[atcman42]

I am trying to outfit my sew sage slt and I am getting to the end of my funds. First I was going to go the route of getting an extra spool and Sink tip fly line. Now I am thinking of getting a sink tip to put on my floating line. I have Wulff TT line and am wondering if this is a bad choice for a budget minded setup...???

The rio sink tip intermediate from cabelas was what I am thinking about. for 20 bucks if I can make it work than it sounds good to me.

Any feedback will help. Thanks in advance.

ATCMAN

[Frank Whiton]

Hi atcman,

I was hoping that someone who fishes a SLT would answer. I will give you my thoughts.

The SLT is a fine casting rod for dry fly fishing. The flex is medium to medium fast. You have a 9' 5wt and it would fish fine with an integrated sink tip fly line. I can understand that you want to save some money right now and use the add on sink tip. If you use the add on sink tip it may upset the dynamics of your floating fly line. If you use one you may need to shorten up the fly line line outside the tip to compensate for the addition weight of the add on sink tip. Some people on the forum use them and some even like them. If you are fishing still waters then it may be a compromise over an intergrated sink tip. With still waters you are not making long cast. Some of the add on sink lines are 15' long. The 15' has to be terrible to cast. I would stick with 3 or 4 feet.

Now for my personal feelings about the add on sink tips. It is not something I use or want to use. I prefer to use an integrated sink tip line that is designed for my rod. Instead of using the add on sink tip I would use split shot to sink my leader. A second option is a sinking leader with a weighted fly. I would do most anything to keep from having my fly line looped to a add on sink tip and then my leader and tippet looped to the add on sink tip. The only thing I think the add on sink tips have going for it is cost. I hope that someone who uses one will give their opinion.

Frank