Which sinking line for clear lakes?

[BlackGnat]

Greetings All,

I?m puzzled about sinking fly lines. My local water is a deep (up to 70ft) 125-acre very clear southwestern lake. The only trout are stocked, so I?m generally pursuing bass and other panfish. They generally suspend at between 15-20 feet, just over (or in) the dense weedbed that covers most of the lake bottom. I?ve been using a floating line on my 5wt rod, but have been considering either a sink-tip or full-sinking line. Which would be best? I?d very much appreciate the opinions of the more experienced flyfishers on this board. Thanks!

Jeff


[This message has been edited by BlackGnat (edited 31 March 2005).]

[This message has been edited by BlackGnat (edited 01 April 2005).]

[lee s]

Many swear by the Courtland Camo Intermediate line. We use the clear intermediate shooting heads at L. Shasta and like the results a lot.
But we rarely fish much over 10' deep. We use other SH's for that.
......lee s.

[Buddy Sanders]

Jeff,

You didn't mention how deep you wanted to actually fish.

So, just as an overview.

If I want to fish over ten feet deep, I prefer a full sinking line. The fastest sinking line I can throw. Otherwise, you are spending inordinante amounts of time waiting for the fly to sink down.

For just below the surface down to the 10 foot depth, sink tips or slow to intermediate lines will work. A sink tip with a weighted fly will let you get to 10' without waiting too long, and you can keep the fly there, which is the trick to this.

However, all that being said, there isn't just 'one' sinking line that I'd recommend for your situation. I fish similar waters (clear and deep at least). I want to have several options available, unless I know in advance exactly how I intend to fish (not very often, unfortuantely).

I prefer multiple rods rigged with different lines/flies for presentations at differing depths.

Other options that allow the same versatility would be multiple spools with different lines on them, or one of the multiple tip lines.

As a 'start' though, a full sink will give you the most versatility from 'one' line.

Good Luck!

Buddy

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[Royal Wulff]

RW here,

We have two BlackGnat's on FAOL now? I thought once a handle was in use it wasn't available to anyone else. Please tell me if I'm wrong. This confused me for awhile because I thought BG had moved from Pennsylvania.

Later, RW

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"We fish for pleasure; I for mine, you for yours." -James Leisenring on fishing the wet fly-

[BlackGnat]

lee, Buddy:

Thanks for the recommendations. Apologies for not being specific about depth. That's the real difficulty, apparently since the water has about 30-plus feet of visibility, the fish are generally down between 15-25ft deep. No problem for a spinning outfit, but where's the fun in that? (grin)

I was considering a Teeny T-200 sink-tip to start out my sinking-line journey; I'll probably try the full-sinking first. I imagine they're a bear to cast, though.

RW:

I didn't know there was another BlackGnat; I'm a relative newcomer to FAOL, and have only had an account for three weeks. Perhaps the other BG spelled his handle differently, like all lower case?

Thanks,

Jeff


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"The oxen are slow, but the Earth - is patient."



[This message has been edited by BlackGnat (edited 01 April 2005).]

[lee s]

BG,
If you are "blind" fishing, and if you are interested in ALL the water column to that depth (and beyond), it may be to your advantage to set up a shooting head system. Merely add one spool to your reel, a shooting line to which you attatch differing density shooting heads of the same weight for covering differnt areas of the water column at differing speeds, if you wish.
A head system is very easy to learn to cast.....all the same basic casting principles apply. A head system is very versitile and handy....carry it all in your vest. A head system is grand for tossing at night.
......lee s.

[Buddy Sanders]

BG,

Sinking lines are no harder to cast than floating lines, really.

However, picking them up to cast takes some attention. I prefer to fish out all my casts with them, when possible, and them recast the line 'fresh' for each presentation.

You can learn to roll cast the line to the surface to pick up more of it, just takes some practice (you'll get after a few tries).

At the depths you want to reach a shooting head system as Lee described might be your most efficient. I won't fly fish deeper than 20 feet, I'm too impatient, but it can be done very ably with a good sinking head.

Good Luck!

Buddy

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[Robert McMahan]

BG
You can do what you want with the Teeny 200. That's what I striper fish with and I fish down to that depth. However, that deep, you may want to go with a shooting head system or the full sinking line. I really don't enjoy fishing much deeper than 10 ft. or 15 ft at most with a fly rod though. One thing you might want to keep in mind is to keep your leader short, say, 3 or 4 feet because if your fly sinks slower than the line which it almost always does, and if you have a long leader the fly may be well above the line which defeats the purpose of a sinking line.

10 feet down with an intermediate line?!?!?!? Even at a full 1.5 inches per second, you are talking about waiting 80 seconds between casts!!!!!

Forget it, if you want to fish 10 feet or deeper, you need to be sinking at least 6" per second, or you'll spend 99% of your day waiting for the line to sink.

Personally, around 10 feet and deeper is when I break out the lead core. I have the patience to fish 30' max with that (about 40 seconds drop) but usually I limit myself to 20-25 feet down.

Also, a sink tip is never going to let you fish at 10 feet... unless the tip is at least 30 feet long. Even if you can get your fly 10' deep with a sink tip, two strips and you'll be back up to 6 feet in a hurry. Try it out in a pool sometime.

[BlackGnat]

All,

Thanks for all of the great advice. You've given me a lot to consider. It may be that fly fishing deeper than about 15ft is simply impractical, unless one doesn't mind waiting for a sinking line or shooting head to descend. But what are fishers, if not patient.

Jeff

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"The oxen are slow, but the Earth - is patient."