Can anyone recommend a good overall intermediate fly line for bass?

All my setups are floating line and I’ve finally decided I might want something to get the flies down in the water column a little.

Thanks

Here's my thoughts; sort out how deep you want to get and how fast you want to get there. There are a wide variety of sinking lines, each of which have a bit of a performance niche.
For added confusion, you might also look into shooting heads; the old "chuck and duck".

Here's a wealth of information
Global Flyfisher

I would advise not to throw sink tips , the 2' - 14' add-ons, they are a pita to lift & cast. Look for an integrated line.There are several brand / manufacturers that offer lines ie Rio, Wolff $$$, SA, Airflo $$ and several online that are questionable at best.
I found a shop up north that offers WFI lines for 25$ that are comparable to the above. Mfg in Canada with US material, I cant verify but believe it's Snowbee, and only time will tell if it is truly worth having.
There are so many variables to save a $ in production.
Rio has Mainstream their more affordable line and SA has a few also. so you can see my bias.
As far as sink rate, it depends on the technique you want to use. For sub-surface strip pause unweighted streamers I use 2-3 ips, it can be used in shallows or count down in deeper water.
BTW a weighted fly can be fished 10' possibly more with a floating line and 7-9' leader and tip.
I mainly fish stillwater lakes, your water may require a different technique.
Good luck in the search.

I’m looking for something that will help get streamers down a little quicker. Is a full sinking line at 3 ips recommended over a sinking tip for that?

That is what works for my water and techniques.
a full sink line is a whole other critter I rarely use
Follow rrhyne56 advice, use the search there is no one answer

I usually have a full sink line on one rod all the time. It really depends on how deep you want to fish. If you want to stay in the four to six feet zone then just use floating line and lengthen you leader. Then use a weighted eye clouser. Weighted line is for the deep water or if you want to run a fly along the bottom. I personally do not like weighted tip line. I really like scientific angler line but other brands like Cortland and Rio are good. Sinking line takes a while to learn to use but it can produce lots of fish when they move deep.

Everybody above makes some valid points. An intermediate line gets the line below the little wavelets and smooths out the fly's path. At 2 to 3 inch sink per second, or less, it really isn't going to get you down much, but it does connect you more directly to the fly, so you feel takes better. Full sink lines are more useful in lakes. Retrieve until the last 20-30 feet are still outside the rodtip; then do a roll cast to bring line out of water, straight ahead. Just as the line unrolls, you do a waterhaul back cast; one backcast and your ready to throw. This limits falsecasting, which has a different timing than floating line because the line is thinner.
As FlyFX said, a weighted fly sinks quicker. You can control its depth via leader length and countdown. 10 ft leader and heavy weighted fly hits 10 foot depth in about 15 seconds. An intermediate line sinks to 3 ft in 15 seconds. When fly is stripped,line stays at 3 feet and fly rides up, then sinks again on pause. A shorter leaders sink less, and flies can be tied to sink slow or neutral. Fun game to figure out; once you get depth right, a fly can stay in bite zone a long time, at least relative to lures or bait.

Lots of good feedback here. I think I’m going to try Rio Mainstream type 3 sink tip and see how that works out.

Look at the Rio trout versaleaders . They are a weighted leader in different IPS sinks that go on your floating line. I love them, easier to turn over heavy flies and you can cast em all day without wearing your [censored] out. Worth the $$.

Dougfresh, I agree with Robin's comment " how deep you want to get and how fast you want to get there." The first question answer really is how deep do you want to fish?

From a practical viewpoint, you can effectively fish a depth that is about half the length of the sinking part of your line. As you strip and pause a fly back to you, the line will fluctuation at about a 45 degree angle from the surface to the fly. With just a leader, the fly seems to fluctuation between 30 degrees and 45 degrees when stripping a sinking fly such as a Clouser. So, a 9 ft leader alone will fish in a 3 to 4 foot depth range.

I usually use shorter leaders with a sinking fly line. So, I tend to ignore the leader when selecting a sinking line. My rough math for selecting a sinking line. A 10 ft sinking tip will effectively fish about 5 or so foot depth. A 30 foot sinking tip will get you down to about the 15 foot depth range. If you want to fish deeper than 15 feet, then you need to start looking at either full sinking lines or a shooting head type of arrangement. But, most of us are not interested in fly fishing greater than 15 feet deep very often.

How fast of a sink rate depends on the fishing situation. Sink rates are measured in "IPS" or inches per second. You can look at your watch and time how deep your fly has sunk if you want to. Example, the fish are 20 feet deep and you have a 6 ips sinking line - it will take 40 seconds for each cast to sink down to the fish before starting to retrieve the fly.

In a fast moving stream a fast sink rate may be needed to reach the bottom before the fly is pushed downstream before the it gets deep enough to reach the fish. However, on the other end, in a shallower or slower moving water, a fast sinking line may hit bottom and get hung up before ever reaching the strike zone.

For lake fishing, it depends how what areas do you want to fish. On Texoma, I like a 10 or 15 ft sink tip if fishing the rocks on the Texas size because they drop off fast and the fish are usually holding close to the rocks. No need to go deeper. However, to fish the Stripers when they are in open water and deep, a full sink line and the fastest sink rate I can find is preferred. I want to get as many casts in as possible and I hate waiting for the line to sink down to the fish.

As someone mentioned, sinking tips are easier to learn to cast than full sinking lines. And the shorter the length of the sinking tip, the easier it is to manage.

So, decide how deep you want to fish and then decide on the sink rate based on the type of water conditions you plan to fish most often. Then go find a line.

Also, I tend to watch Sierra Trading Post for good deals on fly lines as an option to acquire a variety of fly line types.

Good luck!

Surprised no one asked what rod you are throwing the line with ... some rods work better with certain sinks than others do, and some worse.

I got some 7wt sink tip line mentioned above and used it on my 7wt 8’ mojo bass rod. Worked great. Perfect for some lighter or buoyant streamers to encourage them to sink a little faster.