Lee, generally speaking winter time most people use sink tips and alot more people use dry lines in the summer and fall. I would say that a sink tip in the 140 grain wt. range plus or minus 10 grains would get you through the winter just fine. As for the summer and fall some of the folks still use sink tips and most say that they use a light one. Personaly I have no intrest in fishing with a sink tip in the summer but on ocasion I will let my fly sink but that only puts it down a mere 1 to 3 inches. Granted I might not get as many fish as someone dredging the bottom but I don't want to catch that many fish I just want to catch the ones that I get my way.