Recommendations for Sinking Tapered Leaders

If your fishing most of the Missouri rivers which typically can have high banks and lined with trees I personally would stick with a floating line and add more weight if you need to get your flys down faster so they’re in the zone longer.  My reasoning is I do a lot of roll casting in these streams when nymphing vs back casting.  I don’t have to worry about snagging a Tree Trout and I can roll cast pretty much the whole width of stream if I want to.  With a sink tip it makes it more challenging and sometimes impossible to roll cast because your actual fly line along with leader and tippet are below the waters surface in deep runs or holes.  If your fishing a river that gives you a lot of room to cast behind you then a sink tip could work.  I don’t find myself for the most part in that scenario when fishing the Missouri Trout Parks or outside the parks.  May be able to get away with it at Taneycomo.  That’s just my take.  Maybe others have a different view.

Great question Martin.  Mcclurey has a good point. Since sinking leader and/or sinking tip line is slightly more difficult to “pull off” the water than floating line you will probably need to be in an area where you can cast with the sinking leader/sinking tip line. But the sinking leaders usually are not as long as the sinking section of a sinking tip line – say only 5-10 feet.  The sinking leader is a good way to get your flies down in the target zone (depending on the leaders depth speed) and it’s the “poor man’s” sinking tip line (i.e. you don’t have to spend money to buy a full line). Plus, you can change between your floating line and your sinking leader easily.

Here in Missouri we don’t have many streams that we fish where we would need a sinking tip line (except some of the bigger, wider rivers) so buying a sinking leader is a good choice to have in your arsenal.  I rarely use a sinking leader here (I do carry one) because the flies I want to get down I will usually weight them by wrapping wire around the shank when tying, using a bead head or adding split shot. But I do agree there is a time for a sinking leader – if I know that I’m going to be fishing in water that is deeper than say 4 feet and it’s moving fast, then I would opt to use a sinking leader and weighted flies- like swinging WB or leeches.

With all that jibberish, I would buy a sinking leader that does sink fast. Isn’t that why you want to use it – to get the flies down fast. I would pick up at least a 4-ips sinking leader. The reason you are using it is to get your flies down so get them down.

Would love to here other ideas!

I stand corrected in that my initial response was based on a sinking tip fly line vs just the leader.

Hi Martin,

I use sinking-tip leaders just a couple times a year here in MO when the water is fast and usually dirty.  Typically I am swinging WBs.  I have tired leaders of several sinking speeds.  3-4 inches per second have worked the best for me.  I tried a 7 IPS leader once.  Holy cow, it went so deep so fast I just kept getting snagged.

JRC

Martin,

I resurrected this thread because I have recently acquired a renewed interest in streamer fishing. One of my fishing cohorts is a very serious streamer fishermen. He has pulled some big brown trout (over 20 inches) from the Current river.

Sinking leaders vs weighted flies are the issue.  As previously stated, sinking leaders are a tool for fast/deeper water. Kenny was referencing using weighted flies (like Woolybuggers) that use lead wire along with bead heads to get them to the desired depth when using a standard WF line and tapered leaders.

What about using non-weighted flies like articulated streamers.  Check out Youtube for tying Double Decievers. These are big (5 -6 inches long) flies that are light weight (no lead wire or beads) and rely on a sinking leader to get them down to the fish.  One of the reasons to leave the weight off the fly is to enhance its swimming action.  Getting that side to side, wounded bait fish, swimming action is one of the advantages of the articulated streamers. That action is what targets the bigger predator fish to come out of their hiding places for a juicy meal.  Sinking leaders of 7 and 12 IPS are used depending on the speed and depth of the water with these large articulated flies.

If you tie, give a try to tying an articulated Woolybuger.  Youtube has a couple of good videos on this.  If you fish in any of the parks in MO, realize that you need to remove the forward hook from your fly.  Only one hook is allowed in the parks (Kenny educated me on this).   U still get that articulated action.  You can tie it with weight or naked and use your sinking leader to get the fly down. If you fish in the park and water is no deeper than 3-4 feet, try a 3 or 5 IPS sinking leader and see how it works.  I am experimenting with that myself.   Have fun and good luck.

Bob Beckett