Shooting Taper Heads & Their Running,(shooting), Lines

As an active SW fly fisherman, often using shooting taper heads, I have always favored hollow braided mono for my running, (or shooting), lines. Nowadays, many running line types are being marketed, - some new and some old.

I would welcome a discussion on some of the possible running line replacements favored by active anglers using ST heads. I would base the critique on several line factors: lightweight quality, non kinking, or curling, and ease of handling when retrieving flies . Thanks much!!!

I use shooting heads for about 70% of my fishing. That equates to about 50 days of usage of shooting heads last year in fresh and saltwater.

I quit using hollow braided mono about 10 years ago for the following reasons:

1. It blew around too much in the wind
2. I found it abrasive on my hands
3. when fishing the beach, it picked up grit and was hard on the guides and hands.
4. The inherent stretch made it more difficult to get a good stretch at long distances. I was 'educated' with disadvantage one day when striper fishing with a very experienced angler. I kept dropping fish that were hooked out at the end of the cast 80 -100 feet away. He didn't. He insisted I try his rig. I did, using my flies and leader. I didn't drop single fish that day after that.
5. For sinking presentations, it was the slowest sinking shooting line. Not an issues for surface and near surface work.


I have tried just about every other type of shooting line (or running line if you prefer) but most of my experience is with Rio and Scientific Anglers products. Other people will have different opinions. Here are my thoughts on different types of shooting lines, formed based on my experience in California inland and coastal waters, along with a small number of forays to more exotic locales.

Amnesia monofilamant is a line that some people love and many hate. If treated properly this stuff shoots very well. It needs to be stretched before usage. If its cold, it can act like a slinky. It is cheap. It has a lot of stretch, but not as much as braided mono, and can be hard to grip to get a solid hookset. It can get kinky and not shoot well. It blows around more than braided mono. Due to its circular cross section and thin diameter it provides the least resistance to a sinking head, so your sinking heads get down faster. I hated it when I first used it. When someone told me to try soaking it for a few hours before using it I tried that. The nylon absorbs water and get becomes much more limp and handles much better. I presoak my amnesia by soaking a paper towel in water and winding this on the spool between the shooting line and shooting head the night before a trip. This changed my opinion of the stuff. Today I have one reel rigged with amnesia shooting line for use when deep presentations are the order of the day. The clear and the black colors seemed to perform the best. For my angling, I consider deep to be more than 20ft. A few anglers are now experimenting with Sufflix Elite 30lb test fishing line. Some like it and others do not.

PVC Monofilamant lines. Rio Slick Shooter is the most common today. Cortland has a similar line called "Cobra" and there were others. This stuff has an oval cross section and the material is fairly hard. It may be the best distance shooting line I have used but is real temperamental. It requires repeated stretching during the day, especially in cooler water. Because of the oval cross section, it does not sink as fast as a mono line. The fairly hard material can get kinks. The kinks impair shooting and increase tangling. I probably got the worst tangles ever using this stuff. I keep a spool around for special situations - though I haven't encountered that special situation yet. This stuff is inexpensive and may be worth and experiment at about $10 a 115ft spool.

Flyline like shooting lines. Most of the line manufacturers sell shooting lines that are constructed like standard fly lines. For years these were essentially level flylines, either floating or intermediate. Most of these now have a short, slighly thicker 'handling' section at the end that improves durability in the section that is constantly pulled through the tip top when double hauling. I never found this to be an issue though since I just cut of the worn out section and install a new loop. I find these shooting lines to be the best all around shooting lines for me. They are heavier and thus may not shoot quite as well as the mono lines, but 100ft casts are still easily achievable. They handle like regular flylines. They do not stretch like single strand or braided mono, though there is some stretch was with all lines. I drop significantly fewer fish with these lines. Every few years, the manufacturers seem to introduce updated versions with better surfaces and coatings. I have had no kinking issues with any that I have used. Some may require a little stretching before hand in colder waters, and maybe later during the day, but cold and warm water versions are now available. These lines are usually available in different diameters. The thinner lines tend to shoot better, are harder to grip, more prone to tangles, have a lower breaking strength, and sink faster (or provide less resistance to a sinking head if that is the way you prefer to look at it.) The thicker lines tend to be easier to grip, tangle less and untangle easier, do not shoot quite as well as the thinner lines, and have a stronger core.

My favorite lines today are the Scientific Anglers Saltwater Floating Shooting line and Freswhater/Saltwater Intermediate Shooting line, and the Rio Powerflex Core Intermediate Shooting line. I use all three in both freshwater and saltwater. I have used them for trout, largemouth bass, stripers, pacific coast surf species, tunas and other pelagics, and tropical critters like trevally. I have used both S.A. lines in tropical waters as well as water down to 45 degrees. Both performed excellently in all conditions. The S.A. floater did require stretching in the colder environments though. I have used the Rio in water from 50 to 70 degrees, with air temps from 40 to 100. Again it performed very well. I think the Rio line shoots a little better than the S.A. and I think the S.A. lines are easier to grip, with the S.A. floater being the easiest to grip. The two intermediate lines seem slightly more prone to tangling than the floater. They also shoot slightly better. The intermediate lines are still fine for surface presentations. I don't have enough experience with the similar Orvis, Cortland and Airflo products to develop to say whether I would like them any more or less than the Rio or S.A. lines. I know a couple of people with more time with the Airflo shooting line that felt it was too limp, but others really like it. So much of this comes down to personal preference.

I currently have two reels rigged with an S.A. Saltwater floater (.035" dia for 8 -13wt rods), one with an S.A. Fresh/Salt Intermediate (.030" for 7 - 10wt rods), and three with Rio intermediate shooting lines. (2 with .030 for 7-10wt rods and one with an .025" line for 5-8wt rods). I also have one reel rigged with amnesia.

I really want to try an S.A. Sharkskin shooting line, but want to try before buying.

I have also learned that all shooting lines cast farther and tangle less if they are kept wet (dry lines catch on themselves more readily) and I have some sort of spikes in my line management system. I achieve this by kerping a quarter to a half an inch of water in my stripping bucket (ProTrim Line Tame, Sea Level Fly Fishing "Bucket", Pleskunas VLMD, or similar home made device) or solid bottom stripping basket (Mangrove HipShooter with optional solid bottom is my favorite). I also found that I need to pay more attention to induced line twist in the fly line like shooting lines than with braided lines. The act of repeated roll casting to bring up sinking heads to the surface ads twist, as does repeated casting without shooting all the line that has been stripped off the reel. As line twist builds, all lines become more prone to tangles. So I take measures to remove the twists when they start to become a problem.

Excellent post with lots of info! Thanks for taking the time.

Ron

tailingloop,

Fantastic article about running lines.

With your permission I would like to use it as a newsletter article for one of the newsletters I edit. I think many of our club members will really enjoy reading what you have to say.

Larry :D ---sagefisher---

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Originally Posted by sagefisher

tailingloop,

Fantastic article about running lines.

With your permission I would like to use it as a newsletter article for one of the newsletters I edit. I think many of our club members will really enjoy reading what you have to say.

Larry :D ---sagefisher---

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Thanks. You can use it, though I would like to clean up some of the typos and a couple of other things in it. I sent you a PM.

Great answer TAILING LOOP. Appreciate your time!