What do you recommend for largemouth fishing in farm ponds (15' to 30' deep)? Will a sinking tip get the fly down deep enough?

For that depth, I prefer a full sink. However, a well weighted fly would get you down there as well.

depends if your in a boat or not. a full sink would be hard to manage fighting with underwater veggies near shore. I only use a full sink when i'm in my 'yak.. that's pretty deep to be fly fishing though. I almost NEVER fish that deep in ponds

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but 15 ft is a pretty deep stock pond in this part of the world. 30 feet would be the Marianas Trench of Texas farm ponds.

PondBass gave you some good advice on the full sink line. They can be a nightmare to deal with, even from a boat. Also, if you've never casted a sinktip line before, you should probably prepare yourself for a bit of initial frustration. They are...different.

Depending on how much money you're looking to spend, the Teeny fly lines that have 30 foot sink tips on them are a bit easier to cast and seem to perform well.

Thank you for the informative responses. Allow me to elaborate. My wife bought me an American Fish & Game Club (AFGC) membership for my birthday (a great wife, eh fellas ;-). If I read about their lakes near me (DFW - south), most don't give the depth. But some of those that do list the depth as 15', 20', even 30'. I am used to floating lines, but want to make sure that I have the correct line for these farm ponds, ranch ponds, and small lakes. Perhaps I would be wiser to start with an sink tip to get the hang of it?

my experience with sink is that most of 'em suck, I finally got a SA streamer express with a long sinking tip and its much better. Every time you strip a sinking fly it rises making a constant depth hard to maintain. A heavy rod with a weighted fly (some may call it lure casting) helps. But if I want to fish that deep, I use a baitcast or spinning rig.

wow dude, I just notice you've made 10 posts in like 5 years... I feel honored to answer yer question

First of all bass like to be shallow, second of all if a pond is 30 feet deep do you really want to be fishing 30 feet deep?

You can't fish deeper than say 4-6 feet with a heavy fly alone. No way. And if you do want to dredge the bottom at 30 feet or deeper, you will need to go to a shooting head or integrated head setup which is a whole other topic of discussion and probably way too much information for you at this point.

If you need to fish deeper than 4 feet but less than 20 get a SA Streamer Express or a Teeny line, but I can only vouch for the Streamer Express from personal experience.

just because the depth is 30 feet doesnt mean you'll be fishing that deep. I pond fish a lot and never fish that deep

Fishing with sinking line at those depths is not very fun. The only reason I did it was to catch a walleye on the fly on my Canada trip. I hoped to catch one of the large pike that was eating the walleye, but didn't. I ended up with the 38" pike below in about 2' of water (amazingly enough using the same full sink line).

Did anyone catch that last part, 38" fish...... FULL SINK LINE

I'd say there's your answer, go full sink, unless you DONT want to catch a 38" largemouth bass.

I have a full sink SA line, I like it. Use it lots. And, I'm the guy who tied for 1st place at the TFF 1st annual "It's January, Why Not Pickerel !" contest.

Thank y'all. Great information for when the bass are deep.

I would recommend a Jim Teeny T or TS shooting head line. The the shooting head will give you a 4 to 9 ips sink rate depending upon which size you choose. The floating running line will give you a better retrieve profile as you approach the bank in most situations. If you are wading the floating running line will not tend to get tangled in rocks and sticks if you are stripping it into water at your feet. This makes your next cast much easier.