Sink tips vs. shooting heads (need input fast)

[Bruce Berman]

Just finished packing for my annual NorCal winter steelheading trip. I leave early Monday a.m. for about a month of fishing.

I'm planning to hit a number of coastals and probably the Trinity and possibly the American. It all depends on flows and how the rivers are fishing (of course).

I'm covered for nymphing, swinging with a floating line and using 10 foot poly tips of various sink rates on my floating line. I also have a few different lengths of LC-13 that I can loop to loop to my floating line.

I've also got some tube flies that I'm hoping to fish (Just giving you all the parameters.)

Here's the question.

Do I need a longer, 25'-30' shooting head with running line?

I'm hoping that's overkill since I'm already taking up everything but the kitchen sink.

Thanks.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Today is seems that most are using shooting head (~30') in the 'tide water' of Steelhead rivers while 'up river' with more structure and current they are using most sink-tips for swinging flies.

In the slow tidewater (close to the ocean) you will cast then add a slow short strip to keep your fly from falling to the bottom. Tide water fishing can be like fishing a slow moving lake with fish held up in "pot holes' and slots.

Carl would be the expert around here on tide water fly fishing for salmon and Steelhead.

I think both kinds of Steelheading are wonderful but slightly different......

[huntindog]

Bruce, I always use a shooting head in the bigger water, for me it is far more productive and lets you cover water bettter. When I am upstream on smaller water I use a sink tip setup but I love fishing the bigger water with a shooting head so much more.

[Rick J]

really water dependent as others have mentioned - for more even flow type water heads can be great - you get a nice even drift and can reach mend them during the cast to get a set up. The problem with heads in uneven current patterns is you can't mend much once it hits the water and you don't have much control over the drift. You have much better control with a sink tip and I will normally use a tip before I use a full head but most of the water I fish is smaller water with slots. A short fast sink tip will cover this type water much better than a head. A head is too long unless you sort of hi stick it through the slot. A tip with a short leader will let you get down in this smaller water faster and cover the drift better.

Even better for winter is the two handers and switches (see discussion below on swinging) especially if you are using bigger flies like tubes as a normal sink tip or head does not have the mass to easily turn over a heavy fly. They now make short skagit lines for single handers that help turn over bigger flies