Integrated lines or sink-tip/running line?

That surf12foot guy got me addicted to bottom fishing with a fly rod, and I working hard to come up to speed.

I used an integrated S-6 sink-tip line and fifteen feel of T-17 with a 9wt single-hand rod last season.  That worked, but I could never get comfortable with it no matter how much I opened up the loop and practiced.  I'd go so far as to say it was darned uncomfortable to hear sharp pointy things whizzing so close to my ear.

Thinking I might want to work with an intermediate shooting line and (TBD feet) of T-20 this year.

Is anyone using a running line/sink tip set-up?  Does it require it's own New! and Exciting! casting skills?  And does it seem to increase or decrease the hinge effect?
 
(I don't need more hinge!)

This might be a stupid question Tinker, but why not use a full sinking line?

This might be a stupid question Tinker, but why not use a full sinking line?

Not a thing stupid about that question.  Sink rate charts show that I can (theoretically) get a shooting line plus twenty feet of T-20 down to 50 feet very nearly as fast as I could using a full sinking line and 15 feet of T-20.

That combination of full sinking line+15 feet of T-20 is overloading the rod by a bit more than one-and-three-quarters line weights, making it all noodly.  The combination of an intermediate shooting line plus 20 feet of T-20 is overloading the rod by not quite one-half line weight and barely affects the action of the rod.

For practice, I've used an old fly line that I cut the head from then added a braided loop to the remaining length of intermediate running line.  The braided loop allows more hinge than the hinge produced when adding the sink tip to the front loop of an (intact) WF9I line.  My test combination added more hinging.  Plus, I don't trust braided loops.

I know from using sink tips last year that I can change tips faster than I can change spools (I don't need to re-thread the rod).
 
So... it's for helping keep the rod+line closer to it's design limits, which, when practice-casting, keeps the action of the rod a close match to my casting style, which gives me ~10 yards more casting distance; to add a bit of flexibility with changing conditions (a top-water frenzy breaks out, for example); and I hope that if I can reduce the hinging, it will be easier to protect the lovely symmetry of my ears.

(And shooting line costs less than a full sinking line. That doesn't hurt, either.  We go through a lot of T-20...) 

Oh I see what you are doing.  I did not understand the T-20 reference until I did a search.  So you are using Rios Level T lines?  This is than attached to a Sink Tip line?  Now I see where your "hinging" comes into play.  I have used "Shooting Tapers" with Amnesia running line years ago but never in this combination.  As I have never fly fished for bottom fish, how do you actually present the fly?  I would think that making long cast is not really necessary.  Just cast and feed line out while paddling backwards.  I am assuming this doesn't work.

Thanks for sharing Tinker.

Like Rio Level T, but not necessarily Rio brand, but yes.

When I'm trying for bottom fish with a fly, if, for example, the fish are down forty feet (and there's not a web of kelp), I'm going to try at least a forty-foot cast to let the fly sink quickly.  Making a short cast and letting the fly pull line that hasn't been cast significantly slows the descent.

When I'm getting a sink rate of maybe 10 inches per second, forty feet is deep water.

I haven't tried paddling backwards maybe it would work, maybe not so good.  I don't know for sure where the fly is going until I can spot it on the fish finder.  The fly and line are being pulled-hither-and-yon by the current, and often times by more than a single current.

I haven't tried intentionally moving the kayak.  It's worth a try.