I'm finally coming around to this thinking, but I still love the sense of "what might happen" if I get a fly to jig depths. If I was running a charter though, I'd definitely be shopping for players.
Bulk Tungsten Line for Stupid Deep Rigs
- Thread starter JayB
- Start date
I'm finally coming around to this thinking, but I still love the sense of "what might happen" if I get a fly to jig depths. If I was running a charter though, I'd definitely be shopping for players.
No no, I'm referring to the portion that has the t material inserted.
I'm pretty much falling in line w Nick on this too. If one really wanted to get stupid deep, they could probably add several large tungsten cones in front of the fly.....or, just use a jig rod. Something I may be looking into purchasing this year.
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Fly rods can be pretty good for casting flies, but they kind of suck at getting tuna up to the boat. The best thing to me about tuna fly fishing is the grab when you’re holding the line in your hand, and the initial run or whatever the fish does when it’s hooked. So I’m also of the mind that if I’m not casting the fly, and just weighting the shit out of it to get it way down deep, why am I using a fly rod at all?
Yeah, I have several flies I tied up using very large tungsten cones. I'm literally afraid to tie them on. Not just for my own safety, but for everyone else's safety as well.
JayB
Steelhead
Just picked up an 8wt Sonar Titan S3/S5/S7 line, so it'll be interesting to compare and contrast the depths that it can reach vs the SD rig.
I may be deluding myself, but one of my "use cases" for an SD rig is those times when I've done the rips/baitfish/feeding-bird/etc thing in the early AM, the sun has hit the water, and I can see fish in the 30+ foot range. Usually that's about the time I'm ready to take a break and enjoy some coffee and the view, so I envisioned drifting with the tide or slowly puttering along with the SD rig trailing off the back and seeing what happens. Ditto for seeing how deep I can get things on a slack tide and jigging the fly back up. I don't have much to lose in that scenario, and I'm usually somewhat limited both in terms of time and where I can take my (small) boat, so once I've scoped things out in the southern end of 8-2 or northeastern end of 9 I've covered all of the territory I can access.
On my recent trip I was fishing near a river mouth on the Columbia and could also see fish deeper than I could manage that I thought might be in range with an SD rig if I dropped the line upstream and I drifted over the target zone. That's the point where my gear-fishing-inlaws start to say "What the hell is wrong with you, for the love of God man, just jig with a gear rod...." (which I did) but trying to crack the code has always been a major part of the appeal of fly-fishing for me, so I've made peace with the fact that the way I prefer to play the game won't always make sense to my family or my long-suffering cats.
On an unrelated note, when I went in to pick up the new line I saw that Pacific Fly Fishers had one of their windows punched out and their store robbed *again*. I think it was roughly a year ago that someone broke through their glass door and ran off with a bunch of spey rods. Didn't ask what got taken this time because it seemed like they were still sorting things out and I didn't want to distract them from what they were doing. Not much any of us can do other than be careful about what we buy on the used market but....argh.
I may be deluding myself, but one of my "use cases" for an SD rig is those times when I've done the rips/baitfish/feeding-bird/etc thing in the early AM, the sun has hit the water, and I can see fish in the 30+ foot range. Usually that's about the time I'm ready to take a break and enjoy some coffee and the view, so I envisioned drifting with the tide or slowly puttering along with the SD rig trailing off the back and seeing what happens. Ditto for seeing how deep I can get things on a slack tide and jigging the fly back up. I don't have much to lose in that scenario, and I'm usually somewhat limited both in terms of time and where I can take my (small) boat, so once I've scoped things out in the southern end of 8-2 or northeastern end of 9 I've covered all of the territory I can access.
On my recent trip I was fishing near a river mouth on the Columbia and could also see fish deeper than I could manage that I thought might be in range with an SD rig if I dropped the line upstream and I drifted over the target zone. That's the point where my gear-fishing-inlaws start to say "What the hell is wrong with you, for the love of God man, just jig with a gear rod...." (which I did) but trying to crack the code has always been a major part of the appeal of fly-fishing for me, so I've made peace with the fact that the way I prefer to play the game won't always make sense to my family or my long-suffering cats.
On an unrelated note, when I went in to pick up the new line I saw that Pacific Fly Fishers had one of their windows punched out and their store robbed *again*. I think it was roughly a year ago that someone broke through their glass door and ran off with a bunch of spey rods. Didn't ask what got taken this time because it seemed like they were still sorting things out and I didn't want to distract them from what they were doing. Not much any of us can do other than be careful about what we buy on the used market but....argh.
For me stupid deep is more like 50 to 90ft and the intermediate line just won't stay down there. Too much drag and not enough weight. The Depthfinder is great up to 30ft but that's not always deep enough. Wind is a big factor too in picking the right line. I have had to switch from a stupid deep to a fast sinking line when the wind is calm and the stupid deep combo just hangs straight down. Not fun to strip like that and doubt a pure vertical sandlance is what the fish were wanting.
For reference 120ft of T7 is 840 grains or almost 2oz of fast sinking line. So if you want to tie your fly on a 2oz jig head and use an intermediate running line you will probably be in the same depth range as the T7. Obviously it's not quite that simple but as a first approximation it's close.
I haven't been fishing much the last couple of years but hopefully this winter I will have quick access to 100ft of water with chinook and maybe halibut to experiment on..
Braided core. No thanks.
Stack mends can get it out there safely.
This year I fished tube flies exclusively, but prior to this year about 1/3 of the tuna I’ve caught when not trolling have been via stack mend and stripping back up.
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For me the stupid deep thing was (is) as much about a problem solving challenge as the FF possibilities that open up with putting a fly at jig depths.
Using the Depthfinder lines successfully for a few years now has only reinforced my belief that a line can fish even stupider deep and still cast nicely. The key being thinner running line diameter vs crap-loads of extra tungsten in the head. Or for that matter, even any added weight in the running line.
Obviously there are limits to that idea, but using the Depthfinder as a reference, I feel confident in saying reducing the running line thickness will only result in a faster/deeper sinking line. The trade-off being handling characteristics.
I can only guess at what the combined performance parameters of all that might be, but I dont think we've found those limits yet. Several times this summer I had the full 150' of the 700gr Depthfinder out and had it hanging nearly vertical more than once.
Maybe no surprise I didn't hook anything with a vertically presented fly, but there is a definite "spooky" factor knowing its that far down... dammit, now I'm thinking about balanced anchovy and squid patterns.
Using the Depthfinder lines successfully for a few years now has only reinforced my belief that a line can fish even stupider deep and still cast nicely. The key being thinner running line diameter vs crap-loads of extra tungsten in the head. Or for that matter, even any added weight in the running line.
Obviously there are limits to that idea, but using the Depthfinder as a reference, I feel confident in saying reducing the running line thickness will only result in a faster/deeper sinking line. The trade-off being handling characteristics.
I can only guess at what the combined performance parameters of all that might be, but I dont think we've found those limits yet. Several times this summer I had the full 150' of the 700gr Depthfinder out and had it hanging nearly vertical more than once.
Maybe no surprise I didn't hook anything with a vertically presented fly, but there is a definite "spooky" factor knowing its that far down... dammit, now I'm thinking about balanced anchovy and squid patterns.
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