im pretty new to fly fishing and need some help with line selection. ill be fishing for steelhead in upstate ny on some great lake tributaries. the rod i have is a 9’ #8/9. am i better off with a sink tip or floating? any one brand better than the other?
All I can offer is, I simply use Rio weight forward floating. I just use a gnarly leader and tippet. The tribs that I fish are shallow enough that it doesn’t really matter. I do feel, however, that a sinking line may produce more true hookups. I think the floating line suspends the setup so it’s more prone to snagging fish. I’m no pro about this by any means, it’s just how I feel about it.
This year, I’m trying a sinking tip and seeing how that works.
If you’re only buying one, get the floater. You can buy sinking leaders (I like the ones from AirFlo) that approximate a sink-tip line pretty well.
I used a DT for years (casts are rarely long) and switched to a WF long-belly a few seasons ago. Mends as well as a DT, and it shoots the occasional long cast better. I probably use a floating line with an appropriately weighted wet fly 80% of the time (I don’t use egg “flies” or indicators and HATE casting w/split shot, and almost never foul-hook a fish) There are not a lot of pools on the streams I frequent that fish well with a sink-tip and unweighted fly. Enough that I usually carry a spare spool with a WF F/S though.
buggy, i’m really new to fly fishing myself but if you’re talking about the streams up around Sodus Point or Polaski or even the Finger Lakes, I don’t think you’ll need a sinking line. I’d get a WF8F and maybe a couple of airflo sinking leaders. But this year especially, those streams aren’t that deep and your casts, btw, won’t need to be very long. What you’ll want is warm layers under your waders. Cold toes are no fun.
Hope this helps.
Diane
Many like the Wolff triangular taper for steelhead …for the mending characteristics.