Deep Thoughts, sink tips for steelhead fishing Vol. 1
First of all, what sink tips do I like; Well here is the deal, Unlike the Skagit, most of the Peninsula streams are small rocky fast and shallow. Big long tips with long compensators are difficult to control until they are well downstream of you in this type of water. You need something that will get the fly down fast and allow you to steer it with pin point accuracy, you may not however need to keep it down there very long.
At times the best bet is a dry line with a heavy fly, or heaven forbid a 3/0 Danielson mini-tip (split shot). More often however I run short tungsten tip off of a short home made compensator.
I build my compensators by adding a loop to either end of a piece of eight weight clear sinking, or “slime” line. Generally I fish about 6 feet of compensator attached to about 5 feet of t-14.
The down side is that this rig will want to make your loop close out when casting, the plus is that because of the slime line is much skinnier and limper than the standard compensator it tends to balloon out in the current much less. It also allows you to mend directly to your sink tip so you can steer the fly with far more accuracy.
The standard fat compensator anchors your mend, meaning that with 5 feet of compensator and 12 feet of sink tip you have 17 feet of line that will not be fully under your control until it is at least 45 degrees down stream from you.
Now, if you are for instance fishing some great big giant slow run where the current is fastest in the middle and gradually slows near the bank, is about 5 feet deep and moving at a fast walk, the standard Skagit set up suites the bill. The problem is that if your on the Sol Duc, the best biters will be in shallow fast riffles studded with big boulders and sticks that you have to high line over and remend the whole line 3 times in a cast to get a 25 foot swing.
Lastly, a lot of Skagit lines are hot yellow with white/grey compensators; these are very high Vis colors in clear water and close quarters fishing. A clear compensator allows you to keep that day glow stuff a little farther from the fish.
Jim Kerr
Categories: Fly Fishing Classes and Workshops
Tags: fly fishing for steelhead
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26 Jan 2009
FISHING-REPORT.RAINCOASTGUIDES.COM wrote:
Sink Tips cont. O.K. Read here: Sink Tips for Steelhead Fishing, Vol. One, if you missed the first article. So here is a quick and dirty way to make a line loop that will never break and is pretty smooth. It won’t loop the end of your Skagit line but its fine for your compensators and tips. Take the end of your line and double it over about ½ an inch. Now just take a fly tying bobbin loaded with Fine/clear Uni-mono fly tying thread, and make a wrap or three around both legs of the line and back over the thread to hold it securely, just like you would begin tying a fly. -
26 Jan 2009
FISHING-REPORT.RAINCOASTGUIDES.COM wrote:
Sink Tips cont. O.K. Read here: Sink Tips for Steelhead Fishing, Vol. One, if you missed the first article. So here is a quick and dirty way to make a line loop that will never break and is pretty smooth. It won’t loop the end of your Skagit line but its fine for your compensators and tips. Take the end of your line and double it over about ½ an inch. Now just take a fly tying bobbin loaded with Fine/clear Uni-mono fly tying thread, and make a wrap or three around both legs of the line and back over the thread to hold it securely, just like you would begin tying a fly.
Very Informative. Makes too much sense though...thanks
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That really confused me. You didnt mention one thing about bobbers.
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The bobber goes in your pocket. When you are ready to catch a steelhead you put it on your leader. That is the signal, when they see it they bite.
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Is that some sort of ploy to imply that I bobber fish alot?
I am still confused.
How do you know when to take the bobber out of your pocket?
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As I clearly stated you take out the bobber when you are ready to catch one, it works right away. When you are ready to be done casting and want to pull in a big fish, just put on the bobber, the steelhead will see the bobber and know exactly what to do.
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