Viking Lars | Saturday, 16 March 2024
Sink tip lines are hardly new on the market. I think I first became aware of them 25 years ago - or something. I used my first ones for winter grayling fishing. Today they are obviously hugely popular in many different forms. Mainly as Skagit systems or shooting heads. Skagit systems always with interchangeable tips, sometimes on shooting heads too.
One of my first sink tip lines was a Jim Teeny Mini Tip. For me, it was a bit of a revelation that allowed me to fish sinking lines in new ways and in places where it had been difficult, it not nearly impossible before. There were a few things to learn about sink tip lines. First and foremost that when the floating part is near your own bank on a swing, the sinking part and the fly is trailing behind quite a bit.
The huge advantage is of course the fact that the line can be mended because of the floating part. That offers significant new possibilities. Sinking lines aren’t good for that. You have a few seconds after it lands (and before), but after that possibilities are very limited.
Sink tip lines with longer sinking parts really made no difference in my fishing. The sinking part was so long that on small streams, it was in effect still “just” a sinking line.
Once Skagit lines became available in single hand weights, I used them quite a lot. Mending was fairly good, but the thin shooting line to a short, much thicker Skagit head also had limitations as far as mending goes. Since I often retrieve the fly to within 4-5 feet of the rod tip that also meant I had to deal with the connection between shooting line and Skagit head and sometimes Skagit head to sinking tip. But on the single hand versions of the Skagit systems the sinking tip was short. And they offer the great advantage of interchangeable tips with different sink rates, opposite to the Teeny Mini Tips that were WF lines with only one sinking density offered.
The season is closing in and I’ve ordered lines to try and combine the best of the Skagit systems and the Teeny Mini Tip WF lines. They are for small streams where we never cast far - very rarely over 10 meters from reel to fly. So the base is a DT line, floating, obviously. I’ll be making one for myself and one for a friend and since the casting distances are so short, I’ll simply cut the line in half. That also takes up less space on the reel.
I ordered a DT 6, which will help turn over the heavy tips. We most often fish 5-wt rods, sometimes 6-wts and with short casts, a DT 6 will be a good match. DT lines mend very well, so that’s a benefit as well. Shooting line is not a priority and where it’s needed, only a few meters anyway and a DT will handle that fine.
For the sinking tips I ordered T-lines from RIO. They offer them in 30ft lengths, so there’s plenty to experiment with. The sinking part on the Teeny Mini Tip lines is 5ft, so I’ll cut the T-tips to that length as well. I have T-8, T-11 and T-14. There will obviously be a loop-to-loop connection, but the tips being only 5ft, it’ll never touch the tip ring on the rod.
I might be necessary to cut back the tip of the DT line a bit to aid with turn over, but I’ll leave it as is to begin with, thought I will check for any level part and make sure to remove that.
I love experimenting with lines and it’s been a while, so I’m quite excited to make these and try them out. Experiences to follow.
Have a great weekend!
Lars