fly line question

[Norm M]

out fishing the other day, catching fish on a jig/pig. chatting with another fisherman who was using a fly rod, a 6 weight. he said he would like to get in on the action but if he was going to switch to a sinking line to get down , he would have to go get his 7 weight. I asked why as I thought that you used fly line that matched your rod no matter if the line sinks or floats. he said no. that he went up to the next size rod if he used a sinking line.

 

just curious, was that just personal preference on his part or is it really necessary ? I tend to think that you would not have to as that would be damnably inconvenient .

 

after thinking about it for a bit, he ended up tying on a clouser, wrapped some lead tape on the leader and caught a couple, so all ended well.

[jhoekstra]

Okay, I'll be the first to bite on this. "Damnably inconvenient" pretty much sums up fly fishing! Except I have found no easier way to catch spawning bluegills.

 

As for fishing deeper water, I think most might change up the leader a bit (shorter and heavier) but would not insist on switching to a 7 wt before throwing streamers or other weighted flies. And wouldn't use a sinking line unless it was really deep water they were targeting. I'm no good at it, judging by the fish I've caught, but I use a 5 wt with floating line to hurl weighted streamers around. In most places they will get to the bottom if you cast and mend effectively. But really, Tom L is the one the explain all that!

[Guest rich mc]

sinking line will get to the bottom much quicker he probably wanted a heavier rod to help with casting. pulling up the fly line from the bottom especially in current is harder than picking up a floating line off the surface . rich mc

[Norm M]

Makes sense now , Rich

 

water was maybe 3.5 ft deep but the current was still on the strong side.

[ronk]

Norm

Going to a heavier weight rod will allow for better casting. a heavier weighted sinking line(actuallysinktip rather full sinking for stream fishing) to get down faster & stay down. But in virtually all stream fishing situations a floating line is preferable with the desired sink rates achieved by varying leader length and/or fly weight along with mending if needed.A floater allows for much more flexibility when fishing various depths & current speeds and also allows for a quick change to topwater fishung.

[Tom L]

I normally carry multiple rods with me, when I'm out fishing. I also have a 7wt rod rigged with a type 3 sink tip line and carry it along too. This way, if I have to fish a deep and fast current section that my floating line can't reach, I won't have to rerig the rod and save time.

 

I carry multiple rods down to the river where I know that I won't have to wade too far and I hide the extra rods on the stream side where I can keep an eye on them. Sometimes as many as 3 rods.

 

Depending on what type of rod, a 5wt rod with a good backbone would cast a full sinking line or sink tip line with no issues. Also, the skills of the caster come into play.

[mikea]

A minimum of three are in my boat, popper rod, streamer rod , maybe a full sinker if on a lake or a crawdad bottom bouncer with an indicator on the river.

[asherman]

It could be that the fly fisherman that you ran into had a sinking/sink tip line for his seven weight rod and not for his six weight rod.

 

I have a 5 foot sink tip line for my six weight rod and a 10 foot sink tip line for my seven weight rod along with an intermediate line for my seven weight. I also carry sinking leaders to use when I am on the water with a floating line and I want to get flies down in the water column quickly.

 

Fly fishing can get complicated if you let it.