Shooting Heads

[Traditionalist]

Since a few people asked, some info:

What is a "shooting head"? What can I do with it? Do I really need one?

Basically a shooting head is just a piece of line of a certain length and weight, designed to carry out a specific task.

Although shooting heads are widely considered to be pure distance tools, this is not at all the case. Of course they are excellent distance tools, but when correctly set up, they can be used for a whole host of things. The abbreviation used for shooting heads is "ST". For instance, a ready made head might be designated ST#7F. This translates to "Shooting Taper, AFTM #7, Floater.

The AFTMA, American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association, which is now the ASA, American Sportfishing Association, originally defined some standards for fly lines. These standards were based on the first thirty feet of any given line, ( excluding any level tip, if present), and have been in use for a long time now.

The "taper" on most shooting heads is the same as the taper on the front of a DT on standard heads, but there are in the meantime a great many "special" tapers available.

Of course one may buy shooting heads "ready-made", including those with special tapers, but these will practically never match either the rod, or your preferences.

How do I get one suited to my particular purposes then?

First of all, one has to determine what those purposes might be.

It is as well to know how these things are defined, and the nomenclature in use.

A shooting head is basically any piece of line other than a full line, which is joined to shooting line by a knot or similar. That is to say, any line where the shooting line is not "integrated" at manufacture.

Any line with a head and running line section which are seamlessly integrated, may be referred to as Weight Forward ( WF) fly line. Rocket Tapers, Bass Bug Tapers, Saltwater Tapers, Steelhead Tapers, Triangle Tapers and Teeny Tapers are all weight Forward Fly Lines. The integrated shooting line, is in this case referred to as "running line".

Assume we wanted a head for pure distance casting, then we must find a piece of line which suits our rod and other preferences exactly. As this particular type of casting is more suited to the competition and tournament fields, we will leave this for the moment, and move on to more practical considerations. Suffice it to say here, that the shooting head for distance is irrevocably linked to the double haul, which was first introduced to competition casting by Marvin Hedge at the 1934 Nationals in St. Louis.

We will first take a look at a specific practical use for shooting heads, namely, fly fishing in saltwater.

As a shooting head rarely even enters the rod-rings during this type of fishing, it does not have to be of any extreme quality. One may use mill end DT´s and cut them as desired. This is cheap and easy.

How does one decide what weight line to use in the first place?

As a rough guide, here is a table, for roughly matching fly-sizes to
lines;

The larger the number ( up to size 1/0) the smaller the hook. Above 1/0 the
larger the number, the larger the hook.

Line Weight Fly size
3 28 -12
4 up to 10
5 up to 8
6 up to 6
7 up to 4
8 12 - 1/0
9 up to 2/0
10 up to 3/0
11 up to 4/0
12 up to 6/0

There is a lot of overlap, and heavy ( weighted) or bulky flies will require a heavier line than indicated in the table. There is a lot of nonsense talked about "weightless" flies etc. Here again, there is no such animal. The larger the fly the heavier it is. Bulky flies also have more air resistance and need heavier lines to carry them.

Double hauling will increase the weight of fly which can be carried, as it generates more line speed. A shooting head will carry the most weight in any given range.

This is the AFTM line rating table. It is the only set of standards in
existence for fly-fishing tackle. There are no others. The figures given are for the first thirty feet of a DT line, including the taper, but excluding the level tip, ( if present).

AFTM In grains       In grams       In ounces
3       100 +/- 6       6.48               0.228
4       120 +/- 6       7.78               0.274
5       140 +/- 6       9.07               0.32
6       160 +/- 8     10.42               0.366
7       185 +/- 8     11.99               0.422
8       210 +/- 8     13.61               0.48
9       240 +/- 10   15.55               0.55
10     280 +/- 10   18.14               0.64
11     330 +/- 12   21.38               0.75
12     380 +/- 12   24.62               0.86

The "+/-" column shows the allowed tolerances.

It will be seen that 30 feet of #12 line weighs 0.86 ounces. (Most of my #12 saltwater and pike fishing heads weigh a full ounce, as they are slightly longer than thirty feet).

Once again, as a rough guide, most #6 rated rods, will cast a full ounce without difficulty.

A one ounce weight will carry a relatively heavy fly a long way.

Unfortunately, most people do not grasp the basics of fly-casting or gear matching from the start. Often as a result of misinformation.

In order to be succesful you must match your gear to the task at hand. The only way to do this, is to decide what you are going to fish for, where you are going to do it, under what circumstances, and WITH WHICH FLIES!!!!!

