sinking lines or wet tip lines

[billynwtf]

 Can someone give me some advice on using sinking lines? I fish the spring river in Arkansas and I need to get my flies down deep in some of the deeper pools. I have had some success using a indicator and a split shot to my bugger but it is very hard to cast. I have never used a sinking line before and really dont know which one to buy for my 5 weight rod. I really dont know how deep the pool is I am guessing 10-12ft deep. Thanks for any information you can give me.

[Woodbutcher]

 Dear Billy:
 I like using a sinking line. And yeah a shot makes things interesting, that's why they wear broadbrimmed hats.
 I think the speed of the current is the biggest consideration for selecting the rate of sink of the line.  Some brands of line provide a rate of sink on the box. The truth is, the one that you select for your conditions will tell you if you need a faster sink rate or not. Take your best guess.
 Having said that, I realize that conditions change, every time I go fishing. Usually the line that I have seems to get me to the bottom in the currents that I face. And, yes, I do work depths like you, cause I've been hung up in 15 feet in a gentle flow.
 Weight is used if needed, but it's lead wire or really tiny split shot. I add it to the leader knots. This eases the problem of the backcast dropping down. I got a handful of something called lead wool. Plumbers use it for packing and soldering joints. With this I can adapt somewhat, if the current is a bit fast. Not much weight and not all the time.
 Anything that I tie for going deep is given a mono weedguard. I can't control the depth that well, and the depth changes with the drift, so sometimes the fly, and line also, is really on the bottom hard!
 Summer time stream flow is usually gentle, compared to springtime, so the deeper holes are reachable.
                                                                    Woodbutcher
 
 

[billynwtf]

 Thanks for your reply. I am still looking at different lines trying to decided on one. Probably will go with a slow one first and go from there.

[Foxxtrot]

I use both sinking lines and sink tip leaders (RIO manufacture). I prefer a sink tip 90% of the time because I just add it to the front of my floating line when I need to get deep. I always have a few short mono leaders to add to the sink tip. I use a 4ft mono leader without tippet. Three equal parts of 10lb/8lb/6lb and tie on my fly. I will mainly use streamers on quick darting retrieves or slow and deep with a woolly bugger. Here we have a nice rainbow that hit a streamer on the drop off into some deep riffles.