Tom, Here's a good place to start:
http://globalflyfisher.com/keywords/?keyword=shooting_heads I have been using a shooting head for stillwater fishing for quite some time. One I use most often uses an intermediate sink head and a floating running line, and easily puts the fly out another 10-15 feet over a standard WF. The main disadvantage to a shooting head is that you cannot lift th line off the water to begin your false cast as normal. You retrieve almost all your line up to a point where the joint between the running line and the shooting head is 2-3 feet outside the tiptop of your rod. Besides casting distance, the other advantage I like is the ability to cast far when you are backed up against a high bank or foliage and cannot use a lengthy backcast. The instructions on the GFF site about designing, building and testing your own shooting heads is very well done. Wes Wada Bend, Oregon On 3/24/07, Tom Davenport <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
One area of fly fishing with which I am totally ignorant is the use of shooting head lines. In fact I am not even sure I know what they are, or their exact use (although they are often mentioned in conjunction with salt water fishing). From what I have read I gather they have two primary purposes: Greater casting distance, and in the case of sinking shooting heads greater depth for fishing. I would appreciate any information from those of you who use this type of fly line. What kind of fishing situations would make them the line of choice? Do shooting heads have an application for freshwater fishing? Is casting them much different than regular casting? Can I make my own sinking shooting heads using lead core line? Thanks in advance for your input, Tom Home Page: http://homepage.mac.com/tsmd Webshots Albums: http://community.webshots.com/user/tsmdav
