Sink tips

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Date: December 21, 2002 at 22:44:04
From: ken, [pool-64-223-39-246.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Sink tips

People have different ways of fishing with sink tips. Personally I use them as weights within the leader so I can control and repeat the depth of my presentations.
I use a short 35 lb. braided leader with loops on both ends and to the end of this I add a section of either 18 lb. lead line, because of its thinness, or the grey plastic coated leadline by cortland. I use sections of various lengths which I whip loops in the end of and add them to each other if I need them. I then add my leader (tippet)to the end of that. What this does for me is allow me to cast a sink tip without hinge-ing when I cast and the floating line acts as a bobber or marker that I use to control how deep the tip fishes because I can see the end of the floating end. I use the lead core because it sinks at a foot a second which is real easy to figure out. I personally do not use the slower sinking longer lengths that are packaged because I do not have the skill to use them in a repeatable scenario when I am fishing in current. I am sure that there are ways to do it but I can't. Now, if the depth is very shallow then the line can rest on the bottom quite quickly and that is predictable and repeatable or a pond where you can count the line down at 6" a second then I could understand how the line will act. I do believe that using a sink tip without being able to determine how deep it is fishing will at times work very well and not at all at other times. There is a saying that you can fish the top and the bottom quite easily but it is the space in-between that gives you the most trouble.
Controlling the depth that you are fishing consistantly is the essence of good presentation. Short 12" a second sink tips in the leader do that quite well. I always feel as if I am guessing where the fly is when I use standard sink tips. Some people swear by them and they are satisfied by the results they get with them. There is a book called Steelhead Trout by Trey Coombs that describes formulas created through experimentation and experience by steelhead river fishermen years ago for splicing different sink rates in sink tips together to make hybrid longer sink tips to fish in current - with the heaviest tip sections fishing deepest and the rest of the line leading down to the fly. That principle of the line dropping down to the fly from the floating section is the idea that enabled the angler to feel a strike and because of the direct to the fly link caught the most fish. Sink tips can be quite complex to get the job done or quite simple. What does not work to well is a vague kinda-sorta sink tip that might or might not work right but it is easy to use if you don't think about it too much and you can catch fish sometimes on it and it's a sink tip! Form should follow function and I prefer the hand made ones as they are more precise.

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