Seen these sink tips?

[junk4jones]

I sent off to Amazon for these Orvis sink tips that you can supposedly just loop onto the end of your floating line.

Then I talked with a guy in the fly shop who said a sink tip would not work that way because of the weight. (I've already got 9 weight on my rod; adding a sink tip would bump the weight up and overload the rod.)

These Orvis dealios look like they're designed for that kind of use. The handful of buyer reviews I've found online are all positive.

Anyone know enough to straighten out my confusion? Soon as I get decent river conditions to coincide with a day off I'll go find out for myself--but wouldn't mind hearing your two cents.

 

[ninja2010]

if you have a 9wt rod, it should be able to handle between 230-250 grains of line for overhead casting. the aftma rates lines by weighing the first 30ft, so your 9 wt line should fall within that grain window. but bear in mind that's all for overhead casting.

if you intend to cast a different way, ie: water borne/sustained anchor or touch and go style of casting, then the grain window can be increased. by way of example, i cast a 540 grains line on my 13 ft 7wt 2-handed rod, and i usually slip on about 140 grains of sinktip to the end. but that's for sustained anchor casting. when i use the rod for lighter flies with touch-and-go style of casting, i use a 480 grain line that's a bit longer.

anyhoo.... to answer your question... yes, you can slip on the sinktip. but if attempt to cast the full line and sinktip overhead, your rod might collapse on you. although, you can also compensate by pulling in more of your fly line and have, say, only 20ft out with the sinktip, instead of the full line, and you would be able to cast that without overloading your rod. you'll have to experiment a bit to find the sweet spot where the right length of line should be. then use a marker to mark the line and you're good to go.

but, you have to bear in mind that in order to get proper turnover, the line has to have more mass than the sinktip or the loop could be ugly and dump before it has a chance to fully turn over. but looking at the sinktip you're eyeing, i think you'll be fine as it's a pretty light sinktip.

hope that helps, and i didn't confuse you even further.

 

[junk4jones]

Dude, you're the Go-To Guy. You're right--the specs are beyond me, at least until I become enough of a gearhead to keep up. I think I understood this part, though:

you can also compensate by pulling in more of your fly line and have, say, only 20ft out with the sinktip, instead of the full line, and you would be able to cast that without overloading your rod. you'll have to experiment a bit to find the sweet spot where the right length of line should be. then use a marker to mark the line and you're good to go.

Thanks for the response!

 

[ninja2010]

sorry to overload. i'm far from the go-to guy... just learned a lot while trying to dial in the right lines for my rods.

anyway, the specs (grains) is just a unit of weight - 437.5 grains = 1 oz. so 30 ft of your 9wt line should be about 5/8 oz.

 

[abibibo]

I've had a pair of the Orvis sink tips for a couple years and occasionally use them on my 7 weight. With my setup they are semi-useable, though it aint pretty and certainly increases the effort while decreasing my overall casting ability. However, this is my first winter in Oregon and, with the bigger rivers out here, I expect that I'll be needing a sinking line a lot more often than I did in the great lakes tribs. I'll probably be investing in a spare spool and a actual sinking line setup sometime in the near future. But, if you can make those tips work their price can't be beat.

 

[junk4jones]

Excellent! That's both good news and a reliable endorsement from a human user. Thanks!

 

[GDBrown]

I'll add this tip.....
I use a 7wt rod with 6wt line and a sink tip, the extra weight is balanced by over-weighting the rod to the line. Works great for me, has anyone else done this?

GD