[WillieU87]

Hey All!

New hear. Looks like a great place. I have been fishing for both bass and bluegills for a couple of years. I have been doing ok, but would like to enhance the number of catches. I only have floating flyline and so far only use topwater flies. Can I do better with a sinking style line? I am also wondering about wet flies. It seems like they would be "snags" waiting to happen with the shallow water that I fish. Thoughts? Thanks for the input!

[Jackster]

You say you fish shallow water so try just lengthening your leader and using lead either on the flies or as splitshot to get the flies in the zone.

[Frank Whiton]

Hi Willie,

Jackster has given you some good advise. You can also use wet or sinking flies. They will sink slowly and are very effective. If you wet your subsurface flies before you use them they should sink. You can also add some Xink to your flies and the tippet. This will aid the fly to break the surface tension and sink.

One of my favorite flies for this type of fishing is a #12 or #14 woolly worm with just a wrap or two of lead wire or with no weight and some Xink. The Woolly Worm is a much over looked fly these days. Before the Woolly Bugger came along it was a very popular and deadly fly.

Frank

Gehrke's Xink

[flyflingerandy]

I personally only use floating lines right now, and almost never fish on the surface. I throw a variety of small streamers and what is called a cap spider. tied on a 1/80 jig head with ultra chenille body and rubber legs. Search cap spider on youtube and there is a nice video of Mike Verduin tying it.

[FlyRichardFly]

Thanks, Frank. I'll have to try the Xink.

[ezamora]

rio offers some leaders that are advertised to sink a bit too. another combo to try would be a sink tip line. you could get a cortland 333 sink tip line for about $35. they come in various rates of sink.

eric
fresno, ca.

[kelkay]

A flourocarbon tippet will help your fly sink faster. I use either that or mono for warm water fly fishing.