Getting The Lead Out
As much as I enjoy fishing for Steelhead, by the time spring finally rolls around there are two things that I am good and tired of. The fist is fishing egg flies. I have been fishing these egg flies since late fall. I am ready to break out the boxes of classic wet flies. The other is the weight, be it split shot or pencil lead. During the winter and early spring this weight is a necessary evil to get the fly down to the steelhead. The problem with all this weight is how well it can destroy your casting. Your timing can be off a little and then add a little crust when and that load of lead can catch you right between the ears, a wonderful experience.
By mid to late spring the water temperatures are warming up and the steelhead are becoming more active. Steelhead will go considerable distance to take a fly so we no longer need to put that fly on the nose of the fish, even when steelhead are still busy with spawning. All of this means is that we can now start swinging flies affectively once again. In fact, this may well be the best way to present a fly. When swinging a fly, it is easy to get that lead out. There are other ways to get a fly down into the steelhead's strike zone.
There are several good quality interchangeable sink tip fly lines available, plus sinking leaders of various length and sinking rates available. Including a few sinking leaders and lines that can easily be made. All of these systems have their advantages and disadvantages. The first thing is to realize when fishing sinking lines and leaders is that you will need to carry several different lines. These lines and leaders will need to be in different sink rates and length. Often a combination of lines and leaders may be needed to be effective in a given pool or run that is intended to be fished. It is not unusual to have to play with a few of lines and or leaders to get the right drift. Once you get the right sinking combination, fishing this line system is a joy to cast and mend. Especially after a winter of chuck and duck. Since we are fishing a swinging fly, a lot of water or river can be covered quickly. This can be a big advantage when fishing for drop back steelhead. At times a lot of river needs to be fished to find a steelhead. There are two other things to keep in mind when fishing sinking lines. The first is you have to be a little selective of the types of water that will be fished with these types of lines. Sink tip lines do not work well when fishing pocket water. The lines have a tendency to get wrapped around the structure that makes up the pocket water. The next is when fishing sinking lines and leaders, is that it will put a premium on your line handling skills. These lines require more attention to mending the line so they can get down and maintain a proper drift. It is not as hard as it may sound, but it will take a little practice to get accustomed to.
When you start to fish for steelhead with sinking lines, you will quickly find out that no one line will work all the time. You will need to carry a few different lines and leaders with different sink rates and lengths. One pestle set back to this type of line system is that leader wallets has a tendency to grow out of hand, and in some cases right out of the backpack. I tried to keep my lines somewhat under control by streamlining the system. There is an overview of what I carry, hopefully this will help you to build a system that will work for you. I start with fly lines that have three interchangeable sink tips, and a floating tip. The three sinking tips range from extra fast to slow sinking. These tips are 15 feet long and have loop on both ends so I can change the tips quickly when I am fishing. As for the leaders keep it simple a short leader about four to six feet long. A short leader will help to keep the fly down and under control. I like to use these sinking tips in the larger pools, where the whole pool is to be covered. The 15foot tips are long enough to help keep the fly down during the swing, but short enough to be cleared from the water without too much effort.
The second part of the whole system is the specialty sinking leaders. These leaders are loop to the end of both the floating and sinking tips of the fly line. When used with sink tips the extra length can help with the biggest in deepest pools. When fished with a floating line they are ideal in fairly shallow water of about three to four feet deep. Plus the lines are about a third the cost of a sinking tip. This makes these more practical, when fishing over tractors river bottoms. These leaders come in sink rates ranging, from extra super fast sinking with a sink rate of about 7 inches per second to a slow sinking of 2.5 inches per second. The leaders come in lengths from 12foot to four foot in length, the most useful length are 7 to 5 feet long. I like to run about three to four foot of tippet off the leaders.
The third part of this system is a hand full of lead core lines. I make these lines myself, lead core has a sink rate of about eight inches per second this is extremely fast. They are made from coated lead trolling line, the cost of making these lines are low. So it does not hurt, as much if one gets lost to the river bottom. I make these lines from 10 to four foot in length and loop both ends, and then just use these like the other sinking leaders.
There is no one line or leader that will work all the time. You will need to carry a selection of lines and leaders, an experiment a little to get the right, conbbon. Fishing this way is productive, just have a little confidence it does beet bouncing split shot off the back of your head. Have a good spring steelhead.
