Basics of Spey Casting - Understanding Sinktips and Polyleaders

[@rowdymacd]

Best explanation I’ve seen yet. Thank you !

[@wyomingtrout5581]

Finally someone explained that poly leaders and Versi tips from Rio are part of your leader, easy to remember . Really suited for Scandinavia heads and regular Trout setups, thanks you, thank you

[@Dillon7777]

Thank you for the great tutorial

[@eighteenbull6177]

Superb explanations of whats what with these "modern" lines, I was a die hard double taper old school caster, relatively recently started to use them, however, not thrown away my DT's yet especially my masterline DT intermediate no 9 and no 4 which i both use on a 12 ft Dawia Whisker rod, the 4 is a brilliant stealth line for glassy smooth runs , ok , it demands a quality cast and a swiftish current.

[@hooked4lifeca]

Thanks, I've always been a fan of DT lines and still have a few. With the right rod and situation, they can be the ticket.

[@PerSaukko-xj3lh]

Thank you!!!

[@etienneverhasselt501]

Well done Peter!

[@TheMonstertone]

Very well done Peter. Now how about explaining to the people, carrying capacity of tips vs poly leaders. The ability to turn over flies of various size & weights.

[@hooked4lifeca]

James Jones Hey JD, that subject could end up as a PhD thesis. ;) Throw in hydrodynamic and aerodynamic drag, materials used in relationship to cross sectional area, weighted vs. unweighted, tube vs. hook, leader length and thickness, style of cast, dynamic vs. static anchors etc. etc. etc. ;) That would keep me busy for a little while and when I was done, no one would watch it! Extraction from the anchor is the biggest issue and if you've seen my video on heavy fly, light line vid kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5OomqeOort6odk, casting technique can overcome even worst case scenarios. I am planning a Skagit gear vid and that should cover the extraction/big fly issue fairly well.

[@TheMonstertone]

I had in mind it rather simplified exclamation Pete. Like don't expect a turnover a heavy weighted rubber legs wooly bugger on a lightweight poly leader. haha

[@hooked4lifeca]

James Jones Seriously though, it's interesting how much fly can be cast simply by managing the leader length and the anchor. Let me give it some thought as the keeping it simple, yet still have it meaningful, will be the biggest challenge.

[@fabios35076]

Great explanation A few questions if I may? You fished your local river with great success using poly leaders. What depth would you say is ideal for poly leaders?and what depth is ideal for sink tips? You can get Poly leaders that the sink rates are comparable rates as sink tips When do you know which Tip is suited for that situation?

[@hooked4lifeca]

You may be surprised by this answer, but it all really depends on the fly and the leader we use. I have quite literally fished significantly deeper with just a long fluorocarbon leader than a friend was while using 12' of T14 sinktip. The difference was in our flies and leaders. He was using a high drag, unweighted fly with a lot of rabbit on a very short leader, while I was using my downforce Dace pattern on about 18' of fluorocarbon.

[@fabios35076]

@@hooked4lifeca So if you were using his fly what,Leader would you have used?

[@hooked4lifeca]

@@fabios35076 The Dace pattern would usually be fished on a leader in the 15' to 18' range (about 5m) made up of four segments of fluorocarbon: 60% 20lb. test, followed by equal segments of 15, 12 and 10lb. test. When I use flies with lower sink rates, in normal flows I use a 10' Fast Sink Salmon/Steelhead PolyLeader with 7' to 8' or fluorocarbon 10lb. tippet.

[@fabios35076]

Thank You Lastly I'm from the St Catharines area In Niagara I Fly fished many yrs ago 20 to be exact with Niagara River being my main water I'm getting back into it now. If you had to choose 5 flies for salmon steelhead . What would be your favourites? Love the vids and thank you for sharing!!👍👍

[@hooked4lifeca]

@@fabios35076 Excluding my own designs: woolly buggers in black, olive or white; Mickey Finn for chinook; small black stoneflies for dead drifting in winter; even though I don't use them, yarn flies have caught many, many fish; any true Spey fly for swinging.

[@myronbuck2436]

If a polyleader cannot get as deep as a sink tip, how do you get lightweight gear (like, a 5-wt trout line) down deep? Split shot?

[@hooked4lifeca]

Myron Buck Hi Myron, Depends on current and depth as to whether or not a polyleader will get us deep enough. Splitshot helps, but the true depth line is a full sinker. I have a couple in a 5 wt. and they do get down.

[@chrisolsonphoto]

So when using a sink tip do you go straight to tipper or are you adding leader + Tippett generally?

[@hooked4lifeca]

+Chris Olson Some people just use a short tippet, but I tend to use longer, multi-part leaders, usually in the 7' to 10' range. The butts are 15 to 20 lb. stepping down to 10 lb.

[@motosharpe]

Using anything longer then 4 to 5' of straight mono material causes the fly to swing above your sink tip, which is counter intuitive to using the sink tip. Most, if not all who use a sink tip use no more then 3' of Maxima Chameleon in 10 to 15lb stength.

[@hooked4lifeca]

Not if your fly is designed to get down on its own. Many well designed flies will sink faster than sinktips and stay down when swung. If we use long, thin fluorocarbon leaders with these flies, then there is absolutely no worry about the fly riding high. I actually make fine adjustments in depth keeping by adjusting leader lengths. If I start with a 10' leader and I keep hitting bottom, then shortening it to 6' will keep the fly riding high enough to clear the bottom. I do this routinely and it is convincing proof that the long leader works to get the fly down deeper. It's all about thinking about the entire system, from fly to reel, as one comprehensive system, rather than a collection of bits that may or may not work well together. Another way to think about it. A couple of weeks ago I was fishing our local river that was running low and clear. I used a floating line, a 15' thin fluorocarbon leader and my Brown Trout Weamer, which is a very light fly. I was hanging up in 18" to 24" of slower flowing water. This tells us that this fly was running 18" to 24" lower than the tip of the floating line. It will do exactly the same thing if I connected this leader and fly to the end of a sinktip.