The Truth About Tips - Part 2

So, in last week’s blog, we reviewed the different type of tips - let’s pick up where we left off by taking length.

When it comes to tip lengths, the options are going to come down to the specific brand you purchase.  

• Airflo’s polyleaders comes in 5’, 8’, 10’, and 14’ while their sink tips come in 10’ and 12’. 

• When you move into the Rio line, their series of Versileaders can range from 4’ to 12’ while the sink tips come in 10’ and 12.5’  

• Scientific Angler’s polyleaders come in 7’ and 10’ while their sink tips are offered in 8’, 10’, and 12’. 

Similar to the guidance on leaders, the length of the sink tip you want to run depends largely on the water conditions, your desired presentation, as well as the behavior of the fishing. If you want a more direct connection with the fly and have stained water, consider a shorter leader but if the water is clear and you need to be more subtle, consider a longer leader. In the waters I fish in the Lake Ontario tributaries, I’ve found 10-foot sink tips to work well. 

The final consideration is density which equates to how quickly your tip sinks (which applies to all of the tips above other than floating obviously). The standard measurement for the sink rate for tips is inches per second (IPS) - the higher the number, the quicker the tip sinks.  

The good news is that for polyleaders, the manufacturers have aligned some of the terminology to describe sink rates.  As example, most brands have a floating, hover, intermediate, fast sink, etc. And while the exact sink rates across products may differ, they are generally in the same ballpark (for hover, Airflo rates their polyleader at 0.5 in per second while Scientific Angler’s Sonar leader is 1 in per second). 

Things get a bit more complex in the sink tip work because brands like Rio, Scientific Angler, Airflo, OPST have their own systems. 

• Rio and Airflo both use tungsten in their sink tips which are measured in grains and generally are decided based on how many grains there are per foot. As an example, a tip rated as T-8 will have 8 grains per foot so if you have a 10ft tip, the total tip weight equals 80 grains.   

• Scientific Anglers also uses tungsten but prefers to use the measurement “Sink X” (or Type X for other brands). This references not the grain weight but the IPS – for example a Sink 3 sink tip is rated at 3 in per second. 

• OPST has their own system which is best explained by their product gurus - https://pureskagit.com/pages/more-on-opst-tips  

Additionally, not all brands will have tips at the same density. For example, Airflo offers T-7, T-10, T-14, and T-18 while Rio has T-8, T-11, T-14, and T-17. 

For the more advanced angler, some brands offer sink tip material in bulk which you can use to build custom sink tips to match how you want to fish. In addition, many companies also offer multi-density tips with an example of Rio’s MOW tip which comes in a 5 ft float, 5 foot T-8 configuration. 

At the end of the day, tip selection comes down to personal preference both in terms of length / sink rate as well as brand (note: I am not an ambassador or paid spokesperson for any of the brands listed above). 

So there you have it folks...tips in a nutshell and hopefully, I haven’t left you head spinning. 

Until next time,
Jay