FS Digest

When fishing for smallmouth in moving or still water down to a maximum of 10', which is easier to cast/control; sinking tip line or a floating line with a poly/versileader?

Thanks and God bless you.

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by muscatatuckwader

FS Digest

Standard WF floating line (I use bug tapers for long casts). Fluourocarbon leaders and tippet; if you want more sink extend tippet. Fluoro sinks. I use weighted flies to imitate crayfish both to get them deeper but mainly to give them realistic movement. Minnow flies are strictly mid-water column for me. For smallies I'm likely to go to poppers or hair bugs at any moment so I'd never mess with a sink tip. In fact in forty years of fishing and guiding for smallies in rivers I've never used anything other than a floating line. (and in lakes too come to think of it). I don't even change the fluoro out for topwater presentations because generally my bass are aggressive chasers so topwater or submerging flies move fast.

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by whipfinish

FS Digest

Thats some good info, does this all still stand for winter time bass? I've always thought you have to get down, so if not a weighted craw what else do you use to get down?

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by BaM_BooZeLLed

FS Digest

I guess I'd say less get down and more slow down, which if your fly is weighted is the same thing. This is less an equipment question and more a tactical question. Winter or prespawn largemouths I'm usually fishing points extended and crawling big crayfish patterns. If your fish are at 15 feet or more you might need that alternate line. I have the same question in saltwater for stripers on Cape Cod. Like LMB in cold water, they're generally in current structure and mid-water column or feeding upward. All of my friends use intermediates all the time even though heavy Teenies are recommended. That's because the IM sinks at a nice steady rate, and you are generally casting less and feeding line into the tide more. When I was guiding I'd have a lot of guys come on with sinking lines and generally they'd get into trouble because the rivers--Potomac, Shenandoah, James, Susky--are so variable that you'd be in a deep hole one minute and a rocky flat the next. That skill isn't sinking your line, it's reading the water. Put it this way--I'd start with the floating line (which won't float all that well with a heavy weighted leech or craw on the end of a long fluoro leader).

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by whipfinish

FS Digest

In forty years of chasing smallies, I to have only used floating line. However, I keep seeing and hearing guys in videos talking of using intermediate lines and sinking lines in an area of Ontario I will be fishing in 2020. I have heard none of them recommend staying with the floating line. Certainly I will use the floating when using poppers and shallow streamers. Will that be effective in 10 ft of water?

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by muscatatuckwader

FS Digest

I guess it depends on the circumstances, but I don't change lines and I generally do pretty well. I catch good numbers of lake fish in the BWCA-type lakes, mainly Rainy and Basswood, and those fish are generally in 5-12 feet when they're on midlake structure. They're eating minnows in the June shallows (very fun!) and crayfish the rest of the time. Big but thinly dressed crayfish flies with leather tails and a bunch of lead, or leeches same, are my go-to flies up there. True, in August when hump fishing for walleyes is good, smallies are harder to find for me, and a sink tip or intermediate line would probably get me deeper (for the warm-weather northerns as well). I just don't bother because I have confidence that I can pull fish up, or drop weighted flies down. Perhaps this is also because I'm a chuck-and-duck angler (also a big-fly guy in saltwater). I upline all my rods and cast from a basket and double-haul everything. My friends and I fish tandems and big-eye lead crayfish flies and big old slinky zonkers and--most of all if you want to catch big fish in rivers or lakes--Chuck Kraft's stuff (https://www.anglerslane.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=fishing&Category_Code=Kraft) . Basically I seldom fish anything smaller than three inches long. So perhaps I'm not the guy to say. If you are carrying two rods or don't mind changing over, sure. But 10 feet is not a problem for bottom scraping with a floating line.

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by whipfinish

FS Digest

Sink tip line will cast better and sink deeper, but for me I have a couple versileaders in different sink rates that I just swap out on my floating line. I want to travel as light as possible so for me carrying more leaders vs more reels is worth the benefits of a sinking line/sink tip. I usually fish stillwater shores and small creeks/streams.

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by BaM_BooZeLLed

FS Digest

How do you tie them to your line? Can I use a no knot eyelet?

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by muscatatuckwader