[Moose]

I finally broke down and took the scissors to a line with the intent of building a skagit head for a light trout spey rod, a CND 13' 6/7 Expert. Upon reading as much as I could find on the idea of skagit head design and function, I built the following out of an Orvis Wonderline DT 10 floater that I have and wont be needing anyway (just in case this fails miserably).

A body of DT 10 that is 32 feet and 355 grains with 10 feet of leadcore 14 that weighed in at 147 grains for a total of 498 grains over 42 feet. I made it with loops at all junctions so it could be easily cut back. Riveraddict mentioned 488 grains for the light trout speys, so this will allow me to cut back a bit if necessary. I would have liked to use a slower sinking sinktip material, but this is what I have on hand. I also have a 10 foot dry tip made from the taper that is half the weight of the sinktip (the line came to me with the tip already cut), so I'll probably have to splice on some more belly material to lengthen it for added weight (then I think I'll have Windcutter, Huh?). Taking it to the river shortly for a test run.

I do have one question for you line cutters out there...

Is a rear taper on a skagit head necessary or is looping the blunt belly material sufficient (like the Rio Scandinavian heads)? I'm wondering if your homemade skagit heads have small rear tapers or not and why?

 

[Brian Simonseth]

Moose

I have that rod and run a “Skagit Line” on it. 480 grains is a magic number for it any more might over load it. I have made it out of different materials, different taper. My sink-tips run from 136 – 146 grains (Ed Ward style 10 ft. sink-tips).

Rear taper is important for turning the line over. It will make a big different in casting. I taper mine from the belly down to .065 dia. in one foot sections. My belly section dia. is .077 down to .072 down to .065 all in one foot section.

.04

 

[Moose]

Brian, Are you running one solid piece of level line to the sink tip connection with a 3 foot rear taper? I just went out and cast my first prototype and it didn't want to lift the sink tip out of the water too well. What type of material are you using for your tips? Maybe you could send me a PM with your line recipe for this rod.

Any help from you guys is greatly apreciated.