CND,

I think it depends on two things, the fishing situation at hand and personal preferences. I don't care to cast weighted flies; I've never found that to be at all pleasant unless the weight is too little to matter. However, some situations fish better with a weighted fly fished from a floating line than with any kind of sinking line, unweighted fly arrangement. Small streams, especially, exhibit holding water in small pockets or deep, narrow slots that require that a deep sunk fly get down quickly and be fished dead drift straight downstream, rather than across the current on the swing. Weighted flies are well suited to such situations, and sink tips with unweighted flies are pretty much a waste of time - if hooking fish is the intended outcome.

I've also heard that sink tips don't cast as well as full floating or sinking lines. This is true, but a sink tip casts and handles much better, in my opinion, than casting a weighted fly. It just happens that unweighted flies fished on sink tip lines are well suited to larger rivers with broad holding areas where a wet-fly swing fishes well. BTW, a 15' sink tip casts and handles significantly better than a 10' sink tip.

Weighting a fly certainly changes the flies behavior in the water, but fish still eat them, witness the great popularity of weighted nymphs for trout fishing. It seems that unweighted nymphs are seldom fished anymore in rivers, only still waters.

It comes down to your preference, whether you just want to fish, or if you want to do it with grace and style. Whatever yields the greatest personal satisfaction; and that may change from time to time.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.