Lead core sink tips, presentation techniques

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Date: December 27, 2002 at 00:56:01
From: ken, [pool-64-223-38-62.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Lead core sink tips, presentation techniques

Re.Lead Head Lines(fly tying board)

Summer 2001

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Re.Lead Head Lines(fly tying board)

From: Ken
Date: 28 Aug 2001
Time: 01:30:42
Remote Name: 207.180.57.122

Comments

I use lead core tips which are easier for me to control the depth that my fly is fishing then either full sinking lines or standard sink tips. I use them on the end of a short, braided butt leader, 35 pound test made out of strands of mono not poly because the poly lets go with no warning even the heaviest pound test is un-reliable. The mono type is very durable and trustworthy. The reason for this is two-fold. The braid absorbs the energy of the lead tip in casting and it lays out straight without hinge-ing. If I place it on the end of the line the energy of the cast flips it over and I don't like that. The braid solves this problem extraordinarily well. I use 23" in most situations and I loop the end of my fly line and whip it and I also loop both ends of the braided butt so I can change it when I want to. I make all my loops very large about two inches so that I can pass flies through them without cutting them off. I use floating lines because they act as floating markers in relation to the sink tips and tell me how deep the tip is fishing through my being able to see them and gauge the depth of my flies by watching the end of the line and seeing how far it has been pulled down by the lead core tip. The short braided section acts as a type of buffer zone and when I pull on the line it comes to the surface and as I let out line it slides back under and then the line begins to sink. It is through this see-saw balance that the depth you are fishing is controlled. The length of the lead core tips can be altered and added to at will if you have some made up ahead of time. I always have a few in my wallet for emergencies and they have come in handy on occasion. I also have some in my tackle bag. Lead core sinks at a foot a second and it sinks straight down when there is no 'drag' pressure on it. When there is 'drag' on it it rises. Mending allows it to sink quickly and to a determined depth chosen by you by watching the end of your floating line. If the tip is three feet long and the braid is two feet and you mend and keep drag off the tip, the end of the tip will be five feet down in five seconds and a little bit of the floating line will be under the water. It may take a little longer or a little less but it is controlable. Put a little back pressure on the line and the braid will come up and the flies will be fishing about three and one half to four and a half feet down and if you get a hit or a fish you can repeat the presentation again and again with much more certainty than you can with a standard sink tip or any sinking line. If you need to fish deeper you can add another section of lead core, loop to loop, and fish deeper with the same methodology. It is very simple to do and anyone can do it fairly easily. The most I use is twelve feet when I am fishing in heavy rips and want the fly to come to the lip of the rip at a depth of twelve feet or more under control. I mend and mend and watch the line being swept back and when I know that it is right there; I stop and raise the fly and then slip the line back and twitch and pulse the fly to make it dance in the current as it moves down over the structure. It is repeatable and extemely effective. Drag does not pull the line down before the fly because of the mends and it is very controlable even in the heaviest current. I much prefer this approach to the ones that use long sinking tips that are not mendable and distribute the weight of the line over a thirty foot length that is pushed around by drag and is subject to the lifting effect of the current on the downstream curve of the line. The current is faster on the surface than it is below the surface so the line has to pull the fly up. This can be eliminated by mending but these lines cannot be mended. Using lead core tips is more work than just casting and letting the line flow down below you but it is effective and repeatable. It works better than casting and "hoping," and you can catch fish in heavy rips that you cannot catch otherwise unless you use wire and troll at a controlled depth just above the structure that the big fish hold and stay close too with their eyes on what the current brings to them without their having to move to chase it and lose their place in the pecking order. Because lead core sinks so quickly it is not difficult to fish quite deep in slow moving water with very small tips. They do sink at a foot a second so count them down and start your retrieve. You will hit bottom in twevle to fifteen feet of water easily with a three to four foot tip on a moderate cast unless you retrieve quickly. This is a managable problem if you are fishing down from the surface to fish and are managing the depth you are fishing by letting the fly go down to them at a visible rate (you can see the end of the line) you can control and repeat the successful presentation and know how deep you are fishing. You can not know how deep you are fishing when the whole line sinks or there is no marker to notice on your sink tip. A foot a second is a real and understandable and effective sink rate you can work with it so is 11" a second. Three feet of lead core and a split shot is a little faster, two split shots - a little deeper and three -a little deeper. There are certain places that I can only catch fish when I use three split shots and not two and this is year after year. It is often important to control your fly depth to the degree of a single split shot and if you know how to do it you can always outfish those who do not want to because it is to much work and you will catch larger fish than they do with regularity for the simple reason that you can repeat the presentation and know how deep the fish are holding and what you did to get them to respond. Effective and controled presentation at any depth is what fly fishing is really all about. If you do not know how deep you are really fishing then you do not have control. Fly fishermen have to control drag to do this, trollers use marked wire and R.P.M's. to know how deep they are fishing. They can repeat the catching pattern over and over again and so can a fly fisherman if he realizes how important it is; wants to develop the skill, tries to develop it and learns how to do it by acting on the desire. The alternate is to depend on an unmarked line that is fishing at a depth you never really ever can be sure of and disregard the effects of current on that line.
The way to do it is from the surface. It is easier to measure down from the surface -that you can see - by adding lengths of lead core and split shots and mending, than to measure up from the bottom which you cannot see and cannot do.

To fish with a fly rod in water over fifteen feet deep with current on structure with repeatable control is a whole different game with many more complications and forces that have to be factored in. That is even hard to do with a heavy lead head jig. It takes a learning curve and a good experiential (real time) understanding of drag even with the jig and thin line.

Last changed: November 05, 2001

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