Sink-Tipping Taneycomo Question

[Brian K. Shaffer]

For the first time in a long time I tried a sinking tip on Taney.

Water running 2 units or thereabouts, but more water seemed to come on after about 5pm.

I was using a Orvis Streamer Stripper 4ft mini type VI - or 6.. the heaviest available.

It's a floating line streamlined with no loops into a type six mini 4ft tip. (5-6 inches sink rate per second)

I fished it from below the boat ramp first, moved into the big hole next and then last up at number 1 outlet.

Gave it about 4 hours. I saw many fish in the process of trying this technique that I could have caught

with floating line and an indicator rig or just a beefy wooly by itself. (or even dries)

I did manage a total of 6 fish.. tried a gazillion flies. Tried many different leader and tippet configurations.

The only consistent for me was having difficulty finding room to cast this rig with the water up at 2 units.

If it were 0 units.. I would have tried the clear tip intermediate type I. (10 ft tip)

Long story short.. 7,200 cubic feet per second worth of water is pretty hard to cut through.

What could I have done differently to increase my hook up ratio ?

What situations have you used a sink tip or sinking line on Taney and been rather productive ?

I am all ears.

Brian <*))))><

by the way - my rig was a 9 1/2ft 5wt soft graphite rod.. mostly using 4X and 5X Rio FluoroFlex

[Lancer09]

Try a longer sink tip than four feet. More of the line getting down might pull it down better than the four feet you were throwing.

[Gavin]

Sinking lines are a pain because the application for each is pretty limited...tip to short, sink rate low and your fly wont get near the bottom. If it sinks too fast you will be hung on the bottom all the time. You will have to have several setups to match different water conditions. I have several of those sinking leaders in the 5-10' range..Airflo makes em I think...plus a 15' sink tip, 24' sink tip, Fast Full Sinker, and a 30' super fast sink head & running line setup....I dont use them much, but they come in handy at times.

.

[johndarin]

I use Rio 24 foot sink tip line. 150 grain and I use it where the generators are running and I love it. u must fish from a boat though to get the right presentation. I also have 300 grain on an 8wt.