To sink your tippet?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

What do most of you use to sink your leader?

I am talking about that ~6 inch section of leader just before your dry fly so the fish won't see the tippet on the surface film.

This is only important on smooth water.

The late George Gerke developed 'Xink'.

Orvis use to have 'Mud'........

Just doing a little survey for the shop's inventory.

Thanks for any feed back.

[easymends]

I am confused, I want my tippet to float.

[Mike O]

used to use xink, but the stuff is so liquid, it is hard to keep in the tube, even with the cap on...made my vest look more "used" than it should look ;). I now use flouro tippitt, and hope the fish is stupid. Don't use liquid floatants (gink) for the same reasons.

[Dave Neal]

I use sink gels all the time dry/dropper fishing. They work great for getting tiny flies and emergers just under the surface quickly.

I have used both the "Xink" and a Rio product, too...can't remember the name. Both work well...the RIO stuff smells like dish soap, though?

[Rick J]

I normally am using fluoro for spring creek fishing and I grease my tippet to a few inches of the fly but the fluoro normally sinks a bit near the fly which is what I want

[Bruce Slightom]

Bill, back when people developed film, there was a product that was used called photo-flow. It was cheap and worked great. It was used to break surface tension so the negatives would drop evenly in the solution.
Now I use fluorocarbon tippets.

[Terry Imai]

Hi Bill,

I bought the Orvis "Mud" from you several years ago and it has really saved my a** on many days. Even with the advent of Floro, I would find putting some good cast over some heavily pressured fish and getting refusals. After putting some on the "Mud" on the 15-18" of tippet, I would get a solid take on the next float. This has happened on more than a ton of situations that I really believe the "Mud" is one item to have in my vest. I almost out of my tube, so I vote for stocking the Orvis "Mud".

Thanks,

Terry

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Hi Terry

Thanks for the feed back.

Glad to see you here......

[DonCooksey]

As a kid, my father always had me use a chunk of Lava soap to clean the tippet and make it sink. I never thought that worked very well and stopped the practice a long time ago (although I still carried that old chunk of Lava around in my vest for years). I'm pretty sure that an abrasive soap was not a good idea for the light mono tippets we used anyway. Maybe that's why I broke off so many fish! I use fluoro now and am amazed at how much pressure I can put on a fish to get them in quickly compared with the old days. Modern rods probably help also.

[Terry Thomas]

Mother nature makes a pretty good product: mud. There is a reason why Orvis called their product the same thing. One of them does come with a much nicer package. For those who wish a packaged product, you may wish to check out Black Duck products. They have one called Extra Wet Fly Sinker.
T.

[Sammy]

Are we talking to sink your tippet faster with a nymph or wet fly on? Or do you mean having the tippet near your dry fly sink so the tippet is actually below the surface?

[Hairstacker]

Welcome aboard Sammy!

Looks to me like the thread has evolved into a discussion of both.

[Sammy]

hey thanks. yeah i've been lurking for a few weeks. Anyways, I'm interested in this one because I often think that, on slower water, my tippet is too noticeable when floating dry fly. Sometimes my fly even lands tail straight down... so the tippet actually "rainbows" off the the knot about an inch into the air. (that's usually from a bad cast into the wind)

Is it common practice, when dry flying, to have your tippet sink off of your knot?

[Hairstacker]

Sammy, viewed from below, the tippet sitting in the water surface film will create an impression in the surface film and on a bright day will also create glare around it. Many believe these things will put off trout, particularly spooky ones. By sinking the tippet, it becomes more invisible, which many believe increases your odds of not putting off fish by virtue of the tippet.

[Sammy]

5 years of fly fishing and i've never heard about this as a possibility. sweeeeet!

[Terry Imai]

The leader sink isn't needed in pocket water situations but if you're fishing some slow flat water or lakes with either a dry or emerger puts your tippet just under the surface. If you ever see a water bugs walk across the water and you can see their shadow on the bottom when their legs break the surface tension. When you're after some very heavily pressured fish especially when they come up to your bug and just look like they're counting legs and wing posture while they follow your bug. If I put a cast onto the water and I can see the tippet shadow on the bottom, I'm assurming the fish can spot something being wrong; that's when I put the Orvis Mud on my tippet...