Living with shooting heads

Trying to straighten up a bit of mess, reduce lines, and spools.

I have a mixed bag of 10 wt. and 12 wt. lines and heads that get used
for pike, stripers, and with spey rods for steelhead and chinook. I
could replace all of the lines with Airflo heads in 35' - 10wt., 35' -
12 wt., and 45' - 12 wt. sizes, in floating, intermediate, T3 and T7
for each set. I already have five or six of these so it's no biggie
to complete the sets. In the process, I can sell off three spools and
six lines.

Question is, has any one of you sal****er/striper/pike topguns ever
tried to live on a steady diet of shooting heads only?

Peter

Hi Peter,

For stripers out here in CA we use either the 'Teeny' type real fast ~25'
sinktips or shooting heads with fly line running lines.

For tropical flats fishing most use a weight forward floating full line most
of the time. The second most popular flats line is the weight forward clear
slow sinking full lines.

I used shooting head for the pas 40 years and my comment is "only use a
shooting head system if there is an advantage". Well that advantage can be
saving money because you don't have to buy so many spools. Another advantage
is that you can change heads quickly and have everything from a float head
to a lead core head.

I don't like them because I don't like to have those loops in my line for
many situations like stripping streamers or wet flies. I don't think having
the set of loops 'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying
to perceive a subtle take. For stripping wet flies in lakes for trout or
stripping on the flats I prefer full fly lines.

A head system with good braided mono or new welded loops and a good running
line fits in some situations but is not the answer for everything. In fact
many fly fishers will never need them for their particular fly fishing
profile.

I would not recommend shooting head over 30 feet for anyone wading with a
normal single handed rod. Especially with large bulking streamers.


After all these years I pick my time and place so I can fly fish with full
length weight forward floating line most of the time. I also prefer to use a
leader and mostly unweighted flies. I am headed for Cancun in August where I
will use a weight forward 8 floating tropical line all week in shallow water
for baby tarpon, snook, permit and bonefish. I guess I enjoy fly casting as
much as I enjoy fly fishing?

--
Bill Kiene

Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA, USA

Web site: www.kiene.com


"Peter Charles" wrote in message
om...

Trying to straighten up a bit of mess, reduce lines, and spools.

I have a mixed bag of 10 wt. and 12 wt. lines and heads that get used
for pike, stripers, and with spey rods for steelhead and chinook. I
could replace all of the lines with Airflo heads in 35' - 10wt., 35' -
12 wt., and 45' - 12 wt. sizes, in floating, intermediate, T3 and T7
for each set. I already have five or six of these so it's no biggie
to complete the sets. In the process, I can sell off three spools and
six lines.

Question is, has any one of you sal****er/striper/pike topguns ever
tried to live on a steady diet of shooting heads only?

Peter

Hi Peter,

For stripers out here in CA we use either the 'Teeny' type real fast ~25'
sinktips or shooting heads with fly line running lines.

For tropical flats fishing most use a weight forward floating full line most
of the time. The second most popular flats line is the weight forward clear
slow sinking full lines.

I used shooting head for the pas 40 years and my comment is "only use a
shooting head system if there is an advantage". Well that advantage can be
saving money because you don't have to buy so many spools. Another advantage
is that you can change heads quickly and have everything from a float head
to a lead core head.

I don't like them because I don't like to have those loops in my line for
many situations like stripping streamers or wet flies. I don't think having
the set of loops 'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying
to perceive a subtle take. For stripping wet flies in lakes for trout or
stripping on the flats I prefer full fly lines.

A head system with good braided mono or new welded loops and a good running
line fits in some situations but is not the answer for everything. In fact
many fly fishers will never need them for their particular fly fishing
profile.

I would not recommend shooting head over 30 feet for anyone wading with a
normal single handed rod. Especially with large bulking streamers.


After all these years I pick my time and place so I can fly fish with full
length weight forward floating line most of the time. I also prefer to use a
leader and mostly unweighted flies. I am headed for Cancun in August where I
will use a weight forward 8 floating tropical line all week in shallow water
for baby tarpon, snook, permit and bonefish. I guess I enjoy fly casting as
much as I enjoy fly fishing?

--
Bill Kiene

Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA, USA

Web site: www.kiene.com


"Peter Charles" wrote in message
om...

Trying to straighten up a bit of mess, reduce lines, and spools.

I have a mixed bag of 10 wt. and 12 wt. lines and heads that get used
for pike, stripers, and with spey rods for steelhead and chinook. I
could replace all of the lines with Airflo heads in 35' - 10wt., 35' -
12 wt., and 45' - 12 wt. sizes, in floating, intermediate, T3 and T7
for each set. I already have five or six of these so it's no biggie
to complete the sets. In the process, I can sell off three spools and
six lines.

Question is, has any one of you sal****er/striper/pike topguns ever
tried to live on a steady diet of shooting heads only?

