[Hamish Young]

I'm a bugger for experimenting with fly lines.
Although I do not cut up or tweak every line I possess, the truth is that I do have something of an addiction  expensive habit and an overwhelming urge to play around what comes 'off the shelf' in order to get what I want for use on single handers and light double handers.

Some of you may have seen a recent post about some purchases I made of 'off the shelf' Airflo Turbo shooting heads (if not, see post on forum about fun with Fishtec). These were a sort of benchmark purchase for my latest single-handed project which is to see what happens when you try and make a Skagit for a single hander at home. In fairness, the Airflo heads couldn't be considered a benchmark as a Skagit as they're longer in the head and lighter for a given weight than the Skagit type, but they were 'on weight' or at least the weight I was expecting for their type and served as somewhere to cast off from. Oops, bad pun 

Anyway, this current project is to develop a Skagit style (short heavy) single handed shooting head based on bits of other lines without spending the £50 plus on 15’ of OPST head. I’m not always tight, I’m sure it’s a good line but I baulk at spending so much for so little and if any other justification was required well this is just fun to do and I have the raw materials to do it

Initially I'm using an Orvis Helios 10' #7wt as the rod to develop a line for. I am very fond of this rod but I don’t use it often enough (and I should) and I have some adventures coming up (hopefully) on some smaller spate rivers where a Skagit head on this rod would be more useful than a full line. Also, I plan on getting very familiar with the upcoming Helios 3 rod in the same spec later in the year and a comparison between the two should prove interesting.

After messing with the Airflo #7wt shooting head and an SLX my first play down at the river with a home-made head was with a 17-gram head that came out of what had been a #8/9 Spey line I had kicking around. It worked well enough and was probably getting close to the desired properties but it was a fair bit longer than required at a smidgen over 23'. A length on the 10' rod I was super comfy with but not what I need for the confined space cutlery chucking I have in mind 

I wanted to get closer to a Skagit length so some additional whisky fuelled research amongst my err piles of shite ummm random shit I'll never actually use errr fly line spaghetti   very fine (if slightly indulgent) collection of new and used fly lines has revealed I had a couple of DT12 lines kicking around that I was originally keeping a spares to create shooting heads for the (now defunct) CLA Game Fair ‘saltwater’ competition. These I knew would give me the weight I was after, plus a short front taper, in a compact head length.

I've now made a head from a DT12 by cutting it at 20 feet from the tip and chopping back until I achieved the weight (17g – well actually 16.81g) I was looking for. With home-made loops created by (at front of the head) revealing some of the core and whipping it back on to the line to form a loop, applying some superglue then shrink tubing over the top of the join. At the rear of the head, because of the thickness of the line (remember, it will be going through a #7wt rods guides) the loop was formed entirely from the lines core before again whipping and gluing to form the loop then shrink tubing. Down at the river this line immediately worked and worked well…. Apart from the running line I was using. In my experience Skagits have always been a bit ‘bangy’ and I wanted to damp that down by using a tapered running line. Now as it happens I used an Orvis tapered running line (from a long since discontinued range of s/h shooting heads they once produced) but unfortunately this had a habit of ‘turning’ the head too soon. I’ve since moved to a mono type running line and although ‘bangy’ and short the head goes like the proverbial off a highly polished Teflon coated shovel.

Project success Yes, I’d say so. If you factor in the actual purchase prices of the two lines I’ve cut up to achieve the latest head I’ve saved £32 over the cost of the OPST. Is it as good I don’t know, I haven’t yet cast one of the OPST Commando heads… but I imagine I’m close.

Does it do what I want it to do Oh yes. Heavy tips, including home-made T14 tips, are no bother at all

Should everyone make one Up to you I saw this as a project worth pursuing and although I’ve come out of it with a head that works - which is nice - I've additionally been given some food for thought regarding using shooting heads again in other parts of my fishing.

For instance, I'm now thinking about making up some fast sinking heads for one of my #6wts as I have a day on a Loch coming up where you’d be daft if you don't have a quick sinker available that you can cast a long, long way.

Never dull  I'll try and post some pics up of the line in use and in production as I have some (somewhere). Be interested to see  if anyone else on the forum has gone down this route, for the craic 

H

[Rob Brownfield]

Fascinating read....I have also been experimenting so that I can catch a few Salmon from the Feugh, which I am sure you know, is narrow, tree lined and difficult to fish with normal fly gear.

I have settled on the following set up.....



...a size 2 Mepps

[James Laraway]

so to fish as skagit you *alledgedly* should be double speying or circle c'ing ? You are able to do that with a single hander ? 

for those places where i want to get deep fast and done have space to cast i blew the budget on a teeny t300 flyline as i think this is a spuerfast sinking integrated shooting head ?

Not tried it yet......got it on ebay brand new for £30 .....

[Rob Brownfield]

so to fish as skagit you *alledgedly* should be double speying or circle c'ing ? You are able to do that with a single hander ? 

