As a consequence of fishing a highly vegetated river a lot of my casting is quite precise and I use a lot of side and pendulum deliveries off my spey casts.

On a couple of pools I was spey casting extremely heavy flies today with a single hander (8 weight). It's a pain as anything other than kiss and go results in a really unsatisfactory cast. Driving the cast under low hanging branches with these extremely heavy flles is impossible.

I was thinking about buying and doctoring a very heavy line maybe a 12 or 13 to make a very short and heavy skagit for the type of cast I have to do on these pools. Anyone out there tried this sort of thing before?

Malcolm

No but i'm interested Malcom, hope you have a strong wrist though.. I was playing around with Skagit type cast single handed but to do it proper you need a big heavy line.. And preferably some steelhead would also help..

Jerry

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When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

I would be interested in your findings Malcolm. I practice these casts but use full lines. I am just leaving to go up the River to see if any Salmon are about and I have an 8 # Rod . I will put a Salmon 10ft polyleader direct to backing on a reel and try it


Brian

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Dutchy,

No steelhead I'm afraid. I live very close to a feeder river of Loch Lomond so my day to day fishing is for salmon, sea trout and occasional big brownies at the end of the season. My normal line is the Rio Steelhead which is great for the long flowing casts even with big heavy flies but the shorter casts are problematic.

Malcolm

That sounds better then the rudd, roach and ide, i was planning to use it for..

But seriously, i think it might work, the line is probably the only thing that is holding you back.. The steelhead from RIO and SA are great for long rollcasts and have the abillity to turn over anything.. They do require some space to make them work though...

I think you need one of our american forumites to help you out on this one.. Where's mister Evans when you need him, Fred probably knows if there are some guys doing it...

Jerry

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When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

Hi, I haven't cast a true 'head' but really like the wulff ambush line. These come in head and intergrated head forms. I have a #5 and it turns over 20' leaders with an indicator and junk on the end easily. It is so aggressive that you can roll it without forming a D behind the rod.

Great for curve casts too.

Have a look here:

Royal Wulff

Ta, Lee.

Just back from the river. I took an WF 12 medium sinker, one of my pike lines, with the intention of finding out where the sweet spot was and how it would handle heavy flies. The fly was a size 4 double with a run of lead up the shank to help get it down and a bulky dressing. With only 25 feet of line out it was lifting the fly much more easily than the 8 weight Rio Steelhead and casting much more sweetly at short distances. The initial experiment was good enough for me to decide that I will make up a very short heavy head and attach it to running line. First step is to find somewhere that does mill end DT 13 lines that I can chop up and play about with!

I started with the Ambush (and still like it) but then changed to skagit switch heads or rio skagit short. The skagit switches (designed by Tim rajeff and Tom Larimer & manufactured by AirFlo) start at 360grains which is a tad on the heavy side for most 1handers but the rio skagit short is available from 275grains.

I personally prefer the skagit switches (the taper is awesome), you can really move some large [pike] flies and heavy sink tips with them.

If you have the opportunity you should give both heads a try.

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