T-11 and T-14 Shooting Heads

[Deleted]

Is there a need for a T-11 or a T-14 on any Scottish Salmon river?

I have been aware of these but have never followed up on them before now

I believe that they are used in some deep pools on the Tweed (15-20 deep etc) and the sink rate is 8-9 ips

Are they used on other rivers in Scotland and,if so, what is the experience of users?

Cheers

[acw]

I use T14 in short looped lengths from 1 ft through to 10 ft much like poly leaders to get me extra depth in high water,the various T14 tips help me fine tune fishing depth and are relatively inexpensive.

[weefrankie]

pretty certain the scandinavians used to make full heads out of the predessor lead core line,it was the density that got them down but think the lines were cut to length and corresponding gramme casting weight for rod, so you had short very fast sinking lines, was told that the shooting heads produced now by manufacturers are capaple of sinking deeper and quicker
i used to make heads out of cortland kerbooom many years ago for getting down deep on certain lochs for big browns wasnt best to cast,fished on a normak rod cant remember name but was like poker and last foot had softer tip spliced in,a mate even converted a 2llb test curve carp rod for using these lines

[acw]

Me too, would get the lead cored trolling line and heave it out on a cut back carp rod with load of tangly bob Church black streak shooting head backing to drag half a packet of black or white marabou with half a deer muddler heads for big rainbows and the odd rare brown at Datchet aka the Queen Mother reser under the Heathrow flight path .

[weefrankie]

extreme just remembered used to have a set of lead core lines for river fishing muddlers deep (originals) they were looped both ends think it was 8" 12" & 16" used on david norwich m400 for 3 to 5 lines 9ft long,also used to put nymphs wets deep
actually got it from american book by joe humphries proffesor in fly fishing at penn state university
had a wee reel loaded with i think 25lb cobra put head on you reqd and short leader and go,we roll to lift then single cast or try and cast back of roll,or just lob it in

[fredaevans]

T-11/T14 (and now T-18?) is pretty 'old hat' here in the PNW; used by hundreds of 2-hander 'fluff chuckers.' That said, the majority of 'tips' are being fired off of a Scandi or Skagit type head (short and LOTS of grains up-front) BUT for your considerations (that means it really works for me and a lot of other guys) is put a 2-3 foot of 25-30 pound main line off the floater (loop connections) to the end of the sink tip.

How this works is simmilar to RIO's 'Cheaters' that allow the sink tip/poly tip to sink away from the floating section and get 'deep, down and dirty' very quickly.

Why? Well, a 'floating head' is just that, a 'floating head.' So its tendency is to keep what ever it's attached to ... 'well, floating.' Totally counter productive. The short shot of 'leader material' (USE MAIN LINE MATERIAL, NOT LEADER AS IT'S TOO SOFT ) to allow the sink part to drop away from the floating section.

Yes, on a given rod/line set up you may have to 'adjust' the 2-3 foot to match the equipment, but when you 'hit the sweet spot,' only takes an adjustment or two, you're home free.

I'm Canadian, so "trust me on this one." ;D

fae

Edit: Sigh Fred, a Sr. Moment here. IF the 'insert' hinges when you cast, all it means is the connection is a bit too long. Once 'tuned,' it won't.
fae

[alexandra]

Dec 11, 2009 21:30:53 GMT weefrankie said:

extreme just remembered used to have a set of lead core lines for river fishing muddlers deep (originals) they were looped both ends think it was 8" 12" & 16" used on david norwich m400 for 3 to 5 lines 9ft long,also used to put nymphs wets deep
actually got it from american book by joe humphries proffesor in fly fishing at penn state university
had a wee reel loaded with i think 25lb cobra put head on you reqd and short leader and go,we roll to lift then single cast or try and cast back of roll,or just lob it in

Yeh I know what you mean, I've been using a full snake skin lead core line just this year in order to try and get my flies down in the river that I fish because of the heavy rain most of the year. But in doing so I also kept dragging on the bottom, even reverting to boobies trying to stay away from the weed. Although I did'nt have any problem with an overhead cast with this line and I did'nt have to roll cast it once on my old Daiwa rod.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys

I was coming from the position of using a plastic-bodied Templedog being taken down on a shortish leader (3-4ft long) to almost the bottom of the river by the line itself and then rising above to Salmon eye-level where hopefully it is taken?!

Is there a better and more practical method out there of doing this that anyone is using at present?

I am thinking about very early season/cold water fishing here in Scotland in January and February, not really from when Spring - the season - arrives anytime which is usually anytime from the start of March onwards


tweedbunnet

[EV4]

Par for the course for me on the Tweed in the mid eighties at the Norham Bridge pool after the nets went off at the back end was two level belly sections cut from two WF15 Masterline Ultra Fast Sink lines spliced together to give a 60 foot shooting head. A Wet Cel #6 spliced in for the shooting line. No weight on the fly (an oversize Willie Gun plastic tube) and mounted on a short 3 or 4ft leader to keep the fly animated - I just controlled the depth of the fly with the line. Cast across stream with the shooting line mended upstream as far as possible, then left to get right down on the bottom. Brought back through the pool in a slow figure of eight retrieve was sometimes devastatingly effective as it came past the fish from behind and into their line of sight..... it seemed irresistible to the fish at times. They would near pull the rod out of your hands the take was so aggressive. Likely it was territorial aggression at work - the sight of this titchy interloper invading their patch. Not a pretty technique but effective. I had my two best ever Salmon in a day of 17 fish. 31lb and 29lb using that tactic in that deep pool.

David.

Dec 13, 2009 9:46:34 GMT @tweedbunnet said:

Thanks guys

I was coming from the position of using a plastic-bodied Templedog being taken down on a shortish leader (3-4ft long) to almost the bottom of the river by the line itself and then rising above to Salmon eye-level where hopefully it is taken?!

Is there a better and more practical method out there of doing this that anyone is using at present?

I am thinking about very early season/cold water fishing here in Scotland in January and February, not really from when Spring - the season - arrives anytime which is usually anytime from the start of March onwards


tweedbunnet