I am a product of Texas public schools that teach to the lowest common denominator in the class room .

Back on the subject at hand, I think you'd also have to take into account the ability of a certain material to hold onto air despite its actual density and or specific density.

I am still wondering if you can get a fly to sink down deep without any added weight...

Ain't it grand? It's not just Texas schools, I've now gone to 11...or 12? schools in 4 states, and it sucks everywhere you go.





I choose to call this bubbleosity. Since this is such a cool topic obviously we need to coin a cool word to describe some of the characteristics therein. So, bubbles captured within the material of the fly will of course slow the sinkrate. Well in order to get deep without using undue amounts of wire/shooting head, I will turn back a bit to the page of the old steelheaders. Marabou is such a great material, but it captures a ton of air; rabbit is less of a problem. Long webby hackles tend not to capture much air. If you look at traditional wet steely flies you will see a very slim profile, stout hook and very sparse use of materials. Some of these flies are nothing more than a dozen bucktail hairs, thread wrap and a bit of tinsel. Flies like the Doc Spratley use a bit more material, but it's long hackle and a bit of other feather (traditionally), and these materials have little bubbleosity. I am flipping through a pattern book currently and it looks like chenille is also used quite a bit, although that could just be a modern convention with the advent of sinking lines. It seems to me that dubbing might not hold as much air as chenille, but I have no data to back that up. The main takeaway from my quick research is - avoid a bulky profile, avoid materials with high bubbleosity, and no matter what material you're using, sparse is better if you're trying to go deep.

I'm lost...


ok i'm goin to the vise for a prototype

I'll be honest with you though TRR, when I was fishing for steelies, I had little choice. I only had a floating line but by using a really long leader (12-13 feet, most of the time)and a crappie jig (yeah, I said it) I could get down to them. Noone told me I couldn't do it, and I made it work. I have carried this lesson forward with me in my fishing career and have put it to good use throwing way-too-heavy flies on long leaders (yeah, I've hit myself in the back of the head before...) to get down to fish when I've had to, like here during the winters when the fish all stack in the deepest holes they can find. Caught my personal best speckled trout (23") and lots of other good fish using this very technique. It's not pretty, and it's not on topic, but it works

Which is why I used both terms. It has been my experience in the past when the term "specific gravity" is used I get blank stares,but when "density" is used everyone nods their head with understanding. I guess I could have tossed in total mass vs gravity, but was not sure if that would muddy the waters more or not. Sorry I should have known that this group is above the avg. I.Q. I deal with daily. I am a product of Texas public schools that teach to the lowest common denominator in the class room .