Cycler,


Fireline won't help and probably would ruin your casting efforts, due to Fireline being a single-diameter fishing line? Without a tapered profile (either monofilament or a multiple-segment leader composed of graduated sections that step down to the lightest tippet) no leader will roll over properly. Every cast will be a disaster, especially if the no-taper leader is 15-feet long.

You didn't say how you came to learn that the water is 21-feet deep and the fish are holding on the bottom. Are you a boat fisherman? If so, is your boat equipped with a trolling motor and fish finder electronics? The easiest thing, really, is to forget about fly rodding and just vertical fish for the perch using those little jigs suspended from a graphite spinning rod. Why make it harder than it needs to be?

But if you're determined to go after 'em with fly tackle, you can use regular floating fly line and tapered leaders. It's not necessary to go with heavy dumbell-eyed Clousers and sinking line. Use ordinary sinking flies like nymphs and such; it just takes longer for the presentation to reach the depth you want to work. Attach one of those tiny split shot that are designed for fly fishing. Position your boat upwind of the hotspot, throw out beyond it and let your nymph settle through the water slowly on a downward arc.

If that tactic doesn't git'r done, then gear up with sinking line, Clousers, etc. Better yet, here's where owning a second fly rod is helpful; you outfit the second rod with sinking line and all the other little do-dads designed specifically for deep-water work. Have that specialized rod on board for times when you want to switch to working deep areas.

These are only theoretical suggestions on my part. I've never used sinking line and have rarely fished in water 20-feet deep unless I'm simply dragging a fly behind my canoe while paddling across deep water to reach shallower water. My canoe's anchor lines aren't long enough to reach bottom in twenty feet of water; plus, in a canoe I would feel exposed and vulnerable to wind and waves, not to mention the tall wakes of passing powerboats.

But I'll bet many others in FAOL fish routinely in deep, or even deeper, water. Hopefully they'll respond to your question with information that's more useful than what I can provide. I can understand why you want to go deep every now and then. Hey, that's where the fish are much of the time.


Joe
"Better small than not at all."