I must agree with a previous post ... it's not the gear that makes for an unethical approach, it's the dangler.
I was fishing the three Gaspe-town rivers in late September a few years ago. I saw a very skilled angler take salmon with deep slow drifts of a large fly in quiet pools. It was totally ethical fishing ... the angler could see his fly, and he could see when the fly was taken by a fish. He threw his fly to the side of the pod of fish, not through it. His fish were fair hooked - in the chops.
I also have seen a guy fishing a floating line with a small wet fly ... in a dead still pool. He cast across-and-down, drifting the fly deep through a pod of fish and ... BINGO ... hookup!
I landed a fish for him that was hooked near the adipose fin. This angler displayed his true spirit when he asked me to take a photo of him and his 'caught' fish. This guy was fishing a beautiful dry fly spot, yet he never tried a dry. After a period of this treatment, the pool was useless for a dry ... or any other legal method.
The fish were terrified of a fly line.
I fished this spot after he'd had a good go at it ... and had 'hooked' several fish. Throwing a dry, I would lengthen my cast, yet the fish would mysteriously be out of range as the fly went over. Eventually, I pushed the pod out of the lie and up against the far bank. Then, the fish freaked out, rushing all over the pool and coming out of the water. It looked good ... active fish ... but it was terrible.
I once spent two days on prime pools trying to get a fly anywhwere near a fish. Turns out, I'd been following a couple of guys that were fishing slow, deep and across with floating lines and largish wet flies. I talked to them on one of these days and they proudly commented that they'd been hooking a lot of fish.
I guess!
For me, I don't like all the work of fishing a sinking line. I'm no casting legend, but this is how it feels to me. Pull in most of your line, roll cast the rest up to the surface, false cast, false cast, false cast, duck, fling, shoot and do one quick mend before the whole mess sinks ... all to make one swing! And talk about losing flies! I won't fish my Atlantic salmon flies out west, 'cause I can't stand losing a week's worth of work in an afternoon (I'm a slow tier
).
I live in BC now, and there is lots of water out here that cannot be fished with a floating line. I've seen skilled ethical fisherman on the east coast who fished deep and fair hooked the fish they were after. As several have said, it's the intent, not the gear that makes the angler. However, Howie is right ... you are likely to be called a few nasty names on some eastern Canadian rivers if you fish a sinker, no matter how ethical your approach may be.
So, sinking gear can be fished legally, and it can be done ethically. It's probably up to each individual's 'Brass Factor' to determine if they can live with the chatter that it may engender.
Jim Corrigan