# Sink tips



## Lefty4 (Sep 1, 2015)

I recently fish the rocky for steelhead and typically nymph but I hope to learn a better setup to swing. I had a friend recommend picking up a sink tip line to help get the fly down. My question is how long of a sink tip do people usually fish for a river that size? The line I picked up has a 30 foot tip which seems a bit much.


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## jmotyka50 (May 25, 2014)

I belive that this was discussed last year and they said to weight the fly or use a sinking leader. I myself use weighed Flys but have not had much luck catching fish on the swing


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

I never found Rocky deep enough to need a sink tip. Weighted nymphs and streamers or a small shot on the leader was all that was needed. The further you cast upstream will allow the fly to sink more.


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## fly_ohio (Oct 31, 2014)

The line you bought is geared towards stripping streamers. Your best bet is to get a couple rio versileaders in different sink rates and loop that to your floating line. Generally fish will move to your fly when water temps are warm but when it gets colder it's important to get that fly in front of their face. I'd say pick up the 7ips and the 4ips to start. Once you get addicted to swinging, buy a switch rod and a skagit line. 

https://www.deneki.com/2014/04/polyleaders-for-single-handed-rods/


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## Lefty4 (Sep 1, 2015)

Thanks for your help. Would it be worth it to cut the 30ft tip down to about 10-15 feet so it's similar to the polyleader but without the hinge between the floating line and sinking leader?


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## fly_ohio (Oct 31, 2014)

Lefty4 said:


> Thanks for your help. Would it be worth it to cut the 30ft tip down to about 10-15 feet so it's similar to the polyleader but without the hinge between the floating line and sinking leader?


I wouldn't, you would be cutting off a significant part of the head's grain weight. The shorter/ lighter line will probably not load the rod properly. Also, having the ability to change your sink rate is a huge advantage. The different sinking densities allow you to change your depth for a given run, time of year, or flow.

The tip that i use on a run in oct is usually not the same tip I'll use in the winter. All of our rivers have a wide variety of swinging water ranging from deep slow buckets to faster waist deep runs . You cant really effectively fish them all with one tip throughout the year, yes adding shot or using a fly with or without dumbells helps fine tune your depth but the tips do the majority of the work.


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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

you need only 9 feet or so for a sinktip on the rocky. Maybe up to 15' for Grand, but probably not.
I don't usually use the sinktip when water temps are below 40 deg. F though.


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## fly_ohio (Oct 31, 2014)

Rickerd, you may want to specify which sinktip (more so sink rate) you are using. The length doesn't matter as much as the sink rate. Don't want to confuse the OP any more than he may already be and to clarify I am only talking about swinging streamers. At most I use 10ft of T-11 (7-8ips) on the rock but have found the 7.5ft of T-8 (6-7ips)/ 2.5ft floating MOW tip to cover a majority of the runs I fish. From there I can make small adjustments in depth by using a dumbell fly vs unweighted or by stacking mends/ stepping into it after I cast. From there if I feel like I'm not in the zone or hitting bottom I will change out to a lighter or heavier tip.

Also I'm curious are you swinging when it gets cold or just dead drifting?


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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

When it gets cold I'm mostly "high stick" nymphing with a swing or Leisenring lift at the end. Sometimes I have an indicator on and a 90 degree drift if I have to cast it out a bit. But mostly during cold water, I strive to have my line entering water at 90 degrees to minimize drag and slooooow the drift.
My tip sinks about the same as yours at 5-6 ips.
Rickerd


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