Once you know which flies ( in terms of size, weight etc), you need, then you know what size line you need to carry them. Once you know which line you need to carry them, you can choose a rod to suit the line.

You may also use different lines on the same rod to suit particular
purposes, quite irrespective of what is marked on the butt.

This is what matching, or "balancing" gear means.

Assuming however, that you already have a rod you wish to use, most people have, although, as stated, it is the wrong way to go about things, then you need to find a "rough" match for it, so that you know which weight line to buy.

Assume further that the AFTM rating on the rod is accurate. Assume the rod has a rating of #8. This means that the rod will theoretically cast optimally with thirty feet of #8 line outside the tip.

This is "NEVER" the case! Most rods will cast much heavier weights than they are rated for, as they must usually be capable of casting a whole DT!

This means that this particular rod will cast ninety feet of #8 line! Ninety feet of #8 line weighs 630 grains!!! Or 1.44 oz!

As a general rule, and a matter of experience, the optimum casting weight for such a rod usually lies at about two thirds of this weight = ~ 400 grains which is about an ounce.


We only wish to cast thirty feet or so of line. So we need to look at line that will give us something like this weight for thirty feet.

Thirty feet of #12 line weighs 380 grains (+/- 12 grains tolerance). So in this case, I would simply put a #12 DT on the rod, and casting normally, without hauling etc, slowly extend line, until I found the optimum weight and length, and then cut this at the rod tip. This line will be about thirty feet long, depending how accurate the line tolerances are, and the rod rating. That was it! Quite simple really. Just attach this "head" to shooting backing, and you have a perfectly matched head.

Furthermore, if you weigh this head, you know exactly what weight of floater this rod will cast perfectly. IRRESPECTIVE OF ITS LENGTH!!! ( Within limits of course). If you want better more delicate presentation, choose a longer length of line with the same weight. Some casters prefer longer heads, up to 45 feet, or even more. But these can have disadvantages for saltwater fishing, and less than perfect casters.

If you wish to use intermediate or sinking lines, the principle is the same, but take more care when casting the DT. Sinking and intermediate lines of the same weight, travel a lot faster than floaters, as a result of their lesser diameter, and greater density, this loads the rod more. You will almost certainly find that an intermediate line about one line rating lower than the floater will be about optimal, and a high density sinker about two ratings lower will be optimal.

There are numerous advantages to such heads. You always cast the same length and weight of line, and this is easier. They are cheap! You get at least two heads out of a standard DT. They take up less room on the reel. They can be used in pretty tight conditions. You can loop on whatever head you wish to use in a very short time. I carry my heads loosely coiled in a "CD" wallet.

Of course you can use WF lines, which basically are just shooting heads spliced to running line, "integrated" heads, which are more or less the same, or even full DT lines. But if you are serious about saltwater fishing, with relatively "conventional" fly-gear, then there is no real alternative to a well matched set of shooting heads.

There is however a great deal more to be learned from the above simple set of facts.

We have only covered one particular specific use for a shooting head. We know that a head will carry a great deal more weight than a conventional line which matches the rod. This is simply because it is shorter, and of course heavier.

There is no reason we can not use these facts to help us with other angling problems. One can for instance use a shooting head to cast much heavier or bulkier flies than the usual rod and line combination will allow.

We can for instance use a piece of #6 or even heavier line on a #3 weight rod, as long as the weight matches, thus allowing us to cast relatively heavy flies with very light gear.

A little thought on the matter will show you numerous ways in which a head can help you with practical fishing problems. There are a number of solutions to such problems, using heads, which we have not even touched upon.

Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor
   

[Traditionalist]

Some additional information, although this is one of those subjects which are basically inexhaustible:

We want to fish a fly close to the bottom in deep water.  This technique is often used to fish boobies, and similar buoyant flies on short leaders, it can of course be used to fish any fly, although this may result in snagging on the bottom, unless weedless, keel flies, or something similar to clousers is used.

It does not really matter whether we are fishing from the shore, or from a boat. Although deep line fishing from a stationary boat can be very difficult, especially in a wave. Of course we could simply use a full sinking line for this, but there are then several disadvantages. First of all of course, it is much easier to cast a shooting head a reasonable distance, than it is to cast a full line.

Even assuming one can cast a full line, such a line has some undesirable properties.  The belly of the line will sink faster than the tip, which may cause you to miss takes as the line sinks, once you have retrieved such a line you must once again work out line for another cast. All this takes time and effort, which could be more profitably used actually fishing!

