ROI

     I was sitting in my home office recently, staring angrily at my twice-used Rio Mainstream Type VI full sink line that was recently demoted from the reel and wound back onto its original plastic in-box container.  The statistics were quite stark: $40 paid, and zero fish to show for it.  The line had experienced a late afternoon on the West Branch of the Delaware and an evening on the East Branch of the Delaware during a high water event without even a single hit.  Further, no confidence gained on my end of the product as I finished the outings absolutely fuming that my money wasn't spent on another need.  However, I told myself to stay the course because I know in fly fishing, things do tend to work themselves out.  You just have to solve the puzzle, and you never blame your tool.

     Above the water- a full sink line is actually quite a pleasure to cast.  Its density and thin diameter cuts through the wind and shoots itself quite amicably.  Don't ever skip a full sink because of what you read about casting- if you pay a little attention, it might even be a little easier than a WF6F.  If you time your rod load correctly, the line and the lever do their part well.  The only risk is any delay in the forward or back stroke- and it collapses because it is not as air resistant as a floating line.  I think with practice it will actually even make me a better floating line caster in the long run.

     I knew it might happen; I hated the line once it entered the river.  I am partly to blame because I cheaped out and did not buy a density compensated tip.  Thus, in the river, the belly sank aggressively and yet the fly was just a few inches from the top of the water to start the retrieve; something I forecasted with the cheaper line but never thought it'd be as bad as it was.  I awkwardly had to fish the "line" more than the fly.  I dismissed a floating line with a sink tip during the purchase because I didn't want that curve- I wanted a fairly tight connection to the fly.  Well, I got the curve anyway, it was just upside down, coming from bottom up.  The inverse geometry of what I wanted to avoid.

    

     
     What application might exist by which you cast your streamer, that, during the retrieve, progressively dives down, and then flattens out? ... The back up plan for this purchase was the local lake.   I had recently tied up a Lefty's Deceiver in baby bass colors that was killing me with anticipation anyway.

     A cast to a rock shelf, that starts two feet deep, quickly goes to four feet deep, and then deeper than I can see.  Tracing the depression with my odd shaped retrieve...

     And later, another drop off from the point of a cove came a cast that ended in white knuckles and a throbbing right forearm.  

     I am happy to report a return on investment.