Fish floating flies on a sinking line. Use patterns made from foam, deer hair, cork, or other buoyant material. Cast and let line settle to the bottom. Use a stop and go retrieve or stop and pause. The fly floats up. The retrieve pulls it down and then the fly rises on the pause. Sometimes this is referred to as a yo-yo presentation. If the water is deep enough, the same retrieve can be used anywhere in the water column. Depending on the fly and location, this can works for many different fresh and saltwater species including trout, bass, panfish, etc.


In streams, sinking lines with streamers can often be fished very effectively on upstream casts. Current needs to be slow enough that you can retrieve the line and fly faster than the current. I once saw a technique demonstrated that used an upstream presentation in fairly fast moving water. The cast was made far upstream and across. The angler then turned to point the rod downstream, away from the fly. The current caught the bend in the fly line, causing the line and fly to go downstream faster than the current. When trout grabbed the fly, the tension on the line was enough to set the hook.