Shooting Heads by Sean Murphy A shooting head is a specialized type of fly line comprised of two separate parts, a thin diameter running line joined to a “head” of floating or sinking line which loads the rod during casting.  Due to the number of materials, which can be used as running lines, as heads, and the various ways the two can be joined, shooting head set ups can be quite different from one another and allow the angler many options for customization.  Customizing equipment is one of the joys of fly-fishing.  Many fishermen will toy with a new fly pattern, attempt to calculate the perfect leader, or even wrap their own fly rod, yet one of the most important (and often over-looked) elements of a fly-fishing outfit is the line.  Having the proper line can make the difference between getting your fly to the fish or not. Shooting heads offer some advantages to many fishing situations but not all.  They especially shine when an angler needs to fish very fast very deep water; no other line system is better.  For anglers who fish primarily floating lines, the advantages focus more on casting distance and efficiency.  Casting shooting heads is especially advantageous at night or from a kayak, float tube or similar watercraft. More importantly, shooting heads will allow you to fly fish for species and in areas traditionally limited to conventional gear anglers. That is not to say that shooting heads are not without disadvantages, the primary of which being that power comes at the price of delicacy.  Still fly-fishing is fun, and mastering any fly-fishing skill will ultimately allow you to have more fun.    Running Lines Running lines are probably the single biggest reason more people don’t use shooting heads.  Honestly I have never found a running line that I liked, there are a few however that I hate less than others.  Running lines kink, tangle, and some can even cut your fingers to the bone, that being said there are very few full fly lines that will not tangle if 100’ are stripped into a basket.  There are countless types of running lines on the market and though each claims to be the greatest thing since Peanut Butter M&M’s, for practical comparison I’ve only found three types:  coated lines, mono, and braid. Coated lines are structurally more or less similar to a thin diameter level fly line.  They shoot well, are easy to strip, and don’t cut your fingers.  Some versions float others are similar to an intermediate – which makes handling them easier but less effective for deep water situations.  I even once tried a level length of 5wt sinking fly line, but couldn’t get as deep as I could with braid.  These are as a group the most expensive running lines, easiest to work with, but tend to minimize some of the advantages of a shooting head. (The top line is 35# Braided Mono with a spliced loop – the bottom Rio Slick shooter with a Non-slip loop knot both are loop to loop connected to a head of T-14) Mono running lines cast better than any other running line.  They also tend to be the hardest to handle.  Casting the same head on the same rod I am consistently able to cast 20-30’ further with mono than with braid, I also more consistently loose my grip on the line when double hauling.  One such line is Amnesia – when I die and go to hell I’m sure there wont be fire and brimstone, in the Ironic Torture Department there will be 50 pound stripers, Tibor reels, but the only running lines will be made of Amnesia – that may well be enough to get me to hate fishing altogether.  On the other end of the spectrum is the Rio Slick Shooter.  It has a flat shape similar to dental floss,  it has very low memory, and shoots like a dream.  There is a down side.  One night I hooked a large striper nearly at the kayak so I had to play her with my fingers before I could get her on the reel.  Since my hands had been wet for a few hours the skin had pruned and was very soft.  Effortlessly, the flat mono split my skin, so it’s a good idea to get a pair of stripping gloves.    (Stripping Gloves keep your fingers from getting sliced.  Historic note: During the 100 years war the French would cut these two fingers from any captured longbow man.  So it became a common practice to hold up these fingers before a battle as if to say, “Come and Get them Frenchy!!!!”) Braided mono is the running line I hate the least.  There is one thing it excels at; it is very easy to untangle.  Probably not the most inspiring reason to use it, but when you fish primarily at night, making cast after cast with over a 100’ of line in the stripping basket eventually you will get tangles. Braid shoots well at least as good if not better than the coated mono lines, but not nearly as well as the specialized mono.  It also makes for some of the smoothest transitions running line to head.  Braid does pick up sand occasionally so you will want to wear the stripping gloves.  It also comes in a variety of diameters, I find the 35# to be the ideal size for a running line, 25# shoots better, 50# is easier to handle.  In the end every running line is something of a compromise between the ability to shoot long distances and the ability to handle the line.  Every year more and more lines come on to the market, some better than others.  My advice would be to pick up a spool of the braid – since you’ll need some anyways to make loops for the heads.  Heads In many ways a shooting head is similar to a WF line.  The Running line is similar to the thin back section of the line, the head is similar to the thicker first 30’ from which you get the line’s AFTMA weight rating. A shooting head can be purchased, made from fly lines, or constructed from a specialty line like RIO T-14 or Cortland LC-13; I have even furled heads out of fluorocarbon for clear water pond trout fishing (they work but I don’t recommend it.)  Making heads is a great way to “recycle” old fly lines, since the heads don’t touch the guides during a cast it doesn’t matter how badly nicked or cracked they are.  