Yes, even I can

I almost always spey cast with Mikes SLX lines, which is why I bought them. 4weight, 5 weight and a 7 weight.

Like Hamish, I am going through the "need" for a Skagit style line for the Feugh. Unlike Hamish, I am just biting the bullet and buying the Commando heads when Cass is next in the US/Canada

[Rob Brownfield]

You are able to do that with a single hander ? 

here you go

[James Laraway]

for the nairn ( which is very like the feugh) i bought a Zpey 9ft #6 switch rod so all i need is a cheeky roll cast .

the wee 9 fter means i can cast almost anywhere .

Its like a wee 'toy' double hander - but works superbly

[Derek Roxborough]

the Spey cast is a roll cast, and the double spey can be done with a single handed rod, or am I mistaken? Derek Roxborough

[Hamish Young]

so to fish as skagit you *alledgedly* should be double speying or circle c'ing ? You are able to do that with a single hander ? 

Well yes - it's not hard. Come have a 'play' 

for those places where i want to get deep fast and done have space to cast i blew the budget on a teeny t300 flyline as i think this is a spuerfast sinking integrated shooting head ?

It is pretty much just that. I have a few Teeny lines but I don't find them the best choice in tight spaces.

the Spey cast is a roll cast, and the double spey can be done with a single handed rod, or am I mistaken? Derek Roxborough

You're not mistaken.
This is an off the cuff comment, I may be wrong, but at the moment I can't think of any cast that you might  do with a double hander that can't be repeated with a single hander - some casts might be better with a single hander as you can introduce a haul quite easily. At the end of the day the line will follow the path of the rod tip, so it follows that it doesn't really matter if the rod is a single or double hander.

H 

[Euan Innes]

Loving your work dude.
I too want a light Skagit for my Orvis Access 10' #4 (really a 5) so I will talk to you soon.
I have a John Norris 8/9 integrated Shooting head that might just fit the bill nicely!

Euan 

[Andy Wren]

Just to confirm that all the"spey" casts can be performed with single handers .tight wee welsh streams will see me contrived roll casting with a soggy Agutters split cane 6.6 ft job and a silk line .
Bits of Walthanstowe ressers have fly grabbing trees ,there a SLX and a Orvis PM 10 footeer do the biz ,not as long a cast as I can overhead this oitfit but enough to cover fish ,in what can be a rock hard fishery,(not been that way the last two short sharp trips ,fish to hand both times and snatches and follows to many to mention ,when often its a one fish makes my day)

[Euan Innes]

So I finally got round to making one and got to try it out on the Beauly last Saturday.
I made mine from a John Norris integrated salmon shooting head in 8/9, which I chopped down to 19 grams, 18' long. I melted two welded loops on the ends and added the whole lot to 15m of Mackenzie running line and stuck a 5" p/s 10' Rio tip on the front.
It was made for my Orvis Western3 10' #7.
OMG!!!!!!
This thing absolutely flies out! The backing knot was in fresh air a lot of the time and it turns over BIG tubes with ease. Any small river salmon fishing is now covered easily if the conditions warrant a large fly getting down in a hurry.
All you need is a suitable line, accurate scales and some patience and you end up with a very addictive rod and line combo.
A good by-product is that it really sorts out your double handed casting by getting the timing cracked.
Go for it!

 

[Kerry Jordan]

Interesting thread! I believe that Skagit  was devised for steelhead in wide turbulent rivers, but am increasingly seeing  stuff online including YouTube regarding micro Skagit.  Some are even advocating using it upstream  with a 3 or 4 weight stick in small streams for dry flies where trees prevent a back cast; sounds an answer to a prayer but surely the splash on landing and the spray on lifting off would spook any fish in casting range?

[George Trebinski]

Kerry. This reply is a bit late but I've only just come across this forum.
You are right about the splash and spray as these lines are clunky, but they weren't designed for upstream dry fly or small fly presentation. The main purpose of the skagit, OPST type lines is to turn over and deliver a large fly at distance, downstream,  when your back cast space is limited.  I bought an OPST Commando line for my single handed 9'6" No8 weight sea trout rod, to use in a specific place. I had tried for years to fish a gutter in the middle of a small river where the fish lay. To get within anywhere near casting distance you have to wade along a ledge hugging a low cliff which has bushes and trees growing along the top. the opposite bank is almost as bad and isn't ours anyway. All conventional casts (and some pretty unconventional ones) failed. The OPST had the shortness and weight to allow a roll/spey cast to land straight and splashy. The mono running line cut through the water without dragging and the OPST line bulk assisted a drift some 20 yards downstream, to where the fish lay. By stopping the running line I could let the fly swing across the gutter. Third cast bingo! A 1lb sea trout.  After 9 years of trying it was well worth the money I paid.

[Mike Barrio]

Welcome to the forum George

Best wishes
Mike

[Kerry Jordan]

Hi George
This is the sort of thing I was referring to



Silja Longhurst casting most elegantly in very confined spaces but very splashy (and not catching  )