lead heads

I was certain that I posted this yesterday...but I just can't find it.

I picked up one of them Cortland 13 grain per foot weighted line things to make lead heads. My question is how long should I make them. I knwo it's a product of desired depth and rate of descent, but how long are most of you making yours? I'm fishing for shad at depths of about 3'-5' in moderate moving water.

Also, does anyone know what 13 grains(one foot of this line) would be equivalent to in split shot?



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Thanks,
Charlie

Grains are a unit of weight (Or mass I can't remember) so you can google a conversion program (just type into google "unit conversions") and you can convert grains to ounces, mg, kg, lbs whatever units you want for comparing to split-shot or beads.

Best,

-John

[This message has been edited by ktokj (edited 01 April 2005).]

[tailingloop]

If you are making shooting heads use about 25ft for a 6wt rod, 26-27 for a 7wt, 27-28 for and 8wt, and 28-30 for a 9wt. Start long and cut back a foot until you like the result.

If making a short sink tip to loop to a floating line, make uplengths of 1,2,3,4, and 5 feet and see what works best for your situation.

Slow down you stroke a bit, start the forward cast just before the line straightens out on the back cast, and open up your loop to avoid some rude problems when casting.

[lee s]

As a bit of addition to tailingloop's good coverage, heads shorter than about 24' become prone to dumping. We have kept the lenght on some LC heads we use on our 5wt and 3wt by splicing other sinking line to shorter LC when necessary.
GES, over on another board, uses some braided LC in lighter weights and more handily retains length for lighter application.
.....lee s.

[RS2]

13 grains would be just under the weight of 2 Water Gremlin Size BB shot (15 grains for 2/7.5 grains each).

If you use Dinsmore tin shot, then your 13 grains weighs just slightly more than one Size AAA (11.7 grains).

Your weight will be more evenly distributed with the miniheads though than with shot.

As for the weight comparison of grains to ounces, there are approximately 435 grains to the ounce, or approx 109 grains to the quarter ounce.

Mike