5. Fishing intermediate lines in lakes. (5 of 18)

If the fish are very shallow, under four feet deep, you'll usually be able to spot them if the water's clear enough and a floating line is about all you'll need. Weighted flies are useful here, too. And, you don't need to worry about the splash a weighted fly makes because the plop of a weighted fly may actually attract a hungry bass. If you suspect the bass are in deeper water or if you can't see bass on the spawning beds, they'll likely be in four to 10 feet of water, close to the spawning beds.
You'll need to get deeper in the water column and will need to get your fly in this deeper water throughout your retrieve so a sink tip or intermediate line is a better choice. So I'm using an intermediate line and a weighted fly so that I can get deep if I need to. You have that intermediate slow sinking line if I want to go in and fish the shallows, I still am not hanging bottom every time.
And what you want to do is make sure that you keep your rod tip low to the water. We've got a little bit of wind today. And, if you keep your rod tip low to the water, you're going to keep that fly totally in control. You're not going to have a lot of slack blowing around in the wind and you're also going to be able to see and feel those strikes a lot better. For deeper water, let the line and fly sink using the countdown method as intermediate line sink at about one and a half to two inches per second.
Oh, wow. Beautiful. When using an intermediate line in deeper water, make sure you keep your rod tip low and your line tight to the fly as bass will often take the fly on the initial drop.
Watch for the line to tighten or twitch as it sinks. In shallower water, with an intermediate line, just begin your retrieve quicker so the fly fish is at an effective depth and prevents snagging on the bottom.