[yankees12]

Okay, I am in-need of assitance right now, my grandpa and I are going to go on our annually trout fishing trip. We are going memorial day and a week prior the state of Pa stocks the lake. Most people don't understand that all the trout are deep down in the breast of the lake so no one has success really except my pops and I. Last season we must have caught 100 trout in two days using worms on the bottom of the lake. There is action, but I want to bring my fly rod along this time. Well, the problem is I don't know how to get down deep, but I have a feeling if I could with some wolly buggers I would be hooking up with some huge lunker holdovers on a four weight. Ahh, just think of the fight.

So I was thinking a sink tip on my floating line. In the spring, the water is colder so fishing there have a greater tendency to be in a greater range. I was thinking the Corland build your own sink tip sytem with a weighted bugger. My question is What length should I cut the sink tip? They give you 12 feet and you can only cut once. I was thinking around three feet, a nice seven foot 4x leader and a conehead bugger. I am not sure if that is the way to go. Also, I was thinking a sinking rate of 6 inches/second. Here is the link to the sink tip...

Cortland Build Your Own Mini-Sink-Tip W/loop Connectors - eBay (item 320196769648 end time Apr-12-08 21:05:33 PDT)

[FlyGal]

How deep is this lake? If quite deep, a full sink line may be in order.

If you plan to strip retrieve your fly a full sink is best if you want to present the fly horizontal to the lake bottom....Sink tip will make the fly have an ascending pattern as if your fly is on it's way to the surface.

IMHO, I would want to keep all 12ft of my sink tip. That's short - I use 30ft for my local rivers and lakes.

My first choice fly for hunting lunkers is bait fish patterns, Minnows, sculpins and so on....

[mojo]

Originally Posted by yankees12

Okay, I am in-need of assitance right now, my grandpa and I are going to go on our annually trout fishing trip. We are going memorial day and a week prior the state of Pa stocks the lake. Most people don't understand that all the trout are deep down in the breast of the lake so no one has success really except my pops and I. Last season we must have caught 100 trout in two days using worms on the bottom of the lake. There is action, but I want to bring my fly rod along this time. Well, the problem is I don't know how to get down deep, but I have a feeling if I could with some wolly buggers I would be hooking up with some huge lunker holdovers on a four weight. Ahh, just think of the fight.

So I was thinking a sink tip on my floating line. In the spring, the water is colder so fishing there have a greater tendency to be in a greater range. I was thinking the Corland build your own sink tip sytem with a weighted bugger. My question is What length should I cut the sink tip? They give you 12 feet and you can only cut once. I was thinking around three feet, a nice seven foot 4x leader and a conehead bugger. I am not sure if that is the way to go. Also, I was thinking a sinking rate of 6 inches/second. Here is the link to the sink tip...

Cortland Build Your Own Mini-Sink-Tip W/loop Connectors - eBay (item 320196769648 end time Apr-12-08 21:05:33 PDT)

I've never fished a lake that had decent sized trout with anything less than a 5w rod. Deep? What is deep. 20',50',75'? In deep water's I've used Rio type VII with success. (Full sinking line). And for deep nymphing, I've done that down to 30' depths. But, give it a shot and see what happens. Good luck.

[yankees12]

I do not thinking it is deeper than 30 feet. I can not afford two rods and I only fish this lake twice a year and the rest I fish small streams. I was thinking of making it one large piece also. I am just not sure how that would cast on a 4 weight. FlyGal, My pops and I used minnows and worms but after a while of doing that it gets somewhat boring, that is why I wanted to bring along a fly rod.

[FlyGal]

When I say bait fish patterns I mean flies....Micky Fin, Muddlers, Sculpins, Clousers....All bait fish flies and thats just scratching the surface...

[yankees12]

I will use more than a wolly bugger, but that just seemed a good place to start off with. I have 2 micky finns, about a dozen muddler minnows, and I am soon to purchase some sculpin flies. I just starting fly fishing a year ago, so my collection is not as varied as most. Thanks for the tips, however, FlyGal and the rest who have helped. Hopefully, I can get some dry fly takes in the evening, that would be amazing.

[Joni]

Stillwater is my cup of tea. I do agree that you need a FULL SINK line in density compensated if smooth bottom and WET CELL if weeds.
I too have the TYPE VII, but I do much better with DEPTH CHARGE 300 grain.
What this line is, is 30' of lead core line in 300 grain followed by 70' of Intermediate. So, although being a little harder to cast (the home made version not the store bought) Taking 30' of the lead core trolling line, put a loop in both ends and attaching it to an INTERMEDIATE line (which I think EVERYONE should own even for rivers) you could achieve the same effect.
That leech, crayfish, even baitfish pattern are going to pull more horizontally with an occasional bounce depending on stripping, where as with a regular sinking line the fly will be going up and down.
My Hook-Up have tripled with DEPTH CHARGE, plus I get to the bottom quick before the little guys can catch it.
But I also enjoy the deep nymphing off a floating line with a 30' piece of straight Fishing Fluoro and an indicator.

Good luck
Joni