There are in the meantime "Density Compensated" lines, where the weight is distributed in such a way that the tip sinks at the same speed as the belly, but this is no help with casting.

The solution here is to use a shooting head. A short High density head is relatively easy to cast. If you mount the head the "wrong way round", that is to say, with the tip at the reel end, then the heavy end of the line sinks first, and takes your fly quickly down to where you want it.  Retrieving and casting is simply a matter of stripping in line until the head is just inside the tip, roll cast the head to the surface, and then lift into a normal cast.  This is a great deal easier and faster than using a full line.

We want to do a nice bit of dry fly or small nymph fishing, but it is not certain what conditions at our chosen venue will be? Perhaps we will need to fish larger or heavier flies, maybe weighted woolly buggers, or large nymphs will be our only reasonable option. What to do?

We could of course take several rods reels and lines along, but this can be a nuisance. Leaving gear in the car nowadays is not really a good idea, and carrying all that stuff along the river bank is not really a serious alternative. Here again, a couple of shooting heads can solve all our problems.

One can use a piece of #6 or even #8 line on a #3 weight rod, and this allows us to fish much heavier flies. We can still fish delicately with dry flies or nymphs, if we wish, and changing the "head", allows us to do many other things, quickly and easily. We merely need a relatively small packet or wallet with a set of appropriate heads.

On still water, a selection of shooting heads matched to our rod will allow us to change quickly and easily to any line type which might suit the situation, or our chosen tactics. Not only that, but we can make up our own special lines to suit special circumstances we might encounter.

This is a lot easier to do than one might imagine, and one can make up some very useful lines with special properties, which are not available commercially.


Which lines do we need then? What are they for?  Many people fish practically all the time with a floating line, and why not? If they enjoy doing so. But merely by changing lines, one opens up many possibilities and tactical approaches which are impossible with just a floating line.

What lines are available at all?

Floating lines, intermediate or "Neutral Density" lines, and a variety of sinking lines, or lines with sink tips. Usually the sinking lines are classified in some way according to their sink rate.

These lines are made using various materials. Floating lines are usually made of a core, which can be a number of things,  this core is coated with PVC or other plastic, and this coating is full of hollow glass bubbles. This makes the line positively buoyant.

On intermediate lines,the coating is such that is has roughly the same density as freshwater. Once such a line has passed through the surface film it sinks slowly. Contrary to popular opinion, neutral density lines do not simply suspend themselves, once through the surface film, they continue to sink unless retrieved. In salt water they sink more slowly, as salt water has different densities to fresh water, depending on the amount of dissolved material.

One reason why intermediate heads are popular with some expert saltwater anglers, is that wind and wave have less effect on them than on floating lines. Floating lines float higher in salt water than in fresh water, and are thus more susceptible to wind and wave action.

Sink tips, are merely floating lines with a tip which has a different coating, or a piece of sinking line spliced in.

Sinking lines are usually made by adding tungsten powder to the plastic coating. Depending on how much metal is added,the line sinks more or less fast. This sink rate is usually given in IPS ( Inches per Second ). Various manufacturers have different ways of clssifying and naming their lines.

Density compensated lines are made in such a way, that there is a higher percentage of tungsten powder in the tip coating, than in the belly coating. This means that the tip sinks at the same rate as the belly. This may have some disadvantages for casting, as the mass distribution is of course then different to that of a "normal" line.

Line cores are made from a number of things. Dacron, Nylon, etc. Also multistrand and monofilament.  Some lines stretch, others do not, or only minimally. All plastic coated lines have memory, this is an essential property of the coating plastic, but some have less than others.  All plastic lines are also affected more or less by temperature, as the coatings are thermoplastic. This causes a change in their properties when they are subjected to temperature extremes. This may make some lines go very soft and floppy when it is too warm, or stiff and springy when it is too cold.

This is a result of the intrinsic properties of the thermoplastics in use. These themoplastics are also given some other desirable properties, by using additives to "soften" them. Pure PVC is normally a relatively rigid plastic at room temperature. In order to make it flexible enough for use as a line coating, softeners are added at manufacture.  Various softeners may be used, most common are phtalate esters. These are extremely poisonous chemicals, and their continued use for a number of purposes is the subject of considerable controversy.

So, we know what lines are available to us, roughly how they are made, and what properties they possess, which helps us to know what we can expect of them.

TL
MC