Hope you're having a good "thanks giving". Split shot can also damage/weaken your leader. Have you tried "drop shot" style for adding weight? Easy to cast (unless over weighting) and you get good turnover as weight is on the point, flies on droppers. No worries over bowling of leader. You can use split shot for the weight or a tungsten barrel tied into a loop. You can then add weight using putty if needed.
Yes I have. My local rivers have a single hook regulation, so if I want to fish a small, light nymph, Euro style, I have to resort to a drop shot setup. Works fine.
Thanks for an interesting and informative video. However, I fish solely on still waters in Scotland and find that, on most occasions, a floating line with a sinking fly (often a buzzer fished almost static) fits the bill. My biggest frustration, and perhaps you might like to do a short video on this (apologies if you already have and I've missed it) is that my ultimate form of fishing is with dry or emerger flies where I can watch all the action. The frustration comes in getting the tippet to sink, especially in calm conditions. I fish a floating line with, maybe, a 10 foot floating polyleader, finishing with about 6 ft of 6 or 8 lb fluorocarbon tippet. I have no doubts that floating tippet turns fish away but I always struggle to get it to sink, especially if I'm fishing a barely buoyant emerger pattern which will sink if I give the line a tug to encourage it beneath the surface film. I've tried all the proprietary degreasants with little success (bank-side mud works just as well), I use fluorocarbon, I use tippet rings in the hope that the extra weigh will break through the surface tension and I've even tried a very small swivel for the same reason. The swivel worked to some extent but tended to drag flies down after they've been on the surface for a while. The most success I've had, is degreasing the tippet before each cast which gets very tedious. Have you any advice?
@@tommurray3974 I've used the same tippet and in moving water, it sinks. The problem for using light tippet in still water situations, is always going to be getting it to penetrate the surface tension. Have you thought about using a dropper wet fly? Another choice might be to use a high breaking strain fluorocarbon for most of the leader, with just a light tippet off of a tippet ring. Higher breaking strains offer less area to the surface tension, so they will penetrate more easily. It might be enough to drag down the light tippet.
@@hooked4lifeca Thanks Peter, I went fishing today and tried a short dropper about a foot back from the point fly with an epoxy buzzer on it. It worked pretty well once I'd managed to match the buzzer to the dry fly on the point so that it sank the tippet but not the fly. It also did quite well in picking up these fish that are feeding just below the surface, a sort of mini washing line. I also tried degreasing the tippet with isopropyl alcohol (left over from making Covid-19 hand sanitiser). It seemed to work quite well but I'm not sure if it will react with the fluorocarbon, time will tell!
Thanks for the info. I have just picked up a SA Sonar sinking leader. It is a 7 ft sink 3 and you fish it with about 2 feet of leader. What I gleaned from your video is that you should use unweighted flies with this type of leader. Is this correct?
Hi , Can I use a 10' fast sink poly leader ( Versileader) with a 7Wt bass bug taper floating on 9ft rod for smallmouth bucktails. And also how long of a 12 lb tippet should I connect to the end of the ploy leader ......Thank You
Can I ask you ser something unusual. This can be sam new topic for you. I'm interested about how to fly cast out from kayak ( sitting in kayak) with no solution of standing and casting.
I've not fished out of a kayak, but I have fly fished out of drift boats, canoes, float tubes, and pontoon boats, where at times I was casting while sitting down, so it definitely can be done. I have a buddy who frequently fishes from a kayak and I'll ask him about his experiences. Are you fishing rivers or lakes?
I fish out of a canoe in both rivers and lakes quite often. You really do need to practice, it's different but not impossible. Sitting flat on the ground will closely mimic being so close to the surface of the water. Also, this is where the really aggressive weight forward shooting head style lines really shine. 1-2 false casts and shoot it. Excessive false casting where you carry an ever increasing amount of line in the air is not a good idea when you're essentially sitting on the surface of the water, in my experience.
I’ve been using an OPST commando 200 gr with a fast sink polyleader for streamers or wet flies during high water on a 10’ 4 weight rod. Do you think there would be any advantage using a streamer line? I change to the OPST floating head with a 10 foot leader for wet flies in moderate water but need a standard line when dry flies are about or a delicate presentation and/or precise placement is needed.
Apart from using a sinking line, I think that the only advantage of a full line comes when we strip the back close to us and then cast it out again. I've always full lines work better in that regard vs. head systems. If we normally don't bring the fly back close to us, then the full advantage of a head system comes into play.
@@hooked4lifeca It's worth a look at Brian Flechsig's trip to fish in Montana State series. From 2021. The last episode of that series I thought. Was one of the best things I've looked at. In a while. Brian Flechsig was hoping to come to Montana State and fish his favorite streamer fly. On one of the rivers there. Called the Swimmy Jimmy. And his boat guide on that float trip (drift boat operated using oars by the guide, while the streamer angler casted and fished). Told him that it was hard to find. Water that was deep enough. And slow enough too. To really get the most. Out of the Swimmy Jimmy fishing fly.
In the episode. It was one of the first times. That Brian was able to interview someone. Who looked at the 'universe' of available line options, streamer fishing fly choices. And all of it. And then related that. To the upper and lower stretches. Of the Madison river in that part of the State. At a time in August. In fairness. When the weather was warm. And the water was low. And they had ended up. Changing between two line weights. Both of them were full sinking streamer lines. A two hundred grain weight full sinking line (which I presume distributes the weight across a longer length of the fly line). Than with the OPST system. A two hundred and fifty grain weight type. For the lower river. Again, that is two hundred and fifty grains. Spread out over thirty feet. Their casts though. Were less than the total distance of the fly line. A lot less shorter than that. Their casts were twenty foot and lower.
The flies they had worked with. Were what they called slim profile flies. In other words. They were casting to such shallow depths. That those flies worked best. In terms of getting bites. On the day. And mainly the piece. Was about the difficulty of getting any streamer fly. To swim underneath the water surface. Without a leader. That was actually short enough. They talked a little bit. About manipulation of the leader and fly. On the full sinking streamer line systems. Of the weights mentioned. In order to cope with areas. That were even more technical in nature. Such as where. The trick was to make the fly. Float a little bit higher. Above the sinking fly line than normal. So as to be able to avoid the fly itself. Getting caught too much. On weed growth. At the bottom. Of the river.
Meaning that, these guys. Are actually talking about fishing streamers. In some extremely shallow water. It is basically the same water. That any other trout angler might look at. And think of it. As fishing nymphs and dries. In low water conditions. The point was. It did not preclude the use. Of those larger flies. That imitate various kinds of bait fish profiles. In those water conditions. In the middle of day time. What it also demonstrated. Was the amount of stealth that someone can achieve. In fishing with. Some of their full sinking line systems too.
