I plan on doing some lake fishing from a boat this coming season and will need to use some type of sinking line to fish small to medium streamers in water depths of 10-15 feet. I'm guessing the warm water fish I'll be targeting will be within a few feet of the bottom. I'll be using a single hand 8wt rod. The array of sinking lines is kind of overwhelming: full sink, sink-tips of many lengths, different sink rates in ips, different sink types like 3 or 4, different grains, etc.. I'm thinking sink-tip, maybe 24ft, 250-300 grains depending on weight of rod. Does this sound right? What sink rate? Are there advantages or disadvantages to fishing a high sink rate? Recommendations for reasonably priced lines? Thanks for any insight!

I use the Orvis Depth Charge a lot off a boat, and its a really good line.

The 350 grain line is really for 10-weights. I have also used a 150 grain line with a 6-weight, and it fished really well.

The heads sink at (IIRC) 5-6 IPS, so I religiously count down: 20-25 seconds to get to 10ft, 30+ to get to 15 ft. Or, if you have a companion in the boat, ask them to use a watch, and make it accurate.

The nice thing about the Depth Charges is that the heads stay down in the zone for a while: it is only when you have retrieved all the running line that the head, and hence the fly, starts to track towards the surface.

The principle disadvantage is still water is that, with a fast sinking head, you have to maintain a pretty steady retrieve, or else the head and fly will continue to sink. But that’s a nice problem to have in most deep water fishing, IMHO.

Fishing a full sink fly line effectively to that depth imposes some line handling rigors.

To keep the full line at its deepest desired depth and efficiently fish the fly there, you need to strip off a lot of line after the cast and feed it out as the line is sinking during your e count down. That way the line and fly will track back horizontally instead of angling up towards the surface out of the feeding zone for much of its run.

Boat control is important. Being blown around by wind or waves from the point of the original cast is going to screw up your feel for the deep strike; your ability to set the hook; and initial control over a hooked fish. An anchored boat or one using the new trolling motors that hold you on a designated spot would help stabilize your platform for deep fly work.

I've fished Teeny 450 down to 30+' offshore, and no problem fishing T130 down to 15' 5/6-wt
If you're in moving water, you'll need to go to heavier grain weight and matching heavier rod. T200 or TS250 (30' head) is perfect on 8-wt
teeny line is not a sink tip, but a spliced shooting head.

Holy cow, I've fished these lines for 40 years, and posted about them on this forum for 15

Ron - It was your posts about the Teeny T-100 that moved me to try one and it's been very productive numerous times. I've not paid attention to posts about deeper water because I haven't fished deep with a fly rod. How does a sink tip differ from a spliced shooting head?

There are lots of options out there these days. I'm a huge fan of the SA Sonar 3D lines (basically what the Orvis Depth Charge is--also great), but I also really like how those Teeny lines perform. Pick your poison, they'll both work great. Depending on your rod, I typically like a 250gr-300gr on any of my 8wts (regardless of material), but that's just my personal preference. You really can't go wrong either way...

Cheers!

I have been using the Rio Intouch Deep full sinking lines recently with great success. They come in several sink rates. It sounds like the Deep 6 (6”/sec) could work well at your stated fishing depth. And they can sometimes be found on sale, which may bring them into your desired price range.

I use an intermediate clear line for fishing ponds and lakes,the line sinks evenly from rod tip to leader.I have caught many crappies sunfish and perch and a few catfish and bullheads .It still feels like flyfishing and this line casts well for me once i got used to it.I have been looking into the teeney lines as well for bigger water and more distance.Crappie on the fly are a blast.BD has the teeney system layed out well in past posts.

i fish sinking lines about 30% of the time.

i use the SA sonar 150-200 grain full sink for 5-6wt lines. super easy to cast, gets down fast.

i also use the intermediate SA "warm water" sink line which sinks about 3 inches a second, also on 5s and 6wts.

i will offer that i prefer sinking line on stiffer rods. A highly parabolic rod makes it a bit of a pain to detect strikes or cast, especially from a float tube. a lighter grain weight in a wading situation would make glass fine. just depends on what you are doing.