Well, our whitetail deer hunting is now finished for another year. If you hunted deer this year I hope you had success, and if you didn’t, I hope you enjoyed the hunt anyhow. As they say, there’s always more to hunting than sitting on a wet stump. But it’s over and time to begin planning winter projects. Let’s look at fly lines.

Today there are a multitude of fly lines on the market. It appears that marketing people are trying to convince us that their fly lines are perfect and that we need a lot of them. They have the ideal line for every game fish species and fishing situation. There are lines that stay limp in cold water and lines that stay stiff in warm water. We have lines that float, lines that sink, lines that do both. Then there are super fast sinking, slow sinking, intermediate lines and so on. Some are slick and smooth, some are pebbled like sharkskin and some are lubricated. This all may seem somewhat crass and confusing at first, but as we fly fishers gain experience we also understand how some of these expensive “specialty” lines can help us. Fortunately, there is a better way that also happens to be a lot easier on our wallets.

So how can we carry a number of lines in our vest that can easily be swapped into our fly fishing outfit when needed? Spare reel spools are expensive and bulky. Most fly lines are 100’ or so, too long and unwieldy to swap on the stream. Fortunately, modern shooting head systems solve these problems and more. I’ve been carrying a shooting head system of six lines in one vest pocket for almost thirty years, having read about them long ago in a magazine article about western steelhead fly fishing.

Our drawing shows a standard weight-forward (WF) line and below it a similarly designed shooting head. The WF line has a tapered belly for casting and a rear section of running line. This design enables the caster to shoot extra line for long casts. Our shooting head is similar except that the running line is made from braided monofilament that shoots much better and farther than any fly line. Notice that our head’s belly is also shorter than that of the WF line, making for shorter back casts and less trouble with trees and other obstacles behind the caster. A shooting head is cast with the head just beyond the rod tip, such that the running line takes most of the wear from casting, so the shooting heads themselves last many seasons.

To use a shooting head, attach about 100’ of braided monofilament to your backing, spool it onto your reel, and make a long loop (about 5”) on the front end. I use a perfection loop knot and Cortland Braided Mono Clear Running Line, 30 lb. test, 100 ft spool – cost is under $15). This stuff is fantastic – It shoots far better and farther than ANY fly line currently made and lasts for many, many years. When the front end finally does become worn you can reverse the running line and use the unworn end for many more years. Prior to the availability of braided mono, cumbersome “shooting baskets” were employed to keep thin running line from tangling, but braided mono solves this problem beautifully.

To attach a shooting head, thread the braided mono running line though the rod guides first and then attached the head to the running line with a loop-to-loop connection, the long loop enabling you to pass the coiled up head through it to interlock the loops. Shake loose the coiled head, check its leader, attach your fly and you’re ready to fish. To swap heads, coil up the head and replace it. This all happens with no need to re-string your running line through the guides, as you would if you were swapping reel spools, so this is faster and easier. I find it so quick and easy that I am always using the best line for the job, no reason not to.

There are two ways to get shooting heads – buy them, or make them. If you buy one, it will cost about half as much as a regular fly line. If you make some from old fly lines that you or a buddy may already have, it will cost only $10 or so for a package of braided loops. Don’t worry about wear on old lines, as long as the tip section that attaches to your leader is in reasonably good condition.

If you use a line that is sized correctly to your rod, you can make a shooting head about 32 – 35’ long. Remember, line weight is the weight of the first 30’ of your line, so that’s approximately the length that you should make the head. I like to add a couple of feet just in case – it can always be shortened after testing. If your fly line is lighter than the rod calls for, make the head longer to add weight. If it’s heavier, make it shorter, but I don’t recommend using heads shorter than 30’.

A double tapered line will make two shooting heads and a weight forward line makes one. Just cut off the line section you will use and fashion a short loop on the rear end. An easy way to do this is to use a braided mono loop that is affixed to the line with a drop of Crazy Glue and a short section of heat-shrink plastic tubing. Your local fly shop can supply such loops. Then attach a leader best suited to the fishing you are likely to do with this particular head. Use a nail-knot, needle knot or interlocking loops to attach the leader to the head’s tip. Custom made shooting taper design is limited only by our imagination. I’ve even spliced line sections together to make a compound head design like Rio’s Windcutter taper.

I carry several shooting heads in a plastic mesh wallet that easily fits in a vest pocket, ready for most anything that swims. I have a floater, a sink-tip and a few sinking heads that sink slow, fast, or extra-fast. I also carry a couple of sinking leaders which, when looped onto the tip of a floating shooting head, work like a sink-tip line, except that they handle better. The system is ideal for fishing tidal estuaries, where water depth, flow and velocity vary with the tides. Our tides can even bring different fish species to the estuary, requiring big changes in fly size and fishing depth.

In 2009, our devalued loonie will increase the price of a premium fly line to around $75. A shooting head system consisting of multiple lines costs far less over time because it lasts much longer while giving you, the fly fisher, more versatility and better performance. Shooting heads were developed for western steelhead fishing on big rivers, but I think they are perfect for fishing in Guysborough County.

Please stay on the line …