Fly Fishing - Flies and Fins Do's, Don'ts & Advertising

AKGrayling · Location: Anchorage AK

I am looking for a sink tip fly line for my 6 wt. I will mostly be using it for fishing deep in lakes. My main goal is to find a line that will sink quickly but still be relatively easy to cast. What are your suggestions?
Thanks

TroutBone · Location: Bavaria, Germany

I personally use cortlands precision sink tip, this is my opinion on the product, I`ve fished numerous European lakes using a Type 6 on my smaller weight rods and in windy condition the cast seems true and smooth to most of my point where I want my fly to go as well as really getting it out there, but as with anything else it deepens the conversation more dependent on the type of flies, conditions, species of fish you`re after, you mention fishing at lakes, never been to Alaska to fish there but I know theres some monster fish out there, but my fishing experience with cortlands series fly lines has always been been positives. Hope this helps you any.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Good question. Like troutbone said it depends on what you want to fish for exactly. It sounds like you are just looking for a sinking tip fly line that sinks fast for lake fishing.

Have you considered using a full sinking line? I usually use a full sinking line on lakes since it keeps your fly line underneath any surface chop or disturbance which makes it easier to have a direct connection to your fly...which allows you to detect strikes much faster (especially subtle strikes). with a sink tip fly line, if you have windy conditions, any wind or chop on the surface creates less direct contact with the fly. A sinking tip fly line also forms a hinge where the floating portion and the sinking portion meet which also makes it more difficult to have direct contact with your fly. With a full sinking line, this is eliminated. Another advantage of a full sinking fly line is the ability to fish a lot deeper than a sink tip. With most sink tips, the tip is about 15 feet (there are some with longer tips) but in order to fish that deep you would have to let the line sink until it was vertical which is impractical and once you stripped the fly, it wouldn't be deep anymore.

An important thing to remember though with full sinking lines is that you want a "density compensated" full sinking line. This means that the tip will sink a little faster than the middle section so that the line doesn't "belly" with the middle portion deeper than the fly. Most lines these days are density compensated, but just make sure before you buy one.

My personal favorite full sinking fly line is the uniform sink by scientific anglers. It casts and shoots well and provides a great contact straight to the fly.

There are some benefits to sink tips including the ability to mend the line if necessary and the ability to pick the line up quicker since not all of it is sinking. For most river fishing, I use sink tips for this reason. I have a few sink tips that I like. If I am just fishing one depth and don't want to mess with interchanging tips, I use the scientific anglers wet tip. If I want flexibility in depth, I use a RIO versi tip with interchangeable tips of varying sink rates.

Hope this helps. What do any of you other guys fish?

AKGrayling · Location: Anchorage AK

Thanks for your inputs. For the most part this line will be fished deep in lakes for those big bows. kory_k brought up a good point that I like. Since this like will probably not be used in rivers very often I think i will go with a full sink line, i just want an easy one to cast.

Thanks again,
riley

Edit: Do full sink lines load your rod more, if so would underlining be an option?

kory_k · Location: New York, NY