Thanks
@Nick Clayton
So adding a shooting head to std line is fine.
If I were to add 1 shooting head to the arsenal, would an intermediate with control of additional weight at the fly make the most sense. Or maybe a quicker sink?
Would some of those top water foam poppers from the legends resists the sink of the line? Looks like they would, but havent tied let alone thrown one.
Thinking about versatility and the role of each component... or at least trying to... lots pieces to put together.
I cant speak to adding anything to a standard line as the two types of lines I use for my fishing are integrated shooting heads (I use these the most) which in itself is a whole line, not something added. Running like and the head is joined seamlessly making for pleasant casting and retrieving with no connections to worry about. I've fished Airflo 40+ lines exclusively in the sound for the last handful of years, and am a big fan. Unfortunately those lines are hard to get these days but there are many similar lines available.
To a lesser extent, for a few applications I make my own setups using various running lines attached to lengths of T material in various densities. These are a versatile way of being able to swap out various heads and sink rates on the go. I generally only use these lines in the ocean for when I'm trying to get super deep.
For a number of years prior to newer options people made their own shooting heads in various ways, often by cutting up various lines and connecting heads to running lines they basically made. I really don't have any experience in this so can't really offer much.
Personally I don't think attaching a head to a full standard line would be much fun to cast, but I suppose it's an option. Never attempted it myself.
As far as fishing topwater with sinking lines, I really can't say. I fish topwater in the sound very, very rarely. When I do I simply use a floating line.
Sink rates totally vary on what you are doing. For Puget Sound beach fishing an integrated shooting head in a full intermediate Sink rate was always my go to and I seldom felt the need for anything else. Now that I fish pretty much exclusively from a boat I carry a variety of integrated shooting head lines from floating down to type 7 Sink rates as I find fishing from a boat requires more versatility line wise. Through the course of any day on the water I might use 4 or 5 different lines of various Sink rates depending on the situation.
I suppose for versatility sake you could get a floating running line and several heads of varying sink rates and swap out heads as needed. I am just not a huge fan of stripping lines with loop to loop connections between the head/running line so I avoid that when I can. If that's what you were after something like the OPST Commando head or equivalent might be a good option.
The biggest thing, IMO, is that a single line is simply not going to cover every fishing scenario our saltwaters offer, so first and foremost I would try to determine exactly what I want a line for and then go from there.
