Shooting heads

[Traditionalist]

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

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.

TL
MC

[haresear]

Excellent as per usual Mike. I have limited experience of shooting heads, but have used them for salmon and more recently for pollack. I was using a permanent connection to the backing (not a very smooth one, I think I used a braided loop). This didn't matter when shooting, as the head was outside the tip ring, but it was a job to get the connection through the rings both on the retrieve and when extending line.
What connection do you favour for your interchangeable heads?

Alex 

[Traditionalist]

Excellent as per usual Mike. I have limited experience of shooting heads, but have used them for salmon and more recently for pollack. I was using a permanent connection to the backing (not a very smooth one, I think I used a braided loop). This didn't matter when shooting, as the head was outside the tip ring, but it was a job to get the connection through the rings both on the retrieve and when extending line.
What connection do you favour for your interchangeable heads?

Alex 

You can?t really do better than this;
http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/fishing-knots-gray's-loop.htm

I also use braid attachments on some lines, but I overwhip them , and glue them with aquasure.  This is only for heavy saltwater lines, #10 and up. Otherwise I use John?s loop nowadays.  It is easy to do, makes a smooth enough connection, and is strong.

It is essential, regardless of which loop conections you use that the loops are correctly connected. This is explained with diagrams here;
http://www.killroys.com/knots/looploop.htm

TL
MC

[haresear]

Thanks Mike. That looks good to me. I'll get on to it.

Alex