This is where your creativity can really come into play, given the wide array of specialty lines on the market.  As an example, my favorite head for bass bugging started life as a salt water floating fly line.  A line, which is designed to float in saltwater, becomes a very slight intermediate in freshwater – just barely sinking below the surface.  This gives a Bass Bugg a quick diving action on the strip, but is not enough to prevent it from floating.  Now buying a fly line for this single effect for a single type of fly would not be practical, however this line was less than two dollars since it had a defect, which caused its surface to be rough to the touch – bad for a fly line but inconsequential for a shooting head.  Even for two dollars this line would have had limited use, since I would have to set it on a reel or at least a spool.  On the water I would have to unstring my rod, swap reels or spools, and then restring the rod.  Not exactly one of Hercules’ labors but a big enough pain (especially in a kayak) that I most likely wouldn’t bother.  However, as a head, this line sits in a leader wallet, and changing it out is as easy as changing leaders.  With a shooting head system, I have more lines on hand, which fill more situations.  It is my strong belief, that having the right line for a situation is more important than having the right fly.    Bargain bin fly lines are a great source of heads.  They aren’t the best place to learn how to make them so they interact with your rod properly, for that I recommend LC-13.  LC-13 stands for “lead-core 13 grains per foot” it’s a specialty line made by Cortland.  It has no taper and is sold either by the foot or in spools.  I generally buy 100’ spools.  LC-13 has a very thin diameter for its weight, this makes it ideal for getting flies deep in heavy current, and it casts well even in a heavy wind.  To make a head I simply splice a loop from braided mono and inchworm it up the line (approximately 8 inches).  To secure the braid and to prevent it from unraveling I tie a nail knot with 15# mono at the base of the braid.  Then trim the braid to the knot and coat with glue such as Pliobond.  The glue’s only purpose is to coat the knot so it can pass through the guides better than it could otherwise (I only coat the knots on the running line side of the head, the leader side will rarely if ever pass through the guides so I don’t bother.) Do not glue the braid to the line this will rob the braid of the ability to collapse on itself gripping the line under pressure. (The first step of making a Braided loop splice – the tool featured is a simple bobbin threader, or you can make one from a length of wire.) (Step two is to place a second splice near the junction of the first – I use no glue on my double splices and I have never had one fail -  a single splice may fail.  Some people super glue their splices – I think this is a bad idea since the strength of the braid loop comes from its flexibility and the way it clamps down upon itself under pressure.  The Screwdriver is just something I use to size the loops for consistency; I use a bic pen for smaller loops.) (Here you see the placement of the Pliobond.  Its applied heavy because it will shrink after drying.  Note that it is only placed over the nail knot not the braid itself. ) The only difficulty in making heads comes from determining the proper length.  It is very important to get the right length head, because unlike a standard fly line the amount of line you can hold in the air to load the rod is fixed, you can’t play out more line while false casting.  AFTMA standards, line manufacturer’s charts, as well as several rules of thumb can be used to calculate the correct head length – but the best way to determine what is ideal is trial by casting.  Since rods and casters vary quite a bit, shooting heads should as well.  Also, once you know how to cast them, and know what you are looking for in terms of feel you can be more creative.  For example, most shooting heads are approximately 30’ and popular advice is to make them from lines two weights heavier than the rod, which will cast them.  This is good advice, but I like to fish at night from a kayak, have a very short powerful casting stroke, and strip the fly right to the boat.  So I made a head for my 8wt rod from a 13wt intermediate line, the head is a mere 20’ long. I can strip back to the nail knot, lift 2/3 of the head from the water, make a single back cast and shoot a large fly effortlessly a 100’.  It’s a customized line for a specific fishing need, for a specific fisherman.    Before you can make them, you have to know a basic cast for them.  Casting-the simple shooting head cast An experienced angler with many years of casting experience may find a shooting head to be a bit difficult to cast.  The problem lies in its similarity to casting a weight forward line.  The big differences are that shooting heads do not suffer false casters gladly, and the head length is fixed.  Running lines do not transfer casting energy well; so false casting is a recipe for disaster.  Where a skilled caster may be in the habit of shooting a small amount of line into a number of false casts to build up energy or change the direction of a final forward cast, with a shooting head this more often than not results in a failed cast.  What this means functionally is that to cast a shooting head you use just one backcast and one forward cast.  In order to make this backcast, you need to properly set it up.  Some of the most important components of a successful shooting head cast happen well before the cast is made during the set up phase. The ideal set up for a sinking shooting head is to have 3-5” of running line beyond the tip, and the head laying fairly straight near the surface of the water in the direction the cast is to be made.  This almost never happens naturally.  