Viking Lars | Saturday, 7 September 2024
Since I made the custom interchangeable sink tip line some months ago, which by the way has been performing well since a few adjustments, I’ve had some different lengths of T-line lying around. We went out for mackerel and sea bass a few days ago and when fishing in my float tube on the Danish west coast, I usually fish very fast sinking lines.
I’ve had a short, very dense shooting head from a danish brand called Scierra for ages, which has always done well. In preparation for the trip, I rolled it on last weekend and the coating was crumbling away in several places. I went on line and of course something similar was hard to find for a 5-wt rod.
So I went to my T-lines. “I can make myself a multi density shooting head!”, I though. And so I did. I aimed for a shooting head of about 12 grams. I had T-8 and T-11 and after a few complicated equations and some quantum computing, I ended up with a 6,5m long shooting head. That is definitely on the short side, but it was what I had and what I used.
After Paul had explained to me the basics of density and Archimedes and after Matt had recovered from the shock of such a devilish line for a 5-wt rod, I wet out for the test.
To no one’s surprise the line sinks like a brick (possibly even faster) and it casts like a brick on a string. I was fully prepared for both. I was quite happy with the sink rate. In saltwater I was able to get the fly to the bottom very fast, even on 4-5 meters of water. The casting needed a little getting used to.
First of all, I had on just 3-4 feet of 0X, which clearly doesn’t help anything. I think a short, tapered leader will make a difference, so I’ve tied one, ready for next time. The problem was of course a rapid and uncontrolled turn over. Casting as slowly as possible is necessary and yet, it’ll still turn over and land ina heap. But by lengthening the stroke and the haul, still keeping both as slow as possible and releasing the line every sop slightly early, I was able to land a some what straight line.
Such a dense, short line will never cast well and I’ll have to look around for something else or see if I can cook something else up. This works, but I want a line that casts better. Scientific Anglers used to make shooting heads in sink 6, I think and if I can get one of those in a 7- or 8-wt, I can cut it down to a suitable weight and still have a line with some taper in it.
Have a great weekend!
Lars