Shooting heads DIY

4th section - Casting

by Martin Joergensen

If you are used to casting with overhead casts, the use of a shooting head will not be strange to you. It responds a bit more aggressively and will probably gain a bit more line speed than your usual WF line, but that's the whole idea.
There is some advice you should heed:
- Roll cast the line to lay on top of the water before the first back cast.
- Use the tension of the line on the water to load the rod for the first back cast.
- Use as few blind casts as possible. Excessive blind casting does not give more distance.
- Shoot line when the head is just out of the top eye with only enough running line free to work the cast.
- Use a double haul to increase casting speed and length.

Read about the most common casting errors - and how to avoid them

Notice how the cast is centered around the transition between the shooting head (red) and the running line (gray). This link will pass through the top eye under great stress several times in every cast. It has to be the sweet spot of the setup, and the head needs to cast well with just a bit of running line out of the top eye and still load the rod well with a meter or two (3-6') of the shooting head inside the top eye.

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