Shooting head, "Leader," leader, tippet

[Ebisu Bespoke Leaders]

Received the Rainshadow IF1088 kit yesterday - happy to have a nice little project for the workbench.

I had no idea of the complications of putting the right line - leader - tippet onto a switch rod. I've been dredging thru various forums online and I don't know exactly where/if a furled leader fits into the picture. This is further complicated if you want to replicate the floating/sink tip concept, whether it is an "integrated" sink tip line, or a change-a-tip line (like I have now for my 9 wgt. overhead)

I'm pretty confident up to and including the shooting head, but then it becomes really murky.

When you're fishing a shooting head, I'd assume you'd would attach the furl (or heavy butt) to it - for a total length of the leader related to the rod and taking into consideration fishing/water conditions. And, depending on the makeup of the SH itself (float/sink), you'd fish at a given depth.

But, for the Skagit or Scandi shooting heads that don't seem to be offered with float/sink tip options, I can't find a definitive answer as to where a traditional (or furled) leader would be used. I've even seen it written that the tippet simply attaches to the loop on the SH, which doesn't make sense to me, as I would expect to see a traditional leader here.

Confusingly, Airflo has PolyLeaders and Rio has VersiLeders in various lengths (5, 8, 10, 14) and float/sink rates. These are made the same way that flylines are, and seem to fulfill the same roles as my change-a-tip ones do, except that my tips are all 15 feet. Again, I've seen reference to loops on both ends of these, and attaching tippet to the last one. But, it doesn't seem right to attach a tippet to flyline material, even if there is a loop to do so! I think we still need a leader-leader...

So, here's my initial solution:

1. Scandi compact shooting head
2. One of three 5 foot "leaders" (float, slow sink, fast sink)
3. 11 foot furl/tippet to match the rod length (a. Mono or fluoro furl 8.5 feet; b. tippet 2.5 feet)

[TWIZARD]

You'll have great fun when you take a swing with such a rod!

First: You'll find line general weight recommendations for the switch rods in this forum.

IMHO the grain weights stated, indicate what you should use as a minimum for "single-handing" ("low") and as a max for "double-handing" Skagit-style (high)

Line weight for Scandi style (underhand casting)
For the Scandi style, you must go slightly lower than the high indication.

A #7 (which I use for Scandinavian Seatrout and Atlantic Salmon), 21 g (grams) is Perfect!

For the #8, approx 23 g should do the trick!

Shooting Head length
For Underhand casting with 10'8" and 11' Switch rods: Keep the heads short!
Max 30' - could go 1 to 2' shorter, depending on density.

Shooting Head Front taper
As long as you like, but making the front taper "not too long", you'll get more degrees of freedom when adding a polyleader (better turnover of the "heavy" polyleaders).


Polyleaders
Airflo 10' Steelhead/Salmon (or the 8' Seatrout version if you can get it) or similar.

For floating heads you can use everything from Float to Fast Sink versions with ease (incl. tied/tapered mono leaders).
For intermediate / Slow sink heads, you just exclude the floating polyleader.

Fast sinking heads (Sink 3 to 4)
Fast Sink or Super Fast sink polyleaders.

Tippets
Approx 5-6' for Float and intermediate - can be longer.

"As short as possible" for sinking polyleaders - you want to keep the fly fishing in the depth defined by the line/leader combination - not fishing "somewhere else" in the water column!!

Enjoy!
Tight lines!

[l3rods]

Getting the right line to match the rod is really important. Head lengths for Scandi style should be about 26' or so. For Skagit lines should be about 22.5'. Grain weight of heads vary with rod weight. Aslo, fishing with the switch rods in the spey style needs some instruction from 2-handed casters.

Currently, I have in stock Scandi and Spey lines designed and built by Steve Godshall of Medford, Oregon. He works with Gary Anderson and Bob Meiser designing and building rods and lines for them. For more information, call Larry Lee of L3 Rods at 916-962-0616. These lines work GREAT!
Larry Lee