Sink Tips and Leaders for Two-Handed Setups

In the 1980s, if something was really complicated, we compared it to programming a VCR (that's a video cassette recorder, that thin...

In the 1980s, if something was really complicated, we compared it to programming a VCR (that's a video cassette recorder, that thing that played tapes on the tv). Setting up a VCR was confusing and overly complicated. Figuring out sink tips for two handed rod is about as complicated as programming a VCR was in 1984. While we cannot make it less complicated, we can guide you through the process so that you get the right setup for your situation.

Regardless of whether you have a switch or a spey rod, you might want to use a sink tip. Sink tips are very useful for swinging flies, which is what most two-handed anglers are doing with those big rods. You probably want to use the right tip to match your rod and your line. If you need a primer on two-handed lines, you can check that out here.

The three basic styles of two-handed lines are: Skagit, Scandi and Switch. Skagit, from the Skagit River in Washington and Scandi, from Scandinavia. These two styles are similar, but have some big differences, mostly where the weight is distributed in the line. The third style, Switch, are usually build for using indicators, but can also be used for swinging flies.

Skagit Heads

A Skagit system with head, running line and tips

Skagit Heads, like the Rio Skagit Max, are built to be completed with a 10'-12' sink tip. They do not cast well without one. Actually, they cast really poorly without one.

Because the head itself is very heavy, the tips that finish it off will be as well. Lets think about a Skagit Max 550 grain head. This is a typical size for a 13' 7wt rod. The head is 23' long and 550 grains. That is about 23 grains per foot on average.

Grains are a measure of mass. There are 13.4 grains per gram and 28 grams per ounce. A typical line for a 9' 7wt is 165 grains.

Including a typical 110 grain sink tip, a 7wt spey rod is throwing 660 grains, or 4x the weight of that 7wt trout line. That means there is a lot of weight being thrown in a short line, and that means that there is a lot of power in that cast and we can match it up with heavy tips.

MOW Tips - Industry Standard

Rio MOW tips are built to match Rio Skagit heads. They are made in Light, Medium, Heavy and Extra Heavy weights. A MOW Medium Tip is 10' of T-11. That is 11 grains per foot of straight tungsten (110 grains total), which is less than half of the average grain weight of the head, but it is still a really chunky sink tip. Most of us would have a really hard time casting that on a 9' 7wt rod. Mow Heavy (10' of T-14) is even heavier. T-11 has a sink rate of 8-9 inches per second, and T-14 sinks about a foot per second. Both of those are great tips for Skagit heads, and are the two that are used the most in Pacific Northwest Winter Steelheading. These tips are used because of the mass of the tip. It roughly matches that of the end of the Skagit head, so there is an easy transfer of energy from the head to the tip.

OPST Sink Tips - Smooth Casting

There are also floating and intermediate MOW tips or iMOW tips (intermediate sink). Those have a place and time, but also don't get as much action as the 10' sinking tips do. MOW tips also have other configurations with partial sink sections mixed with floating or intermediate sections. There is plenty of intel about the different MOW tips available online. What you need to know is that they complete a Skagit head system.

As an alternative, we have OPST sink tips. They are "grained" out to a desired mass. So you can have tips that are all a specific grain weight, but have varying sink rates, and even varying lengths. These are slightly different than the MOW tips in that the sinking MOW tips all have constant sink rates based on the mass, and OPST tips have the same mass, but differing sink rates. These are a great match to a Skagit head. They make it so that you can switch tips, but the weight and line length that you are casting remains the same.

Leaders for Skagit Heads

Leader length and structure can vary a lot from region to region and from angler to angler, but there are some basics for sink tip leaders. Most Skagit anglers will use a 3'-6' section of level tippet, like Maxima Ultragreen or Rio Steelhead/Salmon Tippet. For steelhead on the west coast, we tend to use 10# or 12# in the summer and 12# or 15# in the winter, but that is really variable. We tend to use shorter sections in dirty water or with unweighted flies, and longer chunks in clear water and with heavier flies. When fishing muddy, zero visibility water, one of our local anglers will use 2' or less of tippet with an unweighted fly. That is a bit extreme, but it works for him.

