[domantas]

Im in my quest of choosing one line for each of my rods that will treat me well all year round. So with that said it needs to be able throw sink tips and fish dry when needed.

As of late I really like working with short belly and scandi lines. Scandis and cut back short belly lines handle poly tips in 10-15' range and up to 120gr or so. Im thinking of the idea using 10-15' T8 and light MOW tips. Such tip can be casted on my favored 7/8 Delta and with I MOW light tip I could fish more vertical presentation in some pocket or full of snag bottom runs. From fishing perspective I like how level tip fish more than tapered tips because im confident that very tip of my level tip is tracking depest and not splaying out as much as tapered one would. Anyways...

Turn over of heavy flies in my case is not the concern anymore as my flies as of late become sparse (think more classical flies) so T8 is more than enough from casting perspective.

My question to you is if you consider 15' T8 tip to be suitable for some of deepest and fastest runs you tend to fish? At some point I was a believer that once T tip is sunk and line comes under tention T8 would track deeper then T14 in same given lenght due to its thinner diameter but that changed after I spent more time on water realizing its not the case.

Im asking for your opinions even though I've spend lots of time with polyleaders and t11 im unsure how would T8 compromise things and if it could be my go to tip when I need to be fishing deep and slow. There aint no 7wt short belly that would turn t14 comfortably so...

 

[SpeySpaz]

How far back did you cut your Delta? is the tip diameter greater than .050?

If so, it might be worth trying. I've never fished that much T-8, though, longest I've used is 12'.

Wouldn't hurt to try it, huh? (said the guy who'll try ANYthing once)

 

[domantas]

My old green 7/8 Delta has 13' 85gr'ish original tips that I ditched completely and used 10-15' Rio Versileaders instead. These Versileaders are 80-100gr and I like them because they are thinner then dacron core tips and so they sink and cut through water better resulting in deeper swing. I tie on tippet rings on my poly tips and just add tippet to them. Its very effective and easy system.

Since I can easily turn over these Versileaders with my lines it makes me think that T8 wont be a problem either. 15' of T8 weights 120gr so IMP its very duable. My concern is if 15' T8 is enough of a tip to be considered as "as heavy as one might ever want to go..."

According to Rio there is only 1-2ips sinking difference between T8 and T14. This could be easily conpensated by bigger mend or two for initial sink. I need to get out more and see for myself... lol

 

[bigwilly]

I use 20ft of T-8 on a Wa 45 or a 55 when I need to get depth.

 

[domantas]

I use 20ft of T-8 on a Wa 45 or a 55 when I need to get depth.

Right, the way I see it if your very tip of the line is at least of 8gr/fr it will cast any length of that tip. Initial lift probably is a bit more involved but once its out of the water it shouldn't matter that much.

 

[fish0n4evr]

That tip would be easier to cast with an 8/9 Delta on the same rod than with the 7/8 Delta.

 

[domantas]

That tip would be easier to cast with an 8/9 Delta on the same rod than with the 7/8 Delta.

Wow... my exact thoughts... Deltas for me tends to feel light anyways due to them not having steep taper so I think overlining one is very duable. Especially when you consider the fact that my casting style involves snaps for lifting sink tips. Think of it as very long skagit.

Since old Deltas are not available anymore I ordered a bunch of older Rio Mainstream spey lines (also discontinued but more available) in 7/8 to 9/10 to play around with. Very similar tapers to Deltas with 50'-55' heads. If my ideas works ill probably will end up getting current Deltas and even those few Airflo lines offered overseas such as Quick spey because I really like how PU feels, welds, ect.

My idea is to eye ball a short belly line for each rod with grain weight on the higher grain window side and make a cut (or not) to use with very light 14' Airflo polyleaders for lighter work (floating, int, and lighter sink). Then make a second cut at 11gr/ft mark to utilize various 10-15' lenghts of T8 for dredging. This is where I might get into little trouble because my total heads weight would be altered depending on how long my T8 is (80-120gr).

 

[Cowboy Tom]

Dom,

I posed a very similar question to Tim Rajeff this past fall regarding Delta II 7/8 and 9/10's, and a mint green 8/9. His answer was very straight forward. He suggested I cut them at 15' and run tips if I like, but said that T8, matched to the tip by weight, would get deeper (per their in water experiments) and cast 95% as well.

In the interest of science I cut all three and tried it. Used 13' of T8, cuz I had a couple, and 14' of Z7. (I have come to really like SPG's Z material) In short it works great and is a hell of a lot cheaper than tips. Casts a lot like a floater with a single spey if you have the rod length and tip power to bring them up from the deep and powers through the wind better than the floater. I mostly used an 8/9 on a VT2 8139. Also, you can obviously get those tips at least as deep as if you had them hanging off of a skagit head. The much improved mending ability of a Delta vs. skagit is great for mending allowing you to maybe get it even deeper. I fished a lot in water 10'+ deep this winter and can assure you that you can hit bottom with a very lightly, or unweighted fly in slower water. Can also use shorter tips to go shallower. All of my short to mid-bellies are now so modified. Feel free to PM me if you want more details.

If you have any interest I have all of the above mentioned Deltas for sale, moving to longer bellies (e.g. Vector XL, GPS, Powerspey).

CT

 

[SpeySpaz]

15' of T-8 on a DT, my next great painful adventure, LOL.

 

[domantas]

Spent some time on water today casting 7/8 old green Delta.

Before I headed out I dug out my grain scale and weighted my original Delta to see if factory 13' cut will have sufficient mass to turn over T8. I was blown away when I weighted the first foot of cut of floater... 7.99gr/ft... lol. Tip is now obviously trashed and other three tips as well as I never cared for them anyways...

I was able to cast T8 no problem. Haven't tried 15' yet but 10' was very very nice casting tip, especially with snaps. Felt like I could go heavier of the rod though... will be trying 8/9 cut at 8gr/ft to see if it has more authority. Its not skagit for sure and it takes a bit patience casting these things...

 

[fish0n4evr]

Spent some time on water today casting 7/8 old green Delta.

Before I headed out I dug out my grain scale and weighted my original Delta to see if factory 13' cut will have sufficient mass to turn over T8. I was blown away when I weighted the first foot of cut of floater... 7.99gr/ft... lol. Tip is now obviously trashed and other three tips as well as I never cared for them anyways...

I was able to cast T8 no problem. Haven't tried 15' yet but 10' was very very nice casting tip, especially with snaps. Felt like I could go heavier of the rod though... will be trying 8/9 cut at 8gr/ft to see if it has more authority. Its not skagit for sure and it takes a bit patience casting these things...

Will this place the cut at around 13 feet from the tip?

 

[domantas]

Yes sir 13'. Im getting my Deltas II soon and will be doing the same thing. Caliper would help...

 

[Cowboy Tom]

Dom,

A caliper is the key. Shoot for cutting at 0.060" or just a little bit more and you will be golden. On my delta II 7/8 the 15' mark was about right.