I dread to think of all the old flylines i have discarded over the years, fancy tapered new lines came out onto the market, and the equivalent weight and density line of which i already owned
was seemingly slightly cracked at the transition between the running line and the back taper, I didnt need another excuse to discard this line and foolishly go out and part with money.
These days i like to think that i am thinking a little bit smarter now, and i never throw old flylines away.....
The main reason being is that the head off this old line will always come in handy for a home made shooting head, for one branch of angling or another.

The shooting head scene, although been around for decades, briefly came and went here in the UK some time ago, my own feellings were that it never really took off as the instructions on how to cut them to the correct size "to acheive the correct casting weight" was probably unclear, and subsequently it was a confidence issue for the majority which averted them from buying and trying them, although some anglers out there overcame this fear of cutting up a flyline, and gave it a go, these guys can fully appreciate the casting qualities offered by a well balanced head system, they also still use them to deadly effect for nearly all of their fishing.



Lets consider the main advantage of making a full range of shooting heads of differing densities over the use of full lines, and this is of course......Economy. For instance the reels that i use at the moment are made in Sweden by a high end manufacturer called Danielsson, although these reels are made to the highest of standards and are a marvel of European engineering to look at and use, purchasing six spare spools just to accomodate the various lines of differing head lengths and densities that i could be using for my salt water fishing is never on the cards in my wifes eyes, but incorporating the use of just one spool loaded with good quality shooting line and backing, and much to the delight of my wife, at just a fraction of the price of one new spare spool, i spend my money instead on cheap mill end lines of different densities and a nice suitable wallet to carry the finished heads around in. Shooting heads also make life easier too when pounding up the beach on hot summers days, as theres nothing worse than being laden with tonnes of gear as you march towards your saltwater mark, only to be too bloody hot and tired to fish once you get there..






Ok, Lets take a closer look at the principle of a flyline, and to be more precice, just the head on a WF....

I would however like to start by describing to you how to make a very basic head from a Double taper first, because following this, the rest is easy.... What we require for this is a cheep mill end or old floating double taper line, one AFTMA rating bigger than the rod we intend to use it on, a set of digital scales favoured by goldsmiths and drug dealers "purchased from Ebay for about £10" a plastic jug for the line to be sat in, and of course a pair of scissors.



What we need to establish first is the actual casting WEIGHT we cast on our rod, this is the weight of Double Taper that we can comfortably cast the best. This is a very simply affair of threading up the Double Taper line up through the rings "without attaching it to the reel if you wish", with a leader attached and woollen tag on the end, and begin overhead false casting whilst hauling. Extend the length as you false cast until you find the length of line that you can comfortably handle beyond the rod tip, and when this is achieved, note where your hauling hand was holding the line. It is at this point where the scissors come out and you will cut the line where the hauling hand was holding it. I would now take this cut section of line, cut a further 4ft off it, turn on the scales, place the plastic jug onto the scales and Zero them, then place the line you have just cut into the jug, write down this weight.



With your spare spool loaded with your chosen shooting line, we will begin to tune up the head. Tie the head to the shooting line "with the fattest part of the fly line meeting the shooting line" by using a nail knott or similar, and thread it back up through the eyes of the rod. Begin false casting again, its here that you may find that the line is impossible to cast when the head and about 2-3 ft of running line is beyond the tip. so we shall simply separate it from the shooting line by cutting off a further 6" of flyline, weigh it and then reattach it. It might now to some degree be slightly more contrallable compared to the last attempt, but still a tad on the awkward side, so again cut off a further 6" and weigh it, re attach and try again to cast it. I would guess that after maybe one or two further 6" cuts, we can now cast the head and 2-3ft of running line beyond the tip quite comfortably, so we weigh it one last time and note down this final weight for future reference. You may be wondering why i suggested a 4ft cut up from the original one , and then have you messing about with another four or so 6" cuts, why not just say 6ft?..... this is so that we dont take off too much in one go, as you might find that you can hold up more than you thought once the knott and some shooting line is beyond the tip. This method is to simply and acurately achieve our casting weight without going to light and short,  we can now also base this figure for the manufacture of all future heads that you may make for this rod, for example, I use a Sage TCR 5# and i know through previous experience that I can comfortably throw around 15.5 grams of line with this rod, irrespective of the head length. and my 8# TCR and I can handle up to 26-27 grams.



Now that we have established what weight we can cast, we can apply some thought into the areas where we intend to use these heads, and start to formulate some exiting ideas of how we can really customise heads to suit our fishing environments. Lets say for instance that you are fishing a very enclosed spate river, and you really need a shorter head for forming a small D loop for roll and Spey casting in tight spaces, then all we need to do, now that we know our casting weight, is to go up two sizes bigger in the mill end line that we buy, weigh out the amount we found works best and cut it there, It will turn out shorter because the line was heavier to begin with. If however you are fishing large open stillwaters, you may want a longer head which dosnt turn over as quick and therefore should cast further, so we simply purchase a DT line of the same rating as the rod,"if we have the ability to hold up that amount of line", and weigh out the amount we know works..


Now I did begin this article refering to the use of old Weight Forward Lines, and my current thoughts regarding Flyline taper design is that most of the Weight Forward lines on the market today are made with the head kinda like the wrong way round, they usually have a longish front taper for enhanced presentation, a small thick belly section and a short backtaper forming the transition between the head and the running line. I have found through experience that the longer the front taper and shorter the backtaper, the better this will work as a head when it is cut free from the running line and reversed. If you can imagine that what was the short backtaper, is now the front where the leader is attached, and the original tip of the line serves as the back of the head, what we have is a general configuration which sees a very smooth transition between diameters of shooting line and the head, one which dosnt hinge or kick uncontrollably when casting for distance, and the short steep taper at the front ensures good turnover. What you may have lost in the original design regarding the long front taper and presentation, you can simply buy back using a longer length of butt section in the leader makeup. There are potentially many fantastic shooting heads out there on old unused WF lines of all differing shapes and lengths, and i chose to prefer to make all my shooting heads exclusively from reversed WF's, keeping the AFTMA rating of the WF head i have in hand for the rod of the same rating, as the manufacturer done all the hard work for us when they designed the line.



You will see that in the next article where I show you how to knott and weld a loop into the line, it is much easier to do this with the original tip section of the line, and i find it preferable to having to use braided loops etc, which are needed when looking to construct heads from DT's, simply because the back of a head made from a DT is larger in diameter and is almost impossible to home weld into a suitably small loop.



Just to finish off this page, i would like to reccomend a manufacturer of Shooting line of which as of yet i have found to be second to none. The line is made by a company called Varivas and the line is called Varivas Airs. This shooting line is hollow and floats quite well, it is resistant to tangles and offers little resistance as it flies through the guides on the rod, this lack of resistance is essential in delaying loop probagation and premature turnover when casting for distance. The line can be found here by clicking this link