Shooting Heads and Running Lines

[Tony Buzolich]

Does anyone REALLY use shooting heads and running lines any more? I keep hearing talk about heads and all the different weights of LC-13, T-14, T-11, T-8 and so on. But this seems so antiquated. With all of the new integrated lines on the market today, all with beautifully smooth transitions from the heads to the running line, I find it difficult to believe that anyone would still want to use what was trendy 20 or 30 years ago.

What brought this to mind has turned into a week long project,,,,,,,,, I started to clean out and re-arrange my closet. And I know there's a lot more still out in the garage. I've been sorting reels, rods, leaders, and lines of all kinds. And I keep coming across shooting heads and running lines, with many still new in the boxes they came in. I've got old shooting head wallets with tons more that are all neatly put in each page's envelope. Light one sink slow, darker ones sink faster, and black ones dredge the bottom. I even took the time a long time ago to weight each of these heads on my powder scale and label them.

This was pretty important stuff when I used to fish steelhead a lot. Over on the Russian and the Gualala I got to be real good friends with the guys at Kings in Guerneville. Remember Cassini Ranch, Rio Nido, Johnson's, or even the mouth of the Garcia? I used to fish them all regularly.

Know the sink rate of your lines was critical to keeping your fly moving in those waters. Remember AMNESIA? The Sunset Line Co.. Gawd, I hated that stuff. When it worked well it was great, but most of the time it was a mess of tangles. Then everyone started trying something else that supposedly didn't kink and tangle. Want to know how many kinds of running lines I've got still new in the box? Slick Shooter, Frog Hair, Airflo Polyfuse, all in addition to more Amnesia in different colors.

I guess if I weren't so cheap (frugal I call it) I'd throw some of this stuff away or give it to some one who still might be into using old techniques and older technology. Or,,,,, maybe I ought to get back into steelheading again? If I could only find those old RED BALL rubber things I wore in college. :)
Tony

[Charlie S]

Tony, I still use them (including amnesia) and still catching lots of fish with them. The integrated lines are fine but I can change heads a lot faster than you can complete lines, even with spares spools, to suit varying conditions. If you want to go way back, think Sunset heads, one sink rate, with Sunset mono for running line. Caught my first steelhead on a fly on the Garcia in the early 50's while fishing with a Duke Stornetta. Yes, l'm old......

[Tony Buzolich]

Charlie,

I know the Stornetta's from their dairy and I think their milk used to called Clover-Stornetta. That land upstream on the Garcia is still owned by the family.

Did you ever get into the pink salmon run there? They come back every two years and make the news in all the local papers, Cloverdale, Ukiah, etc..

If you're ever in the Yuba City area stop by and say hi and I'd sure like to give some of this stuff to a person who uses it.

Tony

[Baja Fly Fisher]

I still use shooting heads and amnesia 30lb clear running line. I have a 2500 yd spool. As a matter of fact, I have one rig set up for CI. I have 400yds of backing, 150' of 30lb clear amnesia and 800 grain RIO head. I'm going deep for something big. I also use the same set up for pargo and amber jack in Baja.
That's all I grew up on when I started fly fishing way back when. Once I got the head out, one double haul and zinggggggg. I could never throw a full line. I had a tough time learning how to handle a fun line, much less a double taper line. Heck, I have two spools of T8, T 11 and a spool of T 14. Also a humungous number of LC 13. I use that more than any T lines.

[sfspey]

"Does anyone REALLY use shooting heads and running lines any more? "
Absolutely! Pretty much all I use with both my DH and SH rods. Amnesia, Big Game still works great for running line. A SH rod and a wallet full of heads is still the way to go in low gradient/tidal flows.

[Idadon]

I still have my collection but once I found Spey/Switch techniques, well they just sit there now. I guess my Spey heads and my different sink rate switch leaders are close to the same thing. As for my Amnesia shooting line, I still use it, to tie bodies for Spey flies. An under wrap of flat tinsel and a then tie the Amnesia over that and you have a body that really shines on a sunny day. Used to work pretty good for Shad flies to. Back to the heads, I still have a couple of my Dad's homemade heads that he made back in the fifties. They are just varying lengths of lead core line with loops. Try casting those! He caught an awful lot of fish on those though.

