Hey guys,

That's the question, would you go with a full sinking line or a sink tip line. I'm gonna be fishing a certain area river for sandies shortly and I need something to get that fly down in the holes where the fish are. I've heard full sink lines are easier to cast, but I've also heard that the choice bewteen these two types of line is a personal preference.

For a sink tip, I'm considering the SA Wet Tip

For a full sinking line the SA Uniform +

Or

The Rio DC full Sinking line

The line will be for my 4wt Finesse rod. Which sink rate would you recommend? Would a high grain/faster sink rate cause any siginficant castability problems with this rod? Would any of these lines do crazy things with the action of my tfo rod? Any other line recommendations?

Thanks!
Matt

Casting a sink tip is hellish even for a really good caster. Full sinks are easier to cast but you need to retrieve nearly the whole line, and the line you strip in sinks and tangles in the weeds when you wade, and also creates so much drag that it doesn't shoot very well. The Teeny T-series lines work great. A 20+ foot fast sink head, joined to floating running line. The cast great and fish better. SA also make a long belly sinking/Floating line, but I am not sure they make one small enough for your rod. In the Teeny lines...Look at the T-130. It is for a 4-6 wt rod. Good luck and don't forget to duck...
http://www.jimteeny.com/indexMain.html?content=catalog&page=jtCatalog/catalog/catIntro.html

Just to illustrate the possible difference in cating style. I find the S.A. wet tip a dream to cast. I can almost cast it in my sleep. Yes sometimes I'll dump the cast 10' in front of me, but only because I dropped the rod tip and/or dropped my hand down. I am not the expert here as most every one else has years on me. I have had this same conversation with my fishing buddy that started me fly fishing. Here is what he says. Sinks tips work great to about 6' in a slow to moderate current. If the current is more than moderate or depths more than 6' you will be best served to use a full sink. If you stay with a sink tip you will need to use a weighted fly or a split shot on your leader. When I am fishing for white bass I use fluorocarbon leader because it sinks(mono floats). I can only hope some the veteran folks speak up for I think they can help more than me. P.S. there are several different rates of sink in both types of line just to muddy the question more.

Longer casts with either a sink tip or sinking line on your four weight will be a challenge. I'd personally step up to a five or six weight unless your casts will be short. Be sure to keep your leader short, since longer leaders will let the fly get pulled up off in the bottom in the current and will negate the value of a sink tip or sinking line. I'd also recommend flies with neutral buoyancy. Let the fly line take the fly into the level of the water column you want to fish, then the neutral buoyancy fly will stay right there in the feeding zone.

Just to make it more exciting and complicated here are some links on shooting heads.

I have fished lead core in front of Amnesia up on Texoma. It gets the fly down there! I have fished a sink line down in the Red River and had no real trouble with it. Never have touched a sink tip to speak of so cannot speak to that subject.

I have both sink tip and full sink lines. I have 4wt full sink I got from dorber.com for $15.00 -- worth the price.
and a 5wt sink head. I agree with Budd, full sink casts easier but its harder to pick up the line for the next cast. I'm not very particular about how my casts look, I just care if I can get the fly where it needs to go, so I am willing to live with a little ugliness that the sink tip provides.

I keep forgetting about Dorber. I need to pick up a few lines from them.