[Alex Thain]

hi folks.  how do you go about making a shooting head ? how do you find out how long to make it  :s there a formula as regards weight of rod to weight of line ? 

[Rob Brownfield]

Did Ben not do something on this???

Basically, stick the line through the rod and cast until you feel the rod loading nicelly...then cut the line roughtly near the butt ring. This leaves you a good 6 feet of "fine tuning" to get the exact length you need. Turn the cut section round, add a braided loop and start casting. It wont be pretty and should feel heavy. Just keep cutting back 6 inches at a time from the fat end (non looped) until you feel its right. Once happy, once more turn the line round so the fat section can be attached to your runing line by creating a whipped loop.

Dont forget...if you are making a shooting head for an 8 weight, use a 10 weight double taper etc etc.

Hope that helps a bit.

[Ben Dixon]

Hi Alex,

Not bad advice from Rob, there is a link here to the looping procedure and I will post full details when I get home later on.  Where and how you cut it, how long and how heavy it needs to be depends upon how and where it will be used.

Cheers

Ben

[Ben Dixon]

Hi Alex,

Tricky one to explain......

A longer head for the same rod will weigh more than a short head, first decide where and how it will be used.  The heads I use for Spey Casting on SH rods weigh about 15.5g to 16.5g for a 6wt and 16.5g to 17.5g for a 7wt, I make them from DT 10 or 11 lines and cut them at about 26' then fish with a 7' poly leader or about a 12' heavy mono tapered leader.  The reason for the length is that I am using in confined spaces where D loop space is limited and for Speycasting a ratio of about 4 times the length of the rod is deemed to be manageable for most casters, works for me.  So the head and tip (polyleader) are about 32' for use on a 9'6" rod, this is shorter than 4x the length as I am often using big flies, fast sink tips and not needing much distance.  To get the weight right I am using about 32' of DT, some comes off the front to ensure the head will turn over the tip & fly and some comes off the back to get the weight & length.  A head for Speycasting will be heavier than one for overhead casting too, only the upper part of the > loop is really contributing to rod loading, in an overhead cast the whole head is straight behind the rod and the full mass of the head is available for the forward cast.

A shorter head will fly for a shorter time than a longer head, less head to unroll so the casting loop turns over faster, longer head more line to unfurl, goes further but more space is needed.  For a general guide, I would use the weights of the Rio Max II heads listed on the Rio website and go up two sizes, so use the weight for the ST8 for a 6wt head etc.

As for running line, don't go too thin or the head will dump.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Ben

[Matt Henderson]

I'll go for a supplementary question. 

I have a 7wt rod that I would like to use for single handed salmon fishing, i did have a 5wt rod that I broke but I'm looking to replace it with another 5wt.  If I was going to be streamer fishing would the set up be similar to that for chucking larger salmon flies? So should I get a shooting head for the 7wt and enable me to use big streamers and salmon flies with it, and just use normal lines on the 5wt because it will be small wet flies and maybe dry flies on it. Or even do I need to get a shooting head for the 7wt but just get a 7wt WF and cut back the front section until it can turn over a polyleader and a heavy fly?

A bit garbled but hopefully somebody will get my drift..

[Ben Dixon]

Matt,

you could use the 5wt for Streamers but I would probably go for the #7, you could make a head or modify a line to allow you to throw the flies on the 5wt but I would not really recommend it.  You will probably be overhead casting these things right?  I would go for a med - fast sink line to make a head from, cut the tip back and use polyleaders with it to vary the sink rate at the tip, keep it short as this will allow you to fish the flies right into the bank without having to work out a lot of line.  I am currently using Rio Outbounds on a 6wt for streamers but these are not ideal as the sinking lines all have an intermediate running line and the head is nearly 40', the running line is a pig to manage when wading and the head is a bit long for where I am fishing.  Going to get some cheap DT sinkers and have a play with a new line for 2010.  When using polyleaders, a whipped loop on the end of the flyline will hinge a lot less than a braided loop, bit of a fiddle but more than worth the effort.  I will drop you a note of on head weight and length once I have had a play about.

Cheers

Ben

[Matt Henderson]

thanks Ben.  Good that the 7wt will double for streamer and salmon flies.  Overhead to begin with but learning to spey cast single handed wouldn't be a bad thing.  All in good time though....