Sinking micro-flies

[jonbo]

I think I may have brought this up before, but it's a problem I continue having when fishing tiny emerger type flies like BWO's in a 22 or 24, or midge emergers in a 24 or so. I can't seem to manage the depth of the drift very well. They either  stay right at the surface, if I'm using no weight, or sink pretty quickly all the way down the water column if I add split shot. When I swing or strip a larger emerger, say a caddis or march brown in a 14, right after I cast I give a couple of quick strips. That pulls the fly and tippet under water. Then it continues to sink gradually through the rest of the drift. Sometimes about 3/4 of the way through it reaches bottom. Then, when nearly directly downstream I lift the rod tip to help it start to rise. Of course that's when I often get bit.

I can't seem to get that smooth, gradual fall then rise at the end with the little BWO or WD40. It either wants to sit there with its 6x tippet in a little pile at the surface or, again, if I add a little split shot, fall straight down. I have the same problem when using an indicator or dry-droppering. I can't get the little flies to just drift kind of naturally through the middle of the column. What do you guys do with the midge emergers, zebra-midges and such? Do you just add a little split shot if you want it to sink in the column? Am I worrying too much about it? I was thinking of bringing some of my smallest tungsten beads and using them as sliding sinkers. I don't knowif they would add any "finesse" or not.

[hankinsfly]

Hey Jon, I've never had any issues with zebras sinking quickly, or any other larval type of pattern. They typically sink quickly because of being slick bodied. Fishing soft hackles wet flies, they typically stay just under the surface film with a slow sink rate for me. even when dead drift. I know with emergers and wets in any size. I shake them in the water and get all the tiny air pockets out and saturating the materials, making them sink more readily. Also, fishing fluorocarbon leader and tippet does make a big difference.

[hankinsfly]

Also, that raise at the end directly below you, some call it the Leisenring Lift. Fish go crazy for it. What's your hook up percentage when they hit on the dangle? I found that if I hold a loop of line in my line hand and immediately drop that loop and give them line when they hit, it helps my hookup rate. Use this on the swing, too. I'm like you- the tug is the drug!

[jonbo]

I never thought of holding a loop that I drop when they hit. That's a good idea. In a lot of fishing you want to strike hard, but often in fly fishing it's the opposite. I hook up a lot right at the end of the drift. I don't know what the percentage is. I do use floro for my 5x and 6x, mostly. I guess I'll just figure that the Barr's Emergers and stuff like that are going to sit up in the film. I do plan to try using a tungsten bead for a sliding sinker sometime. I still can't seem to get a really small fly like a zebra or kf midge to sink when I'm trying to dry-dropper with it. It just wants to sit there in a little pile with its 14 inches of 6x tippet. You know how the very small floro tippets like to try and curl up. Thanks, Steve.

[texanfisherman]

Try rubbing some mud up and down on your leader. It should sink easily after that without the need for additional weight. They also have chemicals, such as Xink, but I find that the mud method works just fine.

[Fenwick]

There are times I'll see trout rising from below, take something that is mere inches from the surface and then they'll dive down again. This up and down cycle repeats often enough that you see the trout have a feeding routine going. With that observation I'll tie on an emerger and put my smallest split shot about nine or ten inches in front of it. That tiny shot is not enough weight to pull the emerger way down in the water column but rather keeps it just below the surface in range of the feeding trout where the current would otherwise have the emerger without shot right up on the surface. Really itty bitty shot works for me. *fondly recall the pre-flood pool at the end of the Bluffs run where this worked well*

[jonbo]

Oh, that was a nice spot! So was just past there where the main run turned away from the bluffs for a bit. I used to love running a nymph down through there. {{Sigh}}

[jonbo]

Also, Grant, that's exactly the situation I'm talking about. I'm really going to try my smallest tungsten bead as a sliding sinker. (I've been saying that for awhile.)

[attackone02]

Have you tried a tuck cast, also what drifter said about putting mud on it there is a product called snake river mud that will work also. If you want down a tippet size to like 6.5x it will sink fast due to the smaller diameter. One more thing i would look into would be fly design, the less about of stuff you have on there the fast it will sink. Most of my flies are thread bodies and just a little bit of dubbing.

[jonbo]

Yeah, I've been using this stuff called "Zink", I think, to clean the final part of the tippet. The trouble I have is that on my dry I use "Gink" to float it, which gets all over my hands, which eventually gets on everything else, greasing pretty much everything up. I think I need to bring me a little Palmolive in a travel shampoo bottle. Then after I've greased up the dry fly, wash my hands with the Palmolive, then use the Zink on the dropper tippet. Would that be frowned on, washing my hands in the river with dishwashing detergent? It doesn't seem more polluting than half the stuff we use.

[mirvc17]

Jonbo,

Walmart sells camp soap (looks green if I remember) that is bio-degradable and won't hurt the river. It's cheap so invest in some of that. Loon Products makes some bio soap too but it's really the same kind of thing and costs a lot more.