Sinking lines - More

Walter & Group...

From Paul Arden:

Excellent post there from Elie - where's Elie from? Belgium?

A couple of things I would add - and I'm sure he agree - is that the angle you present your flies to the drift is also critical to success - not just depth. 

To work out depth I think a stopwatch is essential. I have a watch that resets itself with a push of the bottom and starts counting from zero again.

If you catch a fish at a certain depth and a certain retrieve it's important to duplicate the method immediately because there's an opportunity to catch a lot of fish very quickly (if you just catch one you got lucky - right?)

I also use long/ish leaders on sinking lines (20-22ft) but on rivers I shorten up as you do.

Cheers, Gordy - nice to see some fishing posts!

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Paul...   I'll be interested in Elie's reply with respect to the kind of fishing he's doing.

I had a situation this morning where I was fishing a salty tide current seam.   On one side, very little current/on the other a rip tide.  The fish were deep and not showing as they usualy do on the surface.  The angle of presentation was critical and very different for fishing on one side of the skiff compared with the other when trying to have the fly at the needed depth. 

Presentation angle with repect to current can be very important even when not using sinking lines, too.

Gordy

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From Mack Martin:

Gordy:

 

Regarding sinking lines when fishing streams or larger rivers, my experience with fishing in deep seams, pools or swift moving water  in streams for trout often requires the use of split shot. Often the amount of split shot used makes the casting of nymphs and wet flies very difficult, results in tangles as well as snags on the bottom of the stream.

 

Many times this problem can be solved with the use of sinking leaders (various sinking speeds) when the desired depth is not too great and such that the sinking tip line would be too much. The leaders are about 6 ft. in length and allow for the addition of a tippet section as desired. This rig will cast much easier and greatly minimizes the problem of tangles and snags.

 

Mack Martin

Atlanta Fly Fishing School

 

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Mack...    Right you are !

 

Would you do a quick piece on the techniques of casting when using split shot and when casting sinking leaders ?  Some simply rely on the old "chuck & duck" method which I hesitate to glorify with the term, "technique".

 

Gordy

 

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Question from Nial Logan:

 

Gordy and Group,

 A question…….does the sink rate of a DC or any full sinking line for that matter vary at greater depths of say 50 – 60 feet as the water pressure increases?

 Regards

Nial

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Nial .....  

I don't know.

 I recall a study done by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on the sink rate of various objects as a function of depth in both fresh and salt water ...... but I can't seem to find it.  I do recall that this is a very complicated problem since it involves increase in pressure and decrease in temperature as a function of depths.  These things will affect the drag of the sinking object.  The geometry of the sinking object will make a difference, too.

Perhaps one of our physicists will remember or can find one of these studies.

Gordy

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