Line and leader for deep dry line swing

2022 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by peter-s-c, Nov 19, 2014

domantas

Discussion Starter · Nov 18, 2014

I am eager to try fishing floating line all year round. When temperatures drops one needs to get his flies down asap and keep it there and using a combination of floating line, long, thin, and stiff flourocarbon leader paired up with a sparse heavy fly sounds very appealing to me. Most dry line fans tie their winter flies on huge iron hooks because they dont favor dumbell eyes on classical patterns. Im with you on that. After giving some thought on it I found tungsten tying thread made by Spirit River. This thread means smaller gaps and small fast sinking flies. Cant wait to try it out.

Now to my question.

As all of you know, long thin leaders and heavy flies dont complement each other in terms of casting especialy with longer belly lines. From fishing point of view long, thin leader will let the fly sink and stay deep under tention. Its a trade of any way you look at it so I wonder what is your take when it comes to line and leader choice for deep swing of the floating line and its ability to cast a weighted fly? How about level flourocarbon leader? Furled?

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BADFISH RISING

· #2 · Nov 19, 2014

I have had success with clouser minnows & jigabuggers on 14' leaders dead drifted on floating line in the winter.
I keep my line short cast upstream 45* let it sink the follow it through the swing.
I do sometimes put a split shot on the leader at the 1st knot if the water is very cold

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peter-s-c

· #3 · Nov 19, 2014

domantas said:
Now to my question.

As all of you know, long thin leaders and heavy flies dont complement each other in terms of casting especialy with longer belly lines. From fishing point of view long, thin leader will let the fly sink and stay deep under tention. Its a trade of any way you look at it so I wonder what is your take when it comes to line and leader choice for deep swing of the floating line and its ability to cast a weighted fly? How about level flourocarbon leader? Furled?

There's a few things to consider here:

A slick fly tied on a heavy hook will actually travel some distance on its own momentum. Allowing the line to come up hard against the reel will ensure a straight turnover. I've had no problem turning over 2/0 heavy salmon irons on 18' FC leaders where the butt section started at 15 lbs. and went down to 8 for the tippet.

If the fly is well designed, we can exploit poor turnover. While it isn't precise and takes some getting used to it, partial turnover can be used to exploit the fast sinking properties of these flies. When they come under tension, they'll be well sunk and if they're designed well, they won't rise when swung!

After a straight turnover, upstream mends followed by light tension will let these flies sink quite deep.

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