I have found their recommendations to be spot on.

 

I found the chart to be very general personally.

I use Sage rods, which are pretty stout, so I emailed them and I was glad I did. They got back to me quickly with thoughts for specific head/rod matches. I suggest dropping them a line.

 

I - especially since I have heard it may be good for newbies to go up 25-50 grains than the recommendations.

You have heard one of the bad myths there are in fly fishing!

Fly line weight should follow fly size in the first place but when a long range is needed a heavier line can be cast because it goes longer. Then when fishing require delicate presentation for scary fish a lighter line can be used but sometimes using a longer leader is enough.

You can cast heavier line what is recommended but it does not make casting easier, it makes casting harder because you need to use more force. It is stupid to first learn casting heavy lines and then fix casting to lighter lines but it is good business for tackle manufacturers :laugh:

Esa

 

If you use hauling when single hand casting consider lighter heads than recommended. Hauling roughly doubles the line energy so the performance gain is significant even when light line is cast. I have used to cast only about half of those recommended line weights when SH casting but the flyes I use might be smaller what you quys fish with.

Esa

 

Opst

Send that exact massage over to Opst on their site. They are fast to respond and spot on.


Andrew

 

I just bought my first--200gr for my 9' 5wt sage. This thing is a game changer. The best combination I've tried so far was a 12' clear intermediate tip I happened to have in my wallet and about 5' of flouro tippet. I suspect that tip came from an old 5wt interchangeable tip line I had. It's probably around 100 grains.

The first thing I tried with the new head was a super extra double quantum hyper sink 10' polyleader, but that didn't work well at all. I think the clear intermediate and floating polys would work fine. And maybe a not so fast-sinking one (the problem with quantum sink polyleaders is they occupy all levels of the water column simultaneously, both here, and somewhere else in the universe that the quantum leader is entangled with).

Anyhow, the whole thing casts beautifully, whether anchored or overhead. Dave (I think it's Dave, at Emerald Water Anglers) told me that these heads do need some kind of tip. Straight mono will not turn over (I tried it--the head loops out beautifully and lands straight, then the mono floats down haphazardly afterwards).

OPST has great videos of this head specifically used with 5wt rods.

Great fun. Good luck!

 

I just bought my first--200gr for my 9' 5wt sage. This thing is a game changer. The best combination I've tried so far was a 12' clear intermediate tip I happened to have in my wallet and about 5' of flouro tippet. I suspect that tip came from an old 5wt interchangeable tip line I had. It's probably around 100 grains.

I built myself a 5-foot floating cheater out of the back taper of an old WF 5wt line. Just threw a couple of whipped loops on it with some Uni-stretch. Really helps with the anchor when fishing polyleaders on the end of my 225 Commando. I find the line matches perfectly to the Commando tips, but the cheater helps the cast a lot with a floating or intermediate poly.

 

Call the OPST guys - their grain wt recommendations are way lighter then Rio and Airfo BUT, they are spot on for their unique lines. Short lines load rods differently. And they're really helpful.

 

Buy the recommended weight for your rods and get out and practice.

I find Commando heads are very versatile and use them with short tips but also like 15' tips or long poly leaders. Adjusting my stroke to match the short head with the length of tip to me is the key issue. At first you might find it easy to blow your anchor with a short tip. Watch the head as you lay out your anchor and time the forward stroke to where the fly changes direction with a water born cast. A short tapered cheater is also a great solution if you want to use a longer stroke. I also have taken sections from old single hand lines and cut them to make a variety of tips with different tapers that work in various situations.

Short head with short low taper tip is great for confined areas and can haul a heavy fly. Here you need to use a short stroke. ("cast as if you are inside a phone booth" keep your elbows close to your body) When you are using lighter flies and want a bit more finesse to your presentation a longer tapered tip is nice. Adjust your stoke to suit. Watch the line, tip and fly while you learn how to cast it. Muscle memory will kick in with practice after you discover what works.

 

Stroke length is definitely the key, for sure. So easy to blow your anchor with the shorter tip, and for people like me, who are transitioning to these shorter heads in general from being a more long line caster. I think that's why Jerry said it's a good idea for some people to just stick with one style instead of switching back and forth between them. I still have a hard time controlling the length of my stroke perfectly to my liking and you're right that practice is what it's all about. I guess that's why they call it a cheater! Hope to one day get good at this stuff.

 

Short Skagit heads are great! When a very long leader is put to a short Skagit line it begins to behave like a Scandi line and T&G casts become easier and more efficient BUT so does the SA casts. Naturally when the leader gets longer whole line gets longer and the pause before the forward cast needs to become longer so a good D-loop forms. Only hindrange with long leader is that fly size needs to be reduced.

Esa

 

I have a bunch of the OPST heads and like them all. I think their chart is spot on for the larger heads. The 150 head on a 3 wt SH rod, is too heavy IMO. I prefer my homemade equivalent at 100 grains. The 175 head works nicely on a 3/4 switch rod. I have a Burkheimer Deep Action Load 9' 6 wt and the recommended 250 is too heavy. However on a very fast action 9' 8 wt, the 350 head is perfect.