What is the difference between an intermediate line and a slow sinker?

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"Take not out your 'ounds on a werry windy day" Surtees.

That depends Bill sink rates vary from company to company, a slow sinker is an intermediate, no doubt you will get varying answers too

As greenie says you should consider them all as sinking lines.

Airflo do a slow inter sinks at0.5 inch per second, fast inter 1.5inch per second ans I think they may have a middle one too now.

Maybe best to look at it as floating lines, sink tips and midge tips then the rest all sink, just at varying rates from 0.5inch a second to 7 inches and more.

Sinking Lines

Read this site, it has some very good information.
I believe that there are specific applications where you need to fish the line and not the fly. If you need an unweighted fly to deaddrift within a few inches of the surface, an intermediate will hold it there for longer, wheras a slow sinker, will do just that, make it sink.
An intermediate might nave a DI of 1 to 1.5, wheras a slow sinker could be anything up to type 1, or 2 or 2.5 DI, which is too much for certain stillwater situations. I tend to do all my stillwater fishing on a range clear intermediate lines between DI 1 or 1.5 and a minimal amount on a DI 3, type 2 line. Anymore than that is unusual, even in a reservoir that is very deep.

Hi Bill,
what i can make of it is that intermediate and hover lines are mostly clear because the core is a "heavy" translucent nylon coated with a clear copolymer (polyurethane) and that most of the sinking lines are coloured due to the braided core and the heavy (denser) coating. Apart from the different depths you can fish all these lines they might be chosen in view of their visibility to the fish in different types of water and the fishing technique. To make matters worse some will say that for every technique there is a specific line and given there are so many one could lose his way in the woods...it might be interesting to know what technique(s) you aim to use (the most) and to fit a line accordingly. Some techniques can easily be covered with one type of line. Sometimes this only means to wait a little longer to adequately fish at a different depth. I don't want to start about the speed of retrieve determining the fishing depth, cause that was not your question, i believe.

Hope this helps a bit,

Johan

Thanks Johan. The reason I asked was because for 90% of my fishing I use a floating line and I have a fast sink for lures and bottom fishing. I also use split shot on the leader if I want to sink the floating line below six feet or so, but it can be tricky adjusting the amount of shot.
I wanted to be able to search the layers more effectively and wanted to try the washing line with a slowly sinking booby or fab on the point.
When I went to buy a budget line online, the choice was between intermediate (no sink rate details) and slow or fast sink.
I don't really want to splash out on an expensive intermediate, until I know more what I am doing after experimenting for a while.

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"Take not out your 'ounds on a werry windy day" Surtees.

normaly an inch per second

Garry Evans have the six sense on offer, why not get the fast inter and DI3? Then you have options for all eventualities.

yes, this is correct to a point. I wouldn't bother with anything else except a floater and perhaps a medium sinker type 2, like a qood DI 3. Once you have sognificant experience, and need to fish certain depths, with unweighted flies, and slow retrieves, you might find that more specific lines will come in usefull.
The depth that a line will take the fly, is a little moot, if you are going to use shot or heavilly weighted flies. It takes away the benefits of fishing the line, and not the fly. You will find that most experienced lough (hope spelling is correct) and large reservoir anglers, have very few heavilly weighted flies in their box, and choose rather to determine the depth of the line, by the count down method. There is no way of telling how fast a particular weighted fly, or a fly with shot, will go, in any determined length of time. The problem with weighted flies and shot, is that once you get a fish, it is difficult to determine how to judge the depth on the next cast. If you are fishing the depth, by the lines descent index, it is easier to achieve consistencey in the depth that you want the flies to go. Once you have that right, you can begin to work on the correct retrieve. For slower retrieves, a slower sinking line or intermediate is usefull. For faster retrieves, as in lure, or streamer fishing, at different depths, I prefer a faster sinker, due to the ability for it to get to the required depth quicker, and, with a fast retrieve, it stays at the correct level, until the retrieve is changed, or stopped.

Buy a mid-price one, then. Pitsford Pirate will see you right. Or - try a midge tip, which does a similar job to a "slow intermediate" (really a hyper-slow sinker, as has been said above) and is perhaps nicer to use.

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"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton