Lines

[cdpaul]

I got a new 8 wt rod for christmas and i plan to use it for steelhead in the river and bass in the lake. I want a shooting head system because you can have the regular running line, and then put a sink tip on it if you have to get it down deeper. Is there any that you can buy that come with the floating running line and the shooting head. What is the best way to connect these? Or do they come with loops in the end that you use to connect the lines together. If they do have the loops are they strong enough to hold the pressure of a good sized steelhead or big bass?

[tailingloop]

You can buy floating and sinking shooting heads and match them to floating and intermediate sinking shooting lines.

Some of the newer shooting heads and lines have built in loops. Rio Rio Max heads and Powerflex Core shooting lines are one example. I think the newer Scientific Anglers shooting lines come with factory loops. The factory loops on the newer lines are strong enough for bluewater fishing - a salmon, or steelhead, or bass will not be much of a test for them. With some lines you will need to create your own loops. If you need to create your own loops a favorite method is described here www.danblanton.com/gettinglooped.html . Other was include making whipped loops or doubling over the end of the line and securing the doubled line with two nail knots.

When you purchase shooting heads you should upline by two weights. Match a 10wt shooting head to your eight weight rod. This is correct matching since the rod is designed to load optimally with somewhere between 40 and 50 feet of an 8wt line. Shooting heads are typically 30 feet so you need to upline since you make the cast with only the shooting head and short amount of shooting line outside the rod tip. If you used only an 8wt shooting head the load would not be enough for optimal performance.

Orvis sells a full set of shooting heads with a four heads (floating through fast sink) and a floating shooting line for around $140. Individual floating shooting lines from Rio, S.A., Airflo, Orvis, or Cortland will run $25 to $60 and individual heads will run $25 to $40.

Now shooting heads work optimally for distance casting and are not ideal for delicate or short range presentations. They were originally developed by west coast steelhead and salmon anglers fishing the wide rivers that flow into the Pacific. I do often use shooting heads for bass when casting streamer type patterns to shoreline cover or when working over long stretches of submerged cover. If most of your presentations are going to be at 50ft or less you might consider a multi-tip line instead of a shooting head. These lines typically have a set of 12 to 20ft sink tips with a floating line that has a back taper and running line. I feel the Rio Versatip set has the best built in loops of the current multi tip line products.