If you are using a floating tip on your Skagit line, a 9'-12' tapered steelhead leader is going to be the ticket, although you will usually want a shorter one if you are throwing a really heavy fly.

Scandi Heads

Scandi heads are a bit lighter than Skagit heads. They are built to throw smaller flies and generally, they don't handle sink tips as well as a Skagit line. The bulk of the weight is farther back in the head, so the energy that reaches the tip of the line is less than with a Skagit head. This means less splashy casts with lighter presentations. Scandi lines can be fished with light tips or with no tip at all. While Skagit heads are built to have a heavy sink tip to complete it, Scandi heads can be considered complete all on their own.

Rio Versileaders are sink tips that are meant to be used with a complete fly line. Think of them as a sinking leaders. They have little mass, and will not affect the weight of the line or the quality of the cast anywhere near as much as a MOW tip. The big difference in the two is that the MOW tip finishes a line system and the Versileader is added to a completed line.

Versileaders do not have much mass to them, although they do have decent sink rates. The problem is that they don't stay down in the water like a MOW tip. They can "help" get your fly down, but they will not let you dredge the bottom. I have been fishing with fast sinking versileaders, and have seen my fly just underneath the surface halfway through my swing, so I know that it is not getting down very much, but just under the surface is all you need sometimes. Versileaders also come in floating versions, and many Scandi anglers like them with small steelhead flies, as they claim that their cast often times lays out straighter than without them.

If you wish to throw smaller flies, but you want them to get down, there are other options: Rio's Scandi Short Versitip and Scandi Versitip are both great scandi lines that have true sink tips built in. Instead of adding a sink tip to the end, Rio has basically cut off the front 10' or 15' of the Scandi head and added a set of removable, matching sink tips. This setup is great, but it is still not going to let you throw really big flies. The tips are part of the line and have more mass than a sinking leader, and will get a fly down, just not a really big fly, and not really deep.


A good tapered leader goes a long ways

So to make things more complicated, these Versitip systems have a different type of tip, and they are more similar to the OPST tips than a MOW tip or Versileader. They are also called "replacement tips" when you buy the tips individually (we don't have them listed on the website). They are matched in grain weight to your line and have varying sink rates without changing the mass. I would not suggest using those unless you have the Versitip line to match.

Scandi Leaders

With most two-handed fishing, the formula is pretty similar. 9'-12' tapered leaders are going to be perfect for floating lines/heads, while 3'-6' of level tippet is used on most sink tips. Versileaders are no exception. They are a tapered leader and tippet can be added to them just like most other tapered leaders.

Switch Lines

Switch Chucker is a chunker of a line

Switch lines are becoming more popular, and are often touted as a line that can do it all; overhead cast, nymph, swing, strip. Most of the switch lines on the market do one or two of those things well. The most popular switch line is the Switch Chucker. It is big and heavy like a Skagit head, and will take a MOW tip or OPST tip just fine. This line never casts great, tip or not, but they do get the job done. There are also similar lines from Scientific Anglers and Cortland.

Rio's Switch line is built more like a single handed nymphing line. It has a long taper, which makes mending the line at a distance easy, and it makes casting overhead a bit easier too. It is a bit less clunky than the Switch Chucker. It will handle a MOW light tip just fine, but Versileaders are a better fit for this line. This line is primarily used for nymph fishing, and it handles an indicator better than a sink tip, but it will throw that tip when you need it to. Again, these lines do a lot of different things, but they don't do everything really well.

You can, of course, make a variety of tips fit a variety of lines. Some of those might cast very well, some might not cast so well.... We like to match tips with lines that will really make casting and fishing easier on you and your weary arms, and there are some good combinations out there. Please feel free to give us a call if you have any questions about this or anything else that you are curious about.