sinking/Floating line

[usual]

What is the best type of line to use, sinking or floating? i have been fishing with a sink tip using streamers and wooly buggers but now i have to change to a floating line for dry flies. Is it best to just use a floating line all the time and add some weight and if so do i have to use different leaders for wet or dry flies?

[The Patriot]

It's best to use the right tool for the job. Sometimes it's a sink tip or sinking line, sometimes it's best to use a floating line.

Personally, and that's what this all is, just personal preferences, and bear in mind that I am admittedly probably the worst subsurface fisherman around, I like to use a sink tip for streamers and wooly buggers and a floating line with split shot and/or weighted flies for nymphing. The one exception may be during a good Baetis or Isonychia hatch, when I find I can get away with more of a swing with those nymph imitations. Isonychia are very capable swimmers, and Baetis, while less so, also "swim" to the top. Epeorus species (Pluralis and Vitreous, Quill Gordons and Pale Evening Duns respectively) also swim to the top after hatching on the bottom with their wings awash. A good opportunity to fish soft hackles, either way, floating line, long leader and weight, or a sink tip line with a slightly shorter leader.

I encountered a couple of older gents last year around this time up in People's Forest. It was at the end of the Hendrickson hatch, in the evening right after we had fished a spinner fall. Rich had gotten 3 or 4 on his Red and Snipe soft hackle, while I struggled to get one lousy little brown on a spent spinner pattern. I wasn't missing fish, like I have been the past 3 nights, I just wasn't drawing any rises.

Anyway, breaking down for the night, we spoke to the two men and compared notes. They had done considerably better than we downstream from us in the slower mid section of the pool on nymph swung on a sink tip line. Lesson learned...

A floating line is better suited to produce a dead drift, which is harder to achieve with a sinking line. A sinking line tends to swing the flies more, but with mending and line control you can control the depth and speed of the swing. How you cast can also impact the depth and speed of your drift with a sink tip. Casting upstream will get the flies deeper, whereas casting down will keep them shallower. An upstream mend sinks the flies and slows the drift, a downstream mend lifts and speeds the drift.


I would also use not be afraid to use a sink tip with a big stonefly nymph, maybe fished in tandem with a wooly bugger, as stoneflies are also more mobile than your typical mayfly nymph or caddis larva. Another application for sink tips might be caddis pupa, and any soft hackle or wet fly can obviously be swung on a sink tip.

The things you have to consider are.... what kind of flies are you fishing?... what are you attempting to imitate?....how deep do you want your fly to go?.... how deep and fast is the water you're fishing?

If you want to fish mayfly nymps or caddis larva on the bottom, use a floating line with weight. If you want to fish pupa, emerging nymphs, wets, soft hackles, etc., deep, on a swing, use a sink tip. If you want to fish them shallower, use a floating line.

(Bear in mind that you can still swing nymphs on a floating line, you don't have to use a sink tip to swing your flies. In fact, it's easier to swing flies than it is to dead drift them.)

Even streamers.... if you want them near the top, or the water is shallow, floater. If you want them deep, and the water is deeper and faster, you'll need a sink tip.

As for leaders, I don't change my leaders from dries to wets on a floating line, but I do for nymphs.

I will fish a wet fly on the same leader as a dry on a floating line. For nymphs on a floating line, I would cut the leader back and taper it to 3X at 9 feet, then add another foot of 4X, maybe 5X depending on the water and the fly I'm using. The bigger the fly the heavier the tippet, the smaller the fly, the lighter the tippet. The split shot goes on the knot from 3X to tippet. If I fished a streamer on a floating line I would likely use the same 9' 3X leader with a 4X tippet.

On a sinking line.... for streamers I use a short leader. 3 feet of 2 or 3X, with another 12 to 18 inches of 4X. If I were fishing wet flies, I think I would lengthen that to about 5 or 6 feet and go lighter, 5 or 6X.

The rule of thumb is, the shallower you are fishing, the longer the leader. A floating line almost always would be used with a 9' leader. If you're using a sink tip, you want a shorter leader, so the flies stay down with the line. Fishing a sink tip with a long leader defeats the purpose of using the sink tip, as the flies will rise above the line and create a belly, making the drift less effective and making strike detection even more difficult than it already is. :roll: :wink:

And all subsurface fishing is done with flourocarbon tippet.

Like everything else in flyfishing, there just isn't a one size fits all, one right answer. It all depends on many factors. There is an application for everything.

Sorry I couldn't nail it down for you. Maybe someone else can do a better job.....

Best of luck.

TL,

Jim

Thanks 3weight: you might not have "nailed it down" but you gave me a lot of information i was not aware of.
thanks

[usual]

I wasn't sure how my last reply to 3weight registered as from a guest, but then i realized i wasn't logged in, so once again thanks for all of the info 3weight

[Housy Dave]

It's a good idea to use the sink tip with the streamers and the floating line with the dries.

You might even consider an intermediate sinking line rather than just a sink tip. If you fish streamers with a floating line you probably won't be able to get the fly deep enough if the water is > 3 feet deep. So it depends on the spot you're fishing.

Another option is the sinking leaders that airflow makes. It's basically polymer coated monfilament, that has a sink rate of up to 6" per second. You'll be able to fish a little deeper with your floating line that way. Works ok in a pinch.

If you want to keep switching back and forth it is a pain. You can carry an extra spool with a different fly line on it, or just bring two rods with you.

[The Patriot]

Another option is the sink tip kits which attach to your fly line with loop to loop connections. I believe they come in 5 or 6 foot lengths, two to a package, with different sink rates, one fast, and one extra fast. I have one that I've used in the past and caught a few fish, but haven't used it much in a long time. I added a sink tip line to my plethora of tackle and switch reels.

I did that Monday in New Hartford.... started out fishing streamers on the sink tip, and then changed over to a floater for nymphing. Only took 10 or 15 minutes..... it is kind of a pain though....

[usual]

Thats what i have been doing, i have two spools for my reel and just switch them around. that was the reason for my initial question because it is kind of a pain to switch. but i guess thats one of the things we have to put up with when fly fishing.

[Todd K]

not that everyone likes doing it, but I have even taken 2 rods with me. I will leave one on shore while fishing with the other. I'll use a 3wt for dries and a 5wt for streamers.

[The Patriot]

3 weight for dries..... YEAAAH, BABY!! Now you're talkin'! :D