My question is how deep do most expect to be able to realistically fish with a two weight. Are sinking lines effective or even available? Many thanks
David K. Spencer
David
IMHO I don’t think sinking lines are very realistic below a 6wt. Some may disagree. Hopefully someone will.
While I do not fish with a 2wt, I do use a 3wt from time to time. I think I catch more fish by using a 9’ leader and a lightly weighted fly. I just let the fish dictate how deep I need to let it sink before making my retrieve.
I agree with a/d. My lakes mostly develop a thermocline in the summer at the 12-15’ range, according to the state fishy people. I fish with a 2 wt quite a bit and I think it’s margional much deeper than 7 or 8’. I do use a 3 wt with a 9-10’ leader and weighed fly to fish down to about the 10’ level [casting that rig ain’t purty but it works!].
I find that the panfish [and LMB] tend to feed up; therefore, when I’m fishing a bright attractor type fly 10’ deep I fully expect school fish to move up to take it. Seems to work. Secondly, when panfish and bass are READY to feed they move up in the water column. Frankly I’d rather fish for feeding fish then a school drifting along at 15 or 16’, passing their bong around and waiting for the dinner bell to ring! So I try to find fish feeding rather than trying to fish 20’ deep with a flyrod [which I know some do]. As they say, different strokes…
Spring will come - sometime.
Donald
With all respect boys, I often fish a CLouser on my 4wt for smallies etc.
For trout, often I’ll fish a #10 Clouser into the shadows towards the bank on a sunny day when fish aren’t cooperating. This is done on a Sage SPL 2 wt!! And done comfortably too.
((edit)…In re-reading the post/repiles…obviously I don’t use a sinking line on my lighter rods. Apologies for that. And by “deeper” I’m in the top 3’ of water.)
I often have a WF3F line on this 2wt but not always. Just open the loop up more than usual. I’ve actually had a lot of good fishing by doing this.
It wasn’t my original intent to use a 2 wt…I typically use a 3wt!! Seriously, unless I’m fishing bamboo.
It depends on the fly size you need to use.
Jeremy.
[This message has been edited by Jeremy (edited 22 December 2005).]
I fish a 4 and 5 wt quite a bit from a Float Tube. The lowest weight sinking line I have been able to find is a 4wt.
I do find it effective, but I do not believe it sinks as fast as maybe a 6+ wt of the quote “Same sink rate”. Granted the sink rate may be the same but I just don?t feel the intermediate 4wt I have sinks as fast as the intermediate 5 wt. I do find my intermediate sink 5 wt to be my ?Go To? line most of the time.
I am fishing #12 and smaller flies most of the time with this method. With a two or three weight you would likely need to go smaller. Also I don?t use weight on my flies either so likely you would need a heavier outfit for weighted flies also.
Let No One Walk Alone
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Bill
Jeremy - my “deep flies” for use with the 2 wt is generally 1/8" beadheads; for the 3 wt it is 10-12 wraps of .015 lead wire. The 2 wt will handle this also but it’s more work. The “ain’t purty” part of my post refered to the open loop you need to throw. I would consider 3’ as a “gimme” depth and probably fish it as a “hopper/dropper” type set up especially in a river or creek. I fish clousers on my 4 wt and 3 wt both; depends more on the size barbells you tie the fly with than the hook size IMO. Normally I’d reach for a leech or wooly bugger B4 a clouser tho. Like I said - different strokes…
Spring will come sometime - maybe - if it has to.
Donald
There is an old LL 8’9" 3wt around here. We used to toss a WF4F/S, 10’ type IV tip on it. We used to target cutthroat at about 12’ with that line. That line also helped us pester a 12# steelhead from above tide-water on a local stream…depth approx 6’-8’ moving water…slow.
We used to target halibut at about 8’-12’ useing a 24’ type IV shooting head (8wt before chopping). This rod brought to hand, for fly retrieval, a 35# stingray as an incidental catch doing this.
This blank we “double” wrapped because we tend to abuse our stuff badly. It still performs splendidly…much better than I. 
Not a 2wt, but often lack of ingenuity is the most limiting factor. AND there are better ways and gear for depth, other than light rods…but possible.
…lee s.
I’m not at all proud of this, But I did once use a long leader 12 maybe more feet in lenth (2wt. 8’ rod)and with a floating line to get deep in a favorite lake.I placed shot of differing wts (as necessary)along the entire leader had to fish slow and the casting was’nt all that bad with the weight dispersed in this manner, it also pulled a good deal of the floating line down with it.
And I was able to catch a good many fish during pre-iceover pieriods, What can I say I just did’nt have the lines for such a job…in a pinch one must be willing to adjust with the conditions if ya wanna catch fish!
I’ve since rigged a 5wt. with an inexpensive reel and all the fix’ins to do these specialist type things…
My standard line on my 3 wt is a SA clear intermediate, and my second spool has a SA 8’ sinktip on it. The third spool is loaded with a Cortland 333 FWF, and it’s usually the last one used. The clear intermediate is dynamite for emergers, woolly buggers, etc.
Try the AirFlo sinking leaders for the 2wt rod. They are tungsten coated and 5ft long, easy to cast with the Belgin Cast style.
If you cast with your wrist and require 6-8 false casts to “get line out” do not use these leaders.
Regards,
FK