>>2739709going further, there are different types of line. some float, these are called floating lines. some sink, those are sinking lines. there are lines that kinda sink a little bit but not really, these are called intermediate lines. there are also hybrid lines, like sink tip lines (only the tip sinks) sinking head lines (the head sinks and the running line either floats or is intermediate) or recently compound sinking lines have become a popular choice where the tip sinks the fastest, the belly sinks slower, and the running line sinks slowest.
going back to shooting heads, spey casting is the most common modern application for them, specifically skagit heads
skagit heads are short, agressive "spey" tapers which just means the thickest part of the head is by the rod tip. by contrast, the scientific anglers titan fly line tapers the opposite way, and that makes it super powerful overhead casting, but makes it hard to rollcast. back to topic, skagit lines usually run on a system of interchangable sink tips. if you search opst commando head on youtube theyll tell you more about spey stuff, but skagit and scandi stuff is also weird and niche, all the more for two handed rods
>pic related, a lake run rainbow i got with a fiberglass spey rod and click/pawl reel>inb4 fish handling, this stockie fuck was stabbed in the head shortly aftergoing back to leaders a moment, not all leaders are the same, and 'tippet' doesn't mean 'light'. on my musky setup i run a 4 foot 40 pound level leader with 8-10 inches of wire for tippet. using wire or heavy mono as tippet like this is often called 'bite tippet' because the thick tippet helps keep you from getting bitten off by toothy fish. tippets are often measured through an "x" system where higher numbers are thinner tippets. theres no reason to use less than 5x. the 'x' system is also stupid, which is why i use regular mono as my fly leader material, because '2x tippet' doesn't make sense when i could say '12 pound tippet'"
