The little braided connector is simply made to protect the welded loop of your expensive Spey lines, I haven't noticed them having any affect on the cast.
The braided lead head sections are what makes subsurface fishing easy. When you have only a section of mono, in this case 25 pound Maxima attached to the floating line with the weighted head in the middle your leaders butt will sink quickly.
If you look at the lengths specified for butts - heads - and tippets, you should be able to imagine how easily the whole leader and fly will sink. I use these with the fly line well dressed with old fashioned Mucilin floatant. The line floats high and the leaders cut right down taking standard un-weighted flies with them. In order to get proper depths when fishing you just alter where you place the fly with the cast. For deep presentations you quarter the cast upstream and control your floating line with mends and some retrieval as it passes you going downstream. If all is working correctly, the line will stay right on top of the water and you will have good fly control and casting will be easy because the line is right at the surface.
Unlike a 15' sink tip with a weighted fly there is no need to strip in great lengths before making a 'next cast'. I use these with long belly lines and typically set up my next cast with about 40 - 55 feet of line out through my rod tip. The leaders are barely noticeable when compared to a long tip and weighted fly.
If you are casting well with a floating line then getting used to this system is pretty easy. A little tweaking of your timing during anchor and D loop will be all that's necessary. I put the link to Beartooth Montana in the post because I tried to make my own heads and found it to be a giant pain in the rear so I still buy them. It may interest you to know that I've never lost a head over all this time and only wore a couple out. They last for years and become more supple with use.
I use only 24" - 36" - and on rare occasion a 48" to get good depth for my flies. Hopefully you guys can use this to your advantage and enjoy your fishing a little more.
Ard
