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3. Sinking line

Elementary question but...new to fly fishing so............I have some Scientific Anglers ST-6-S sinking line (30') that attaches to floating fly line via a braided connector.
1. The "this end to line" tag has fallen off but one end is visibly larger that the other---does the fat end or the thin end attach to the fly line?
2. Anyone have any comments on this line?
3.Is it common for sinking line to be attached to floating line? Or are there sinking lines that fill the reel and are used on their own..? It seems that this is a type of very long sinking tip....anyway thank you in advance for your help and advice....pminyard

Hi Pd,

Welcome to the forum. The answer is the fat end and yes, it is common to attach a sink tip to floating line for fishing running water. It makes mending the line easier to control the drift. Also easier to pick up and cast again.

Yes and yes. Your 30' sinking line is known as a "sinking head." It is usually attached to a level floating "running" or "shooting" line. (There are also mono and braided mono shooting lines.) A "full-sinking" line is a full-length double taper or weight forward line that sinks throughout its length.

I'm going to add my $.02 to this post - everyone prior to my comment is correct - my comment though is a 30' long sinking (head) line is quite long and will be next to impossible to "pick up" and perform a "roll" cast in preparation to conduct an overhead cast. Our newbie might be far happier with a shorter sink tip in the 7' to 15' length. Then he will still be able to get good depth (of course depending on what sink rate he selects) but it will be relatively easy to strip in some line until he sees the sinking tip section exiting the water and be able to pick it up, roll it out in front of him, pick up again, execute a back cast and shoot a forward cast. It's easier to do than put into words!!

Here is my two bits again. I was an avid steelheader. Steelheaders, dedicated steelheaders would take your 30' shooting head, and cut it up making different lengths of sinking tips with them. I declined to do that favoring a better casting line, a one piece flyline with the sinking portion attached, and found no better than Jim Teeny's designed, 24' sinktip that comes in different grains of sink. The 24' was chosen because with say 3ft. of the level 3 floater handing off the rod tip it offered a decent backcast, and now the same density of flyline would "track better" follow the path of the rod tip better rather than "hinge" because the sinking portion was hanging out too far in the air off the tip, and became more dangerous to cast. I did not like the rattling of the loops going through the guides when you connected the tips with the running line. I vary my depth by the angle that I cast, and how much, and what kind of mends I make. This has been an exceptional line for me using it as my streamer line as well as steelhead line. What grain wts. I use is another big story to be told some other time if you would like the information. Being able to strip in, roll out the fly, pick up and cast is easy with this line.

I'm with you Sayfu. When forced to carry a single outfit because of hike/wading as opposed to fishing out of drift boat portages, I will usually carry a 9 ft 5 wt with a dry line, intermediate clear, and a T-130. In addition to streamers, sometimes the fish want the nymphs presented in a horizontal posture which is hard to pull of with a floating line and indicator where the nymphs are almost always hanging vertically. In theory, un-weighted nymphs well below split-shot rolling along the bottom deals with this, but not as effectively as hoped under actual practice.


Was? Ha! No such thing... Your just taking an extended timeout!