Rio T-8

throwinmetal · Veteran Member

Rio T-8

SCM · Senior Member

I would be interested in hearing your review. I went surf fishing for the first time today at Limantour Beach in Marin Co. I was using an 8wt with a Teeny T-200 24-ft. sink tip. I found the T-200 to be way to light to shoot line out beyond the breakers. I am thinking about going to a much heavier maybe 300 to 400 grain, 15-ft. shooting head attached to some old WF-F as the running line. I have never heard of using mono as the running line. I wonder how the mono will feel when stripping it in. Look forward to reading your report. Good luck.

throwinmetal · Veteran Member

I felt the mono burning when stripping so I need a glove. I got the idea from reading http://www.zenflyfishing.com/

I guess running line would be better against tangles

I'll go to the surf next weekend

Frenchie · Veteran Member

I currently have 30ft of T8 with black colored amnesia shooting line on a 9ft 6 weight.

30ft is too long to shoot with the 6wt and needs to be cut back to 24-26ft. This will allow�the T8 and a small bit of the amenesia to be clear of the guides before the final line shoot. 30ft should be ok on the 9wt.

I used 35lb Gudebrod braided butt leader to create braided loops for each end of the T8.

A good video on Itinerant Angler shows how to make the braided loops.

http://www.itinerantangler.com/casting/loopknots.wmv

Have also been slinging 30ft of T14 with a 9wt. and experimenting with different running lines. So far the AirFlow Ridge Line�shoots the best and had less memory than amnesia and a Rio running line......but it cost more too.�

Not much false casting with the T14. Roll cast....water hall once�or twice...and shoot it.

.....Still lots to learn

Chris Laskodi · Veteran Member

throwinmetal,
You should be able to throw 30 ft of t-11 or t-14, I use t-14 on 9-10 wts, t-11 on 7-8 wts and t-8 on my sal****er 6 wt.

To cast it you do what Frenchie describes, get the entire shooting head out of the rod, make as few fasts as possible and shoot it. If you aren't a very competent caster, it is a very difficult concept to learn since you basically break every rule of casting when using shooting heads. You don't need to make super tight loops when casting shooting heads since the head is so heavy, and you tend to smack yourself when you worry too much about your loops.

I use braided loops on the shooting heads and secure them with one nail knot, this hardly gets caught in the guides. I don't use braided loops in the surf because the sand wears them out really fast, instead I just albright a piece of 30 lb mono and tie a perfection loop. If you are using a mono shooting line, you can albright that directly to the shooting head.

I personally don't use mono running lines because they seem to tangle a lot. I like the Rio coldwater intermediate and the AirFlo Ridge. I think the Ridge is the best out of the box, but it gets twists really easily and kinks when its all twisted up.

Anyone who is also interested in surf fishing check out this site as well:
http://home.att.net/~surf.perch/Main.html

throwinmetal · Veteran Member

I didn't go to the beach yet but I practiced in Pt Dillon Benicia so I could work with deep water and avoid the snags. It was windy and right away I got tangles with the running line (mono). The T8 sunk easily enough and it was hard to set up my casting. Plus my stripping basket has too many holes to let the wind blow things out. Finally found some sort of rhythm with the wind to my back but the gusts made things unpredictable.

So I went and got that Rio coldwater intermediate running line and tried it out in the parking lot. Again the wind was at my back and I found some sort of formula for casting it out maybe 45 ft.

I'll try the beach soon and then maybe the heavier shooting heads.

timmosazz · Senior Member

Try taking a look at this it may help. http://www.sexyloops.com/advice/shootingheads.shtml
Also there is a table that shows how heavy to go with your shooting head. Click on the highlighted part of this section (Some good advice with regards to the fundamentals of the AFTM and its significance can be found here and should be read immediately

Hope this helps. Also I would stay away from the mono line and either get a shooting line or go to amnesia. They have amnesia at Sweenies.
Tim

throwinmetal · Veteran Member

went this morning to the beach in san francisco. it was calm until 1030am where just a slight 5 knot wind made it hard to throw. looks like I will go heavier.

casting on the beach is weird. first because of my ungainly knot i have to mend out the 30 feet of shoothing head, lay it parallel on the sand before the waves got to it and then start hauling false casts, pivot to my target and shoot. Sometimes I don't mend it all out and just false cast until it comes out, trying hard keep it all in the air because once it touches water its like a magnet. thanks for all your suggestions.

no perch either. it was a really slow day.

Chris Laskodi · Veteran Member

If you're using a shooting head with loops just clinch knot the mono directly to the shooting head. Since it is just mono, it's replaceable so you can just cut the clinch when you are done. The clinch should slide through the guides much better than whatever knot you are using. What kind of loop/knot is on the back end of your shooting head? Try putting on a braided loop, that slides through the guides much better and you can still use a clinch knot to attach the mono to the shotting head.
Learning on a beach exposed to the Pacific is going to cause all kinds of problems, the surf is so much rougher there. I'd suggest trying to find a south facing beach or a beach protected from the NW swell. You can either head down to the Monterey Bay or up to south end of Pt Reyes. Drake's beach is a great place to learn. Surf is almost always down, but there seems to be a good amount of perch. This is where I caught my perch. Even better yet is go with someone who knows what they are doing. This will shorten your learning curve a ton. Surf fishing is not an easy game to learn but once you do its tons of fun.

throwinmetal · Veteran Member

I tried Rio T-11 and it flies much better. I just need to build arm strength for stamina. Also I still have knot snagging guides issue.

My running line has a big loop. I tied the T-11 to that loop using a uni with 2 twists. I will have to investigate knots with smaller profiles.