In most fishing situations there are several obstacles to achieving this: wind, current, and the fact that sinking heads sink.  There are a few simple techniques to overcome this. The easiest method is to perform a roll cast.  All you are attempting to do is get the head fairly straight (to eliminate slack) and if it is a sinking head to the surface of the water so that you can make your backcast.  This works best with intermediate lines; a 30’ section of LC-13 or T-14 is usually too deep (especially if you have been working the fly slowly or it’s a very large fly) for this to work without disturbing the water. Another method will seem very obvious but I rarely see people actually do it, is to simply strip the head to nearly the reel (assuming an approximately 30’ head.)  Now it’s a simple matter of carefully lifting the head out of the water and making a standard cast.  All you are seeking to accomplish is to position the head outside the rod tip, straight towards the target, and at the surface of the water.  The only real way to mess this up is to shoot too much running line beyond the tip. Setting up the cast is the hardest part.  The actual cast is a single backcast, then a forward cast.  That’s all there is to it.  The mass of the head will carry the running line a considerable distance.  When testing heads to determine if you need to cut them shorter (obviously you always start long and work your way back) this is the cast you should make – no hauls.  The reason is because you are testing to see how well the head works with the rod.  A good double haul will add to the load and may mask that the head is actually too light. Once you have an LC-13 head that you feel is correct for your rod, it’s a good idea to record the grain weight (just multiply the footage by 13) and even better idea is to weigh it on a scale.  Most fly lines vary in their AFTMA grain weights so an actual weight in ounces may be more useful.  Advanced Casting – Specialized Heads Once you have the basic cast down its time to practice a few specialized casts to really maximize the performance of your new lines.  Most of these are simple adaptations of casts made with standard lines; a few are modifications to prevent common problems associated with heads. Casting for Distance One of the real benefits to shooting heads is the distances you can achieve.  In order to maximize distance, you must learn to double haul.  I know that there are some people who feel a shooting head should be lobbed with an open loop and a moderate-fast rod; I’m not one of them.  I like to use a fast rod, water haul the pick up into a backcast.  A water haul is when you use the surface tension of the water to help load the rod when you make a cast.  Once the backcast is made I allow some running line to shoot through my fingers.  The actual footage of this running line is inconsequential, what is important is that this action allows you to drift back, and then suddenly stop this line from continuing to shoot into the cast.  This sudden stop loads the rod beautifully.  You merely need to accelerate to a stop while hauling to maximize the load. This is the key reason why you want to make sure your heads are properly sized for the rod.  When you finish the cast aim with a slight upward angle. Using this casting technique I can easily cast a modest sized fly up to a 140’ – more importantly I can cast an obscenely sized fly 90’.  This technique is not difficult, and watching running line disappear from your stripping basket is a joy. Casting for Presentation One of the disadvantages of shooting heads is that at times the casts can be sloppy.  Now if you are blind casting into the heart of the Atlantic this really doesn’t matter, but there are times when you want to ensure that the cast turns the fly over and you need to increase accuracy.  For this we take a page from the playbook of the Bassmasters and use and educated thumb.  Get in the habit of forming a ring with the thumb and index finger of the line hand.  This will allow you to control the cast, and be prepared should a fish strike moments after the fly hits the water.  All you have to do to ensure fly turn over is slow down the cast before it ends.  This will give the head a chance to turn over the fly.  Don’t stop the cast abruptly or it will reflect back towards you, just slow it down as a Bassmaster would his baitcast reel.  Yes I know it’s a distasteful analogy and I apologize, I will accept 3 points against my poetic license for it. Specialized Heads Ever cast a float tip sinking line?  Do you have a line in your arsenal that you only use for one fly?  My favorite thing about shooting heads is that they allow you to use your imagination.  All in all that’s probably why some of us are fly fishermen in the first place.  Shooting heads are not without their faults of course.  Any gain in distance and power comes at the cost of delicacy.  Also shooting heads really aren’t that practical for rod below a 7wt – it can be done and makes some sense for still waters, but for the most part shooting heads excel for the heavier weight rods.  For myself I enjoy them.  I like that with one reel and running line and a leader wallet full of heads I can be ready for nearly any situation I may be faced with.  I like being able to switch heads on the water in a matter of seconds, and I find the heads to be very easy to cast especially at night.  For deep fast water nothing I have yet encountered is better. So consider a shooting head the next time you are faced with a fishing situation that doesn’t seem to favor a fly rod.  You may find it to be the solution that opens the fishing world a bit more to you, and if nothing more you may have more fun.  Hatches Magazine Subscription Price: $6.95 for each issue The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st. Hatches Magazine Subscription Price: $6.95 for each issue The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st.