I still wonder if those heads weren't just a flyfishing way of lining salmon and to some extent steelhead too. After watching those guys over on the Klamath this past September, I have to wonder how many of the salmon my dad caught on the Smith were lined? Never really thought about it until I watched those guys with their big 2/0 hooks, a single corkie, and a 16 foot leader. Took me a few minutes to get-it why they just laughed when I asked "what color are they biting on".

[fishdoc1]

Call me old school, but I still like a good shooting line and LC13 for stripers. yes I have an assortment of integrated lines, as I know the sink rate so well, I have some trouble with knowing some of the integrated rates. Guess I am a old timer hard to change. I think there are still a few of us LC13 AND T14 headers still around. As far as amnesia, if wet, but unmanageable in a boat dry.my 2 cents.

[Carl Blackledge]

Tony,

The answer is yes

I still use the 30-foot shooting heads, but I use the RIO 50-pound Slick Shooter for my shooting line (not Amnesia), even though I still have two cases of the 25-pound variety stored away.

The places I fish for Salmon in northern California and southern Oregon out of my pram, the shooting head still rules. I think every fly fisherman in the pram crowd still uses the shooting head systems. On the local Russian River, it seems like the longer rods are gaining popularity and I guess most of them are using full length lines.

When I fish Mexico (Loreto) each summer, I only use full lines like the RIO OBS Tropical Floaters for Sailfish-Marlin-Roosters and Dorado.

Carl Blackledge

[SebastianV]

I still wonder if those heads weren't just a flyfishing way of lining salmon and to some extent steelhead too. After watching those guys over on the Klamath this past September, I have to wonder how many of the salmon my dad caught on the Smith were lined? Never really thought about it until I watched those guys with their big 2/0 hooks, a single cookie, and a 16 foot leader. Took me a few minutes to get-it why they just laughed when I asked "what color are the biting on".

Has everyone read 'I know Bill Schaadt'? Excellent read. One of Bill's techniques mentioned in the book was "feeling" for fish. They would cast shooting heads into the deep pools of the Russian, Gualala, Smith, etc and try to run the line over pods of fish. This didn't necessarily snag or line salmon/steelhead, but as the line grazed fish, the angler felt a 'tick' in the line, indicating the presence of fish.They would then re-cast and try to strip a fly through the pod.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the slow moving tide water of coastal rivers they still use shooting heads on single handed fly rods for salmon and steelhead.

Up river for Steelhead most use full floating lines and sinktip lines on single handed fly rods for mending / line control.

Up river on two handed / Spey rods most use floating running lines or mono running lines with floating heads and long leaders or removable tips.

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For Stripers with single handed fly rods some use running lines with heads and some use full integrated sink tip lines.


I like the full length integrated lines because they cast very nice.


**The Rio Outbound Short Type 6 sink tip full length integrated line is a very nice choice for smooth casting and a pretty fast sink rate.
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*If you need any help bring your rods and reels into Kiene's American Fly Fishing Company 7 days a week for excellent advice and professional help installing it all perfectly.

.

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[adrianflyfish]

Great post, I use running lines and lengths of t11, t14. t20 etc. and I don't consider myself an old school. I've been fly fishing since I was a teenager, born and raised in nor cal. Anyways I use them off shore here in So Cal. As you probably know its been an amazing season off shore. My go to set up for YFT this year is an 11 wt. with Rio Slick Shooter 50#(chart.) with a t17 or t 20 head. The line sinks super fast, plus the head can be changed to a floating head or a type 3 head in minutes. We typically charter a boat to go off shore so the ability to change heads means less rods on the boat. Off shore fishing can be rough on fly lines, lines can be chewed up by toothy fish, or mammals, lines can get caught in boat props, or lines plane and simply fail. Being able to change out a damaged head makes gives me a quick fix since I carry a head wallet with heads of various weights. Also, don't forget the benefit of casting, often I can cast 100' off the right corner bow of the boat.

Long live shooting heads!

Adrian

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Good post Adrian......glad to hear about the SoCal salt water.