O.K. not my cup of tea, but I am told and all the research I've done indicates if I want to catch brook trout on the Nipigon, I should be using shooting heads.

The Nipigon River is very large running a couple hundred yards in width in some areas. Trout here do not readily rise to a fly, even during heavy hatches. Usually trout will take nymphs as emergers while a hatch is on but not rise to the surface, there are exceptions of coarse. Trout here also grow very large and they get that way on river sculpins and smelt so I'll be bringing along a good selection of streamer patterns.

Now as for the shooting heads, I am using a 9 ft eight weight because it is what?s recommended for this river. The trout can run from 4 to 6 pounds and the current is very heavy. I know almost nothing about this type of fishing. I imagine getting the line out isn?t too difficult, with just a bit of practice since the head loads the rod quite well and as long as you have sufficient line out the shooting comes fairly natural. Or am I wrong?

Also I understand that these can be home made. So, what do I use (type of line) for this? How many grains? How long should they be? How many should I make up? There should be different length line (heads) for getting your fly at different depths? As for a running line, can I use the current line on this rod which is an 8wt DT floating line?

Please Help?
Tight Lines, ________Grant