I'm a new fly fisher that fishes mostly in still water lakes. I just put on a WF5S6 full sink on my 8' 5/6 wt. rod (Cortland combo!). I'm trying to throw some sz. 4 conehead streamers on a 1X leader but they're casting kinda wonky. Instead of picking up a 0X leader I'm thinking it may be better (and easier) to just build my own leader. Anyone got any suggestions?
Thanks!
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by lloydapalooza
Go online and learn how to make a furled leader. It’s much heavier through the 2/3D of the base and the last third. It should help to turn over with a heavy fly. I tried to explain it and realized I couldn’t as well as it is done on line. You can build them out of mono or Fluoro, the Fluoro will sink. I’ve built a couple and they cast pretty well with my rig which is much the same as yours.
Another thought. Casting a fly or the ability to cast it depends much on the weight of the fly line. Part of your issue might be that you are trying to cast a fly that is too heavy for your line and rod. If you can get an extra spool for your reel, you might load it with a heavier line, way up to two weights above that 5 weight like 6 or 7. They will load the rod a bit more and along with a heavier leader like that furled leader might let you lay out those heavy streamers where you want. Then again, such streamers don’t need to land like a dry. You just pick up some slack and let it sink. I Have let my original rod, a Fenwick 8’ 8 weight handle sinking lines and heavy flies like I originally used it throwing wooly buggers. And if you make your own leaders go for the shorter versions for sinking flies.
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