Its been a relatively cold start to the spring. I gave it a try tonight to check things out on my home lake.
The water.................is not warm.
The surface temp varied between 48-51. Warm enough for me to at least get an hour of fishing in before I headed back.
I tried a floating line at various points, hoping for maybe a lake trout, but in the end, the only fish I took was on a full sink, moved very slowly. I'm one of those dull day, dull fly. Bright Day, bright fly people. The fish was caught on a smaller sized Mickey Finn. Mickey Finn's always seem to be good to me in the early season.
If you are familiar with this blog, you will have noticed I fish a full sink line often in my smallie hunting. There are many days this is the only way I will get into fish. This is especially true since I moved up north from Southern Ontario. A cold front moves in, and I am either going deep or I may as well stay home. And who wants to stay home.
Until recently, I've kind of felt like a lone voice in the wilderness. The usual advice on lines is that you only need a floater and intermediate sink. I have a few books which echo each other on the subject. However, over the winter the New Fly Fisher posted a few video's that were shot in my neck of the woods. On at least two of those vid's, they talked about using full sinking lines.
I know at least one of the hosts lives in this relative area, and they certainly film a lot of shows up here. So, it's not really that surprising. Still, it's nice to hear someone else saying it for once. Much better than the usual naysaying that happens when I mention it's a good idea to have a full sink on hand.
Worth mentioning, my fishing for Smallmouth mostly happens on lakes. Not sure whether its needed at all for river fishing. At least, I can't recall being on a river, fishing smallies, and wishing I had a FS instead of what I was chucking.
It was mentioned in one of the vids that they found that 70% of the time a floater or a intermediate would do. I would think I fish a sinking line at least 30% of the time. Probably more. If you were to look through my pics and vids, you'd notice a lot of fish caught on the full sink. A lot of big fish.
It's not just cold that can push fish down, but there are other factors to. Bright sun can have them hugging cover as well. I don't fish the prime times for smallies often anymore. I've never fished them in the mornings since I've moved up here. Lyme symptoms pretty much make that impossible. I'm not a big fan of being in small watercraft after dark. Much of my fishing takes place during the day. Not the most optimal time. However, I do well enough. If I can't get fish to respond to offerings fished in the upper portion of the water column, I can usually find success in the lower portions.
These videos should be cued to the parts mentioning full sink
Here's a nice smallie I took in 2015 on a full sink.
