Skagit lines and Rio's floating tips work very well.
Hey LCS,
Try the Rio Skagit Line ( 650 Grain ) with one of the of their 15 foot floating tips, I like using the heavier floating tips, say from a 10/11/12 or 11/12/13 windcutter. Lot's of folks think the Skagit Lines are only used for sink tips and by all rights that's what Skagit lines were designed for, however, they are awesome with floating tips. Good luck and tight lines.
All the best,
Chris Andersen
[email protected]
With the exception of not being able to spell his last name correctly :chuckle: , Chris is a truly valuable source of what Skagit lines and other combinations of Rio tips work or don't work with specific Sage rods.
Chris and I have discussed using the floating tips with the Skagit lines, and my bicep tears have prevented me from trying the floating tips with my Sage 6123 and Skagit 450. Last week, my Physical Therapist, gave me the okay after I convinced him the 6126, the Loop 3W and Skagit lines didn't weigh more than 2#'s.
Yesterday, a friend and I went to a fly club outing on a lake at a local winery. I took my 6126 and 5120 and my Skagit 450 and various Rio Spey lines for both rods.
Due to brush and trees there was zero room for any backcasts. There was minimal wading as the water became head deep in a couple of feet and there was a lot of moss with our usual swirling winds from 5 to 20 MPH. With the wind I decided to use the 6126. At first I used Rio Sinking tips and leaders. I was able to get out a couple rod lengths of running line past my rod tip and chuck some heavy flies out.
Later in the afternoon, I removed the sinking tips/leaders and added the floating tip from my WC 678, a 15' Rio Steelhead leader, a couple of feet of tippet and a medium size floating grasshopper fly. The wind was worse than when we had started which is why I opted for the WC floating tip versus my MS 7/8 floating tip.
In spite of the terrible casting conditions. The 6126 and Skagit 450 performed superbly for an old cripple. It was no problem to shoot 2-3 rod lengths of running line, the 15' WC floating tip, the 15' leader and tippet out on most casts. Also, the floating tip would fall on the water with perfect S's with the leader making good S's on the water.
A couple of times really strong gusts on casts directly into the wind would stop the cast out at about 40 feet and blow the leader back. Cross wind and quartering casts had no blow back problem and often snapped the reel with 3 rod lengths of running line outside the rod tip.
I cast this rig for about an hour with no wind knots and no damage to my old injured right bicep.
I will now try heavier floating tips with that rig to try and slice into the wind a little better as per Chris's suggestion.