Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Lake Fly Lines

How many of you love to fish lakes (Stillwater)? Here are our favorite must have lines for fishing stillwater. To qualify as a favorite, it has to perform well and cover the needs of the various techniques used in fishing lakes. The list below are our favorites…

FLOATING APPLICATIONS:

RIO Elite Stillwater Floater: Perfect ALL AROUND fly line. Easily cast long leaders and multi fly systems such as when fishing Chironomids (buzzers). Also has a 2’ Orange colored tip section which helps in bite detection.

Available in 5 through 8 weight lines.

Scientific Anglers Anadro (Stillwater Indicator): Designed specifically for indicator fishing stillwater systems such as Chironomids (buzzers). The long rear taper gives extended line control when casting long distances. Overweight 1.5 sizes to help turn over heavier rigs like indicators and appropriate sized streamers.

Available in 4 through 9 weight lines.

NOTE: RIO Grand - Is another line that works as a good floating line but not necessarily a lake specific line.

SUB-SURFACE APPLICATIONS:

RIO Camolux: This is a full intermediate 1.5 line that is deadly efficient for fishing between 2’ and 6’ depths in lakes.

Available in 4 through 8 weights.

RIO Midge Tips: Perfect for fishing unweighted nymphs and Chironomids (buzzers) in the top foot of the water column. These lines come in a 3’ clear intermediate tip (Midge Tip) that sinks about 1.5” per second or a 6’ long (Midge Tip Long) gray hover tip that sinks about 1” per second. These are DEADLY effective and MUST HAVE on windy days when fishing close to shores or even the top of weed beds.

Available in line sizes 5 through 8 weights.

Scientific Anglers Sonar Stillwater Clear Camo: If being stealthy is your game this full intermediate (1.25 ips) line which is built over a camouflage core will give you the ultimate in stealthiness.

Available in line sizes 4 through 8 weights.

Scientific Anglers Sonar Stillwater: This is a full intermediate line based on their popular MPX taper. Overweight by a full size allowing for bigger flies and long leaders.

Available in an Emerger Tip: 5’ clear intermediate tip (1.25 ips) with floating running line and head for fishing just under the surface.
Available in a Clear Camo: Full intermediate over a camo core.
Available in a Hover: Extra-slow sinking hover (1 ips) for fishing the film.

Deep Stillwater Applications:

RIO Premier Fathom: Each of these lines have a short, quick-loading head for minimizing the number of false casts, and for quick, easy distance, and a color contrast between the head and the running line to easily show the line's loading point. In addition, each line is built with a Hang Marker that shows anglers when to stop stripping, and when to fish the "hang".

Sink 3 (3ips) - Available in 5 through 8 weights.
Sink 5 (5ips) - Available in 5 through 8 weights.
Sink 6 (6ips) - Available in 5 through 8 weights.
Sink 7 (7ips) - Available in 6 through 8 weights.

Final Note: This is a short list of line possibilities, and a few of our favorites. If you’re a beginner or advanced stillwater fisherman with any questions regarding lines, give us a call, we love to talk fishing and techniques and would love to help get you dialed.

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