Building a Shooting Head Fly Line for Musky Fly Fishing (600gr Full Sink) 

The lines aren’t heavy enough, no full sink, and need to be finished with a tip section. Not suitable for dredging river holes with 12” flies. 30ft of 10ips is a whole different ball game. Better argument would be Cortlands 600gr 8ips full sink integrated line, but its not a shooting head, and its fun to experiment and make it yourself.

@@Gunnar_Brammer ok.

@@Gunnar_Brammer ok - opst does make what you need and then jerry F. has the rods - You can make it better and thats avesome..i love what you produce and show. Ive been around the sun for more than 40 times and seen things, and you absolutely makes me think. - Thanks again - we might not agre but i love where your mind is.

Hey Christian, my reply was lacking quit a bit, not sure why I sent it off without some more thought! Way back when, OPST had their lines distributed by Hareline Dubbin for a season, and I picked up a running line, head, and tip to build exactly this, a 400+ grain shooting head system for my 10wt for Pike and Musky Fishing. The problems that I ran into were the fact that the heads are floaters (excepts the commando....that came later), and in order to get the right grain pairing for overhead casting (head + tip section), the tip was never dense enough to sink the Musky flies. I later found RIO's Slick Shooter, Grip Shooter, and Metered Running Lines which I paired with RIO's Outbound Short Shooting Heads and would loop to loop them together. THIS was fairly epic, because the Head was full float (30ft), full Int (30ft) and Full Sink S6 (30ft)...but I never loved the Slick Shooter or Grip Shooter for Musky fishing and ended up moving solely to fully integrated lines (more expensive, less versatile, less distance, BUT easier to fish due to the seamless transitions). So, on the whole, I loved the "idea" of integrating the Skagit systems into the esox realm, but the need for tips and lack of sinking HEADS, put me off in the end. I do think the Commando Heads which are part Intermediate from OPST paired with a Tip could be an epic Stillwater shallow Shooting Head System! NOW, the industry does make some lines that fit the bill in a fully integrated line system.....but it's like 2 lines....not a big market. And the ability to cut to fit is mostly missing. East Coast guys have been DYI shooting heads for like 30 years or more, and although not perfect, they do get flies out and down to where they need to get. Hopefully the Line industry catches up to the Custom Rod industry soon, because this isn't a "Plan A" line....it's Plan B. Just waiting on everything to finally catch up!

Each time you improve handling on the running line side, the advantages on the casting or throwing side are reduced. Or visa versa. I've experimented with the proprietary monofilament slick shooters and grip shooters. None of those really get over thirty pound BS type of mono. They are an option for some waters. There is the whole thing of using intermediate or hover density fly line in small enough diameter as a running line. Heck, I've even tried using thicker braided line as a running line. The worst from a handling perspective, but still it works.

You can use a Switch fly rod turned upside down and put a baitcasting reel on it. And then put some of that RIO In Touch level taper in front of stout braid. The baitcasting reel will pick up the braided line fairly efficiently for you over a long distance. And you can still do something that is part gear angling, or part fly angling (really the only difference being, you've got one hundred percent home-made baits, as opposed to what Bass Pro Shops deems to offer to you on their shelves or from their warehouse stockroom). And your weight to the same lure is in the line. Not in the bait.

Why is that significant? Because fly lures in larger dimensions as suggested, twelve-inch hollow flies etc. One can carry them, a modest selection. And have ' the weight ' to throw the same built into the RIO In Touch head. Not into the lure. So now the swimbait or glide bait, or 'big wood' angler can become more lightweight and more mobile. Whereas at present the angler who throws big wood is confined to boats. The RIO In Touch is one to two ounces of weight. And honestly, I've seen saltwater shoreline anglers cast big jerkbaits that were fairly heavy. Over an ounce I think.

The Switch fly rod turned upside down (to use it like a baitcaster rod), of ten or eleven feet. Makes a pretty awesome jerkbait style rod too. To manipulate the larger lure fly with (if you've got a high bank or shoreline that will enable you to point the Switch rod, point down. And use in conjunction with braided line as a running line and a baitcasting reel. So your running line doesn't become a tangled mess at your feet. Is it fly fishing or gear fishing? Probably more like the latter. What you get though is the ability to fish your saltwater flies in places where you never thought possible.

A good option if you like is to acquire beat up old tatty fourteen foot double handed rods that no one uses. Chop some of the lower rod section out. And re-invent the fly rod as a ten or eleven foot length baitcaster. When you turn the rings upward. It's very weird, but it is a good platform from which you can throw larger fly lures a long distance. Getting thd lures out there, and seeing what they can do over such distance. The problem being with custom swimbaits is bulk, weight, expense and un-certainty of supply (demand for large swimbaits of the right kind exceeds the supply).

only have to go in 6" with that for the splice.

i think it’s waxed but it still would be rough