Zach Matthews
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What Tim said.
Keep in mind too that most loop to loops are being used in eight weight and up rods, especially two handers, which do tend to have the largest guides. Nevertheless they tick along and can also hang on the retrieve if you don’t make allowance for the knot coming through by momentarily dipping the rod so that junction is in the guides (it can hang on the tip top).
Generally speaking you’re going to throw a shooting head a little differently from a regular line, too. The best technique is to clear the head itself so that the tip top is sitting on just the first few inches of running line (so that knot isn’t flying through the guides on a big shooting cast). Managing “overhang,” which is the distance from the back of the head to the tip top of the rod, is the name of the game with heads. Short overhang is more manageable for beginners but it will cause the head to turn over hard and fast and thereby “dump” at short distances. It’s not uncommon to have a dumped head flip over upside down and still travel several feet before dropping in a puddle.
To avoid dumping, you lengthen the amount of overhang. On a 100′ cast with a 400 grain head on a ten weight, I’d typically have 6-8 feet of overhang out, which does give the line a ball and chain effect. The best casters, like the Rajeff boys, can handle 10-20 feet of overhang and thereby delay turnover for the longest possible time, thus getting the longest possible casts.
Managing overhang also applies to integrated heads like Tim describes, and actually even to ordinary fly lines provided you can carry the 40-60′ head (depending on the taper) to get to the running line. All other things considered, any line will cast furthest when the full head is out the front of the rod and you’re shooting only running line (the level thin stuff at the back of almost all lines).
Zach
Chad –
Sure man. You’ve got several options here. You can cut the line at the running line and make a welded loop system. The easiest way to do that would be to cut right at the color change, then get a level piece of, say, 7 weight floating fly line. Cut about 6″ of the fly line and cut both ends on a bias so they taper to a fine point. Then get some clear heat shrink tubing. Double over the floating line and push the two sliced ends into one end of the tubing, then run the blunt end of the running line you just cut into the other end. You want the running line to be between the two looped ends while you heat with a hairdryer or better yet a cheap woman’s hair iron. That’ll
Brian –
I think you’re 100% accurate on that, and there’s just not a good engineering solution available to the manufacturers, especially after the lines get a little age (and crud) on them.
Brian –
Maybe not the most tactful way to congratulate Tim, but I think you are correct that other INT sink tips have been on the market before. This line as I understand it has the slowest sinking tip ever made so the line won’t actually drop much below the film; it just helps the fly break the surface for like emerger fishing.
Helios 2 is new, as is Winston’s BIIISX, Scott’s T3h spey rods (which look like the S4 series), and Sage’s Circa and ONE Elite.