Thought I would share this with you as I tried this wonderful idea and it works. Fantastic for tight fishing but I believe for any situation it is a tremendous help. Saves a ton of false casting.

A shortened head for any rod from 0 weight upwards, a forum member from Texas Fly Report named Don (Zenkoanhead) introduced us to a 24' "shooting head". This system is absolutely terrific. I have applied it to my 2# 3# and 5# and works perfectly. Loads the rod quickly for short casts and with no false casting can shoot a 60' cast easily.

Normal line weight is measured on the first 30' of line, so you purchase a WF line 2 weights heavier than your required line weight and as a general rule of thumb measure off the first 7' of the line from the fly end and this will include the front taper.

Cut the line.

Then measure from the end of the rear taper forward towards your last cut 17' and cut again.

Then strip off the fly line coating (about 2-6") place the two together and splice. Use your wifes nail poish remover, hold the required amount of line in the acetone for about 5 minutes then using your thumb nail strip off the coating.

The way I did it was to bind the two lines together with a nail knot (10lb tippet mono) then pull on the two core lines together until the plastic coating on the two pieces of fly line are close to the nail knot.

Then cut the inner core of the fly line leaving it a little long and burn(melt) the end to form a small blob to prevent it pulling back thru the nail knot (both sides) also do the same with the ends of the nylon used to tie your nail knot.

Then use Loons or Rio UV knot to seal and smooth the joint.
If done carefully the joint is smooth and I have tested mine by pulling very hard on the line my son on one end myself on the other with no ill effect.

I purchased a small scale that measures in grains and fine tuned the lines to the "correct" weight for the rod, I found I had to take quite a bit more off the belly of the line but even if the "head" is a bit too long you will find a pleasant differece in the loading of the rod.

Shake out 15 foot plus of line strip wht you need for your cast, pick up and on back cast allow line to shoot another few feet, then the right amount is there to fully load and shoot whatever amount is needed on the forward cast. Takes a little getting used to but no more unnecessary false casting.

By keeping the two tapers the line behaves "normally" and you don't have to try to find a running line it is already there.

Eric Grove