Peter

(Peter Charles) wrote in
om:

Trying to straighten up a bit of mess, reduce lines, and spools.


Question is, has any one of you sal****er/striper/pike topguns ever
tried to live on a steady diet of shooting heads only?

Peter

Heads are the only thing I use in the Salt. Recently added a 9wt
to the arsenal.

Steve

(Peter Charles) wrote in
om:

Trying to straighten up a bit of mess, reduce lines, and spools.


Question is, has any one of you sal****er/striper/pike topguns ever
tried to live on a steady diet of shooting heads only?

Peter

Heads are the only thing I use in the Salt. Recently added a 9wt
to the arsenal.

Steve

"Bill Kiene" wrote in message
. com...
I don't like them because I don't like to have those loops in my line for
many situations like stripping streamers or wet flies. I don't think
having
the set of loops 'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying
to perceive a subtle take. For stripping wet flies in lakes for trout or
stripping on the flats I prefer full fly lines.

Hi Bill. What do you mean by "I don't think having the set of loops
'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying to perceive a
subtle take"?

How many loops have you got on your line? I've only got one loop connection
between my shootingline and the shooting head. I use a 9' foot S3S for all
my coastal fishing, and the only time where you'll notice the loop
connection, is when you pull the loop connection through the guides - which
will be 9 feet in total(aprox 4-10 seconds in total). Maybe you have some
"lousy" loops, I dont know, but my loops are so small that you'll rarely
notice them in practical fishing. I make my loops with the core of the
shootinghead and shootingline, and then pull the core into it self, tighten
up VERY hard and finish it with Loon softglue to make a nice "overlapping".


A head system with good braided mono or new welded loops and a good
running
line fits in some situations but is not the answer for everything. In fact
many fly fishers will never need them for their particular fly fishing
profile.

Again. Which loops do you use?!?!? I use full DT and WF lines for dryfly and
nymph fishing, but all coastal/lake fishing, I only use shooting heads -
with huge success i might add.


I would not recommend shooting head over 30 feet for anyone wading with a
normal single handed rod. Especially with large bulking streamers.

Why not? This is exactly what i use, and instead of doing 5-8 false casts
everytime, i now only have to do 2-4 to cast 30-40 yards. Saves me a lot of
energy, and as you know, "when the fly is in the air, you aint' gonna catch
fish" )


--
Bill Kiene

Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA, USA

Web site: www.kiene.com


Tight lines )
Thomas - DK

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:23:43 +0200, "Thomas Schreiber"
wrote:


"Bill Kiene" wrote in message
.com...
I don't like them because I don't like to have those loops in my line for
many situations like stripping streamers or wet flies. I don't think
having
the set of loops 'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying
to perceive a subtle take. For stripping wet flies in lakes for trout or
stripping on the flats I prefer full fly lines.

Hi Bill. What do you mean by "I don't think having the set of loops
'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying to perceive a
subtle take"?

How many loops have you got on your line? I've only got one loop connection
between my shootingline and the shooting head. I use a 9' foot S3S for all
my coastal fishing, and the only time where you'll notice the loop
connection, is when you pull the loop connection through the guides - which
will be 9 feet in total(aprox 4-10 seconds in total). Maybe you have some
"lousy" loops, I dont know, but my loops are so small that you'll rarely
notice them in practical fishing. I make my loops with the core of the
shootinghead and shootingline, and then pull the core into it self, tighten
up VERY hard and finish it with Loon softglue to make a nice "overlapping".


A head system with good braided mono or new welded loops and a good
running
line fits in some situations but is not the answer for everything. In fact
many fly fishers will never need them for their particular fly fishing
profile.

Again. Which loops do you use?!?!? I use full DT and WF lines for dryfly and
nymph fishing, but all coastal/lake fishing, I only use shooting heads -
with huge success i might add.


I would not recommend shooting head over 30 feet for anyone wading with a
normal single handed rod. Especially with large bulking streamers.

Why not? This is exactly what i use, and instead of doing 5-8 false casts
everytime, i now only have to do 2-4 to cast 30-40 yards. Saves me a lot of
energy, and as you know, "when the fly is in the air, you aint' gonna catch
fish" )




Tight lines )
Thomas - DK



Thomas, I'm also using homemade loops, using the fly line core, and
those together with the nice Airflo loops, don't cause me any problems
either.

