Stillwater fly fishing has become my hyperfocus within fly fishing. Don’t get me wrong I still hit the rivers for trout or jetty for rockfish or some of the best smallmouth bass water in the world, from time to time, but stillwater trout has been so much fun and produces some absolute monster fish. Like almost all of fly fishing, stillwater fly fishing is daunting, and one of the most daunting parts of it is getting your flies in the zone and that requires different lines. I carry with me 15+ fly lines with me in my stillwater boat box and I’m going to get into why, what lines, and how to use them.
Floating
I only have two floating lines in my boat box. They are both the same taper but in different weights; one for my 6wt rod and one for my 7wt rod. I should have a longer, more “delicate” taper floating line for just fishing dries. I would put on a 5wt if I wanted a dedicated dry fly set up. The floating lines I do have are the Airflo Superflo Stillwater Float. This line I believe has been discontinued for the Sixth Sense 2 Floater. Both these lines are designed to cast a “team” of flies or an indicator set up. Comparable lines from Scientific Angler and Rio would be the MPX from SA and the Rio Stillwater Floater. If I wanted a more dry fly approach because I was going to be fishing the shore with hoppers and ants I would choose the Rio Gold, SA Trout, or Airflo Universal Taper.
Midge/sink tip
These lines were super new to me when I first started stillwater fishing. They were new to most anglers as well to be fair. These are “short” sink tips on floating lines and they can range from a few inches to 12’ and sink rates from 8 ips to .5 ips. With that kind of variability the choices can be daunting but you can simplify it. My first midge/emerger tip line was the SA Sonar Stillwater Clear Emerger Tip. This line is built on the MPX taper and is great at turning over flies. It is also 5’ long and has a sink rate of 1.5 ips. This line got me into how effective this style of line can be. The next line I got was the Airflo Superflo Anchor Tip. This line is designed to fish chironomids like they are under an indicator without using an indicator. The anchor tip has a 3′ mini tip (1.5ips) with an additional 6″ of Di 7 at the tip (7ips). This “anchors” the line in the water. After that I got two 12’ long tip lines, one that sinks at 1.5 ips and one that sinks at .5 ips. The last one I got was a 6’ tip that sinks at .5 ip. They all have their place in my setup but the ones that get the most work are the SA Sonar Stillwater Clear Emerger Tip and the Airflo Superflo Sink Tip (6’ .5 ips).
Intermediate
My favorite stillwater line by far and away is the Airflo Sixth Sense 2 Intermediate. I specifically like the fast intermediate version. I use it more than any of my other lines in my kit by far and away. It is a great searching line and gets the job done. I had the old version and loved it just as well. The other intermediate line I have on hand is the Rio Aqualux and the SA Sonar Stillwater Hover line. The Aqualux is a fast glass line so it performs nearly identically to the Airflo line but it’s clear and not opaque. There are times I want that but it’s becoming rarer and rarer. The SA hover only sinks at 1 ips. This is a great line when the fish are just under the surface but the wind has picked up. They also sell slow intermediate lines that sink at .5 ips and I have found that I don’t really have a need for that, especially with the sink tips I currently carry.
Full sinking
A full sinking line is any sinking line with a seamless density faster than 1.5 ips. For me I carry a 3 ips, 5 ips, and 7 ips Airflo Sixth Sense 2. Some stillwater anglers prefer the 2,4,6,8 method but to each their own. There is another full sink line out there called the booby basher and it is produced by Airflo. This is an extremely specialized super fast sinking line specifically for fishing boobies on the bottom of the lake. This line would be phenomenal in a place with a soft bottom and where you might fish buoyant flies deep (think Pyramid Lake). The other lake lines are mostly for pulling flies back to you at speed. You can also use a 7 ips or 8 ips line for dangling chironomids under the boat. These lines have saved my bacon a few times. It was really educational when I was fishing a coastal Oregon lake and the day started with a fast intermediate and brass beaded flies but I ended up changing to tungsten then to a 3 ips and then a 5 ips by the end of the day and was able to catch fish consistently throughout the day.
Sweep
These are probably the most special class of line a stillwater angler would have on them. These lines can also be called parabolic lines. They sink at an X/Y/X rate so the middle number, the belly, will sink faster than the head and the running line so that the line sinks in a parabolic arch. I use them as learning lines. If the fish eat right away I know they are high in the water column, if they eat in the middle of the retrieve then I know they are at the deepest point on the line, and at the end if I get an eat I know they are very “chasey” and I might need to pick up the pace on my retrieve. I have the SA Sonar Stillwater Parabolic line (3/5/3) and the Rio Clean Sweep line (1.5/4/2). I love the SA line but If I could go back in time I would have gotten the Airflo Sixth Sense Sweep lines in 1/3/1, 3/5/3, and 5/7/5 and have a more consistent presentation. They are hard to find so I’ll be happy with my SA and Rio selection. The other thing these lines do very well is fish drop offs and weed edges. Places like East, Paulina, South Twin, and North Twin Lakes are perfect places for these lines due to them being caldera lakes. The biggest downside? You need to cast far with these lines to get out as much line as possible to create the parabolic arch, so fishing with a 7wt or a good 6wt is encouraged.
All in all I have 15, 6wt lines, for all purpose fishing and 3, 7wt lines, for my shore fishing. I know its a lot but I have them on cassettes and use a boat box to keep them organized. Not every angler needs that many lines and I would say hardly any anglers need much more than 3-5 lines in their kit, but there are few of us that are a little nuts and we like to cover all our bases and the bases we haven’t heard about yet.
As always let me know if you have any questions or comments down below or through our contact page.
