Presentations, (Deep dead drifts)

Walter & Group...

This morning, Rick Whorwood and I had a long conversation about methods of achieving good presentations with deep running dead drifts in a river (or salty channel) with multiple current tongues.

Rick and Marty Tannahil had had dialogue and messages between them on this subject.

Hopefully some of you Spey folks can come up with some good suggestions.

Let's start with Rick's questions, then go to Marty's.  I've outlined their specific questions in bold red italics. :-

Gordy

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Hi Gordy

Great having a chat with you this morning, all the best in the new year !!

 

I guess my point in our conversation this morning was what methods do other anglers use to present a fly in a swing situation when wanting get deep. Getting to the bottom is simple enough it's doing it with a clean scope, letting the fly to swim thru the water in a perfect presentation.

 

The line that I mentioned (and also Marty mentioned) was a compact head, made by Airflo. By shorting the standard Airflo Skagit line from 40 to 30+ and being a floating section, would this not cause more drag on the surface tension, in essence causing it to change the swing of the fly ?

 

 The extra compressed grain wt. in the compact line would certainly help turn over the longer tip, but would it hamper the swing ?

 

Rick

 

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Rick...

 

Theoretically, the greater diameter of that line tip would offer greater resistance to the current.  Whether this would be offset by the increased density sufficiently, I don't know.

 

All other things being equal, the design and length of your leader will have a strong effect.  Also, the size, tie (bulky or sparse) and weight of your fly as well as its design (tube fly, standard tie, etc.)

 

Lots to consider, here.

 

Gordy

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This from Marty Tannahil :-

 

Hi Gordy:
I hope you’ve had an enjoyable Christmas and best wishes for a healthy 
new year.
I know Rick has introduced the subject with you in a recent email and 
in my discussions with him he thought it might be informative to 
consult you and the group on the matter.

So here is the scenario: Lets call the problem getting down and 
presenting the fly.

This past fall, I fished with a 2-hander (Skagit style) using custom 
tips measuring 12’. The tips are constructed of various lengths of 
floating line and T-10 totaling 12’. I was initially using an Airflo 
NW 8/9 Skagit line, which has a length of 32’. Using this line, 
casting becomes work when you get beyond 15’ of T-10. It really 
becomes a chore when I moved up to T-14. Recently, I switched to the 
Airflo Compact Skagit lines (540-570 grains).

 

This line can easily  cast 20’of T-14 which is usually enough to get down in most situations 
but will the fly be presented appropriately?

 

The interaction between 
the river currents, flow rate and depth are some of the variables that 
I struggled with in my attempt to work on the problem. I wanted an 
outfit that was manageable from a casting perspective and would get 
down to the fish with a presentation that was predictable. I am now 
looking at using sinking heads or a combination of intermediate line 
with sink tips.

I’m wondering what others would have to say on the matter.

Marty