naiive rookie question

[bombcast]

I got set-up for swinging stuff last year. Skagit line, T-14/LC-13 on a GL3 14' 8/9. I like that method a lot, got fairly proficient and was fortunate enough to ge into a few summers and a lot of dropbacks.

My question is- Some of the summer-run fishing I do is in fairly skinny water where even a 5' section of T-14 is overkill, and I'm not sure how that line would cast without a head. Would a 10-20' section of a conventional WF floater work looped on the end of the Skagit line?

[brwntrt1219]

Yes, if you have a set of Rio tips the floater will work great also, or hack the front 15ft off a 10wt one hander line and loop it.

Give Rambo a shout, he has miles of level floating line, and is good at making tips.


I also have some level intermediate sink line kicking around here some where. Maybe 3ft of that and 2ft of heavy sink stuff?

[bombcast]

what about a 9wt. bass taper? I have one I can sacrifice. I was thinking the last 15' might work, but don't really care for destroying a perfectly good line if it won't work.

[brwntrt1219]

It should work. Maybe check ebay for a cheap line. After I posted that last reply, I thought maybe an 11wt would be better. I'm hoping Rambo pipes in on this, he's the skagit tips guy. The little bit that I have used a floater like that I have used a 10wt floater tip from a Mid Spey 9/10

[speybstrd]

You could also buy some cheaters from RIO, or make your own.
Here's the math to maintain the 3.5 rule for "skagit" casting- belly+cheater+sink tip=3.5 x rod length.
So, here's how it works:
With a 14' rod, you need 49' line/head including- belly, cheater and sink. You can change the cheater and sink tip to change your 3.5 rule.
On my Sage 6126 in the summer I fish:
27'belly+15'cheater+2'T14 which get's me close to the 3.5 rule of skagit.
Oh yeah, this setup also rails trout on the swing on our small rivers.

[Speybum]

Sierra trading post has a bunch of Orvis closeout lines for sale. Including an intermediate spey line. Check it out . and chop em up.

[Yahtzee]

what up bombcast most likely the 9 wt bass taper wont be enough to load the rod but if you have one worth sacrificing it may not hurt. id try to loop it at 20 feet and chop back from there, the bass taper is prob mor suited for a 7 wt spey tip. what you are looking for is some thing that weighs in around 130 grains. it wont cast well with out a tip as you wont have enough line to properly anchor the cast. as far as other options I have some sections of some old lines I can send out aslo ill be making a purchase of leval line for making tips in the very near future if you want some 12 wt body I can get you in on it. cost is about 50cents per ft. the longest piece i have at the moment is 10 ft.
Let me know
Rambo aka Yahtzee