Six Tips on Sinking Line – Tom’s Advanced Podcast

In my most recent Podcast, I go into detail on sinking lines, giving you six useful tips. I boiled the tips down here, but to get the most of the Podcast, give my latest episode a listen!

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1. When to use a sinking line? In still water when the water is deep and using floating line is not working. Use sinking line to get deeper. In moving water/current, if you’re swinging flies and a floating line is causing the fly to rise and skim along the surface or just under it in water that’s more than a few feet deep, switch to sinking line.
2. Don’t worry about what system you’re using. Whatever system you use, practice with it. Get used to how it works. All systems are meant to get fly down deeper than you can with floating line in still water, and keep it there as you strip. In water with current, sinking line is used to get the fly down below the surface and keep it swinging at the same depth.
3. In still water, cast as far as you can since you don’t know exactly where the fish are (except that they are down deep) and you want the fly down deep for the entire retrieve. Count down as you would with spin gear, to whatever number you think gets the fly down to where you want it. If you’re getting hung up often, count down a little less. In current, angle cast and use mends to get fly deeper or more shallow. The shallower the water, the more downstream the cast. The deeper the water, the more you cast upstream and mend to get the fly down. Let the fly swing as it passes by you and goes downriver, mend as you go to get it deeper.
4. An integrated sink line is often easier to use than a loop-to-loop system and best used when you know you’re going to fish sinking line all day and not change up spools. There are several types to choose from, each detailed in the Podcast.
5.  Loop-to-loop systems have a place in your arsenal too. Check out the details on the Podcast at 37:45.
6. What size and length leader do you use with sinking lines? Often a shorter and heavier leader is in order. The Podcast gives you the specifics.