As far as I can see, the advantages for me a

* Easy interchangeability
* Cheaper
* Only one spool necessary
* Long running lines can result in fly lines that are from 135' up to
195' long
* Easy to carry a broad range of heads with you on the water (no
bulky extra spools)
* Consistent casting as you always know where the end of the head is
(murder with a clear intermediate)
* You'll end up with a greater range of lines than you'd otherwise
own
* In my case, as I also spey cast, I can use different length heads
depending on whether I want to spey cast or overhead cast. The 12 wt.
45 footers are for overhead casting on my Atlantis 11' 11 wt. and spey
casting on my 10 wt. spey rod.
* The 12 wt. 35 footers will overhead cast on my Atlantis as well, on
a couple of spey rods, plus they'll be used underhand casting on my
shorter spey rods.
* The 10 wt. 35 footers will overhead cast on my 9' - 10 wt. and
underhand cast on my lightest spey rod.
* I'll actually use three spools of running line, a cold weather
floating, a cold weather intermediate, and a standard floating so I'll
support 12 heads and three spey sinktip combinations using Rio
BigBoys, all on three spools.

I'm having trouble finding the downside, hence my question.

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:23:43 +0200, "Thomas Schreiber"
wrote:


"Bill Kiene" wrote in message
.com...
I don't like them because I don't like to have those loops in my line for
many situations like stripping streamers or wet flies. I don't think
having
the set of loops 'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying
to perceive a subtle take. For stripping wet flies in lakes for trout or
stripping on the flats I prefer full fly lines.

Hi Bill. What do you mean by "I don't think having the set of loops
'clanking' through the guides is good when you are trying to perceive a
subtle take"?

How many loops have you got on your line? I've only got one loop connection
between my shootingline and the shooting head. I use a 9' foot S3S for all
my coastal fishing, and the only time where you'll notice the loop
connection, is when you pull the loop connection through the guides - which
will be 9 feet in total(aprox 4-10 seconds in total). Maybe you have some
"lousy" loops, I dont know, but my loops are so small that you'll rarely
notice them in practical fishing. I make my loops with the core of the
shootinghead and shootingline, and then pull the core into it self, tighten
up VERY hard and finish it with Loon softglue to make a nice "overlapping".


A head system with good braided mono or new welded loops and a good
running
line fits in some situations but is not the answer for everything. In fact
many fly fishers will never need them for their particular fly fishing
profile.

Again. Which loops do you use?!?!? I use full DT and WF lines for dryfly and
nymph fishing, but all coastal/lake fishing, I only use shooting heads -
with huge success i might add.


I would not recommend shooting head over 30 feet for anyone wading with a
normal single handed rod. Especially with large bulking streamers.

Why not? This is exactly what i use, and instead of doing 5-8 false casts
everytime, i now only have to do 2-4 to cast 30-40 yards. Saves me a lot of
energy, and as you know, "when the fly is in the air, you aint' gonna catch
fish" )




Tight lines )
Thomas - DK



Thomas, I'm also using homemade loops, using the fly line core, and
those together with the nice Airflo loops, don't cause me any problems
either.

As far as I can see, the advantages for me a

* Easy interchangeability
* Cheaper
* Only one spool necessary
* Long running lines can result in fly lines that are from 135' up to
195' long
* Easy to carry a broad range of heads with you on the water (no
bulky extra spools)
* Consistent casting as you always know where the end of the head is
(murder with a clear intermediate)
* You'll end up with a greater range of lines than you'd otherwise
own
* In my case, as I also spey cast, I can use different length heads
depending on whether I want to spey cast or overhead cast. The 12 wt.
45 footers are for overhead casting on my Atlantis 11' 11 wt. and spey
casting on my 10 wt. spey rod.
* The 12 wt. 35 footers will overhead cast on my Atlantis as well, on
a couple of spey rods, plus they'll be used underhand casting on my
shorter spey rods.
* The 10 wt. 35 footers will overhead cast on my 9' - 10 wt. and
underhand cast on my lightest spey rod.
* I'll actually use three spools of running line, a cold weather
floating, a cold weather intermediate, and a standard floating so I'll
support 12 heads and three spey sinktip combinations using Rio
BigBoys, all on three spools.

I'm having trouble finding the downside, hence my question.

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

I'm having trouble finding the downside, hence my question.

Peter


To make it short. I cant see any problems with a "shootinghead only diet". I
live on a shootinghead only diet ) I'd never leave for a fishingtrip
without my heads - dryfly and nymph as an exception. Allthough i never use
anything else than floating runninglines, and actually rarely change my
heads since i more or less use my shootinghead gear for coastal fishing for
seatrout only. I can see you use all kinds of runninglines with different
floating/sinking abillities. Also I only use onehand rods. I have no rods
which are longer than 9 feet actually )


/Thomas - DK

I'm having trouble finding the downside, hence my question.

Peter


To make it short. I cant see any problems with a "shootinghead only diet". I
live on a shootinghead only diet ) I'd never leave for a fishingtrip
without my heads - dryfly and nymph as an exception. Allthough i never use
anything else than floating runninglines, and actually rarely change my
heads since i more or less use my shootinghead gear for coastal fishing for
seatrout only. I can see you use all kinds of runninglines with different
floating/sinking abillities. Also I only use onehand rods. I have no rods
which are longer than 9 feet actually )


/Thomas - DK