Skagit xheavy MOW as micro skagit head?

[Ganderzone]

Has anyone played with either a xheavy or heavy floating mow tip used as a micro skagit head? I believe the xheavy full floating come in around 170 grains at 10' , seems like affordable alternative to opst? Running a opst head and they are and absolute blast but at $55 a pop hard to justify a wallet of heads.

 

[Unknownflyman]

I think it would be short for single hand?

10 feet seems too short for anything other than single hand, even seems short for that for water load casting.

I use 5' tungsten coated sink tips for single hand overhead casting to get deep.

 

[Ganderzone]

This would be for single hand trout rods, 3-5 wt with 7.5-10' floating or opst tips.

 

[Unknownflyman]

This would be for single hand trout rods, 3-5 wt with 7.5-10' floating or opst tips.

I tried to find a grain weight, seems like a 10` extra heavy plus another floating or sinking MOW tip would be a lot for a trout rod.
AFTMA sizes
3wt is 100 grain
4wt is 120 grain
5wt is 140 grain

Two MOW tips together is a lot more than that. The only single hand line I could recommend is the commando smooth, they work great, dont need any Mono running line or anything and they are the appropriate size for a single hand fly rod.

Besides two mow tips cost 50 bucks and you still need to buy mono running line. Your right about there in cost anyway.

About all I can say to help you.

 

[Ganderzone]

For skagit style on single handers under 2-225 you are either using poly leaders or the opst tips which are around 60 grains. The aftma weights pertain to overhead casting, sustain anchor or scandi you have a rather large window. What I'm getting at is with opst tips you are under 100grains for a tip and with a xheavy MOW tip at 175 theoretically you are in the window for a single hander using sustained anchor. Basically looking to see if anyone has tried it scaled down? I haven't used the smooth as I prefer mono for my running lines, little tougher to handle but the additional distance is worth it. My mind questions why can't a large mow tip be used in place of a "driver", like a scandi and add a downsized tip???

 

[Unknownflyman]

You can try whatever you want, a 275 grain head is for a 7wt rod though, that's what I'm saying. I dont think your going to like it on a 3-4-5 single hand rod.

The OPST 3wt head 12' long, 150 grains, you said you like Mono, that is the lightest head, BUT it can only handle a 5' to 7' polyleader.

OPST already kinda figured it out, looking at their charts. I dunno, not much else I can say.

 

[flav]

I remember a couple guys discussing this on speypages a few years back. I can't remember if they were using MOW tips, Rio replacement tips, or poly leaders, but it was working. I makes sense, they're about the right grain weight, about the right length, and tapered, why not use them? If you can find one that is close to what you want give it a try.

Lots of Spey guys experiment and slice and dice lines. I've built short single hand Skagits out of old Spey and heavy SH lines I had lying around. These experiments all worked, were fun to cast, and I learned a lot along the way about head design. In the end I realized my experiments would never cast as nicely as a production line designed to do exactly what I was trying to do. I ended up buying an OPST line, and it was a much better casting line than any of my homemade heads.

 

[trev]

I guess I'm dense, but disregarding the weight (which I think might work) how is 10' long enough to build a cast with?

 

[Ganderzone]

Flav, I already ordered a xheavy mow tip, I'll pair it with an opst floating 7.5' or 10' they are rather light tips. I already have an opst head which is a blast but at half the price worth a shot. Trev, short rod and adjust tip and tippet length, slow down if need be, end goal is don't blow the anchor and be smooth. Keep in mind we are talking about 7'6"-8'6" trout rods here, single hand skagit.

 

[trev]

I use 7'6" 7wt rods a lot, guess that adding 10' tip more to it changes things, though I'm not familiar with the components you are talking about. Chopping up 10 & 12 weight lines and doing this kind of experiments is how they developed that style of lines

 

[LOC]

This ?

 

[sasquatch7]

I get a kick out of him . I have never actually seen him catch a fish but I'm sure he has .

 

[LOC]

I get a kick out of him . I have never actually seen him catch a fish but I'm sure he has .

Come to think of it you might be right on the fish catching. : ]
There's a vid where his son was nearing the end game of landing some chrome and it comes unplugged because he rigged it with a bad knot.

I felt bad for him after he owned up to it.

Likeable guy from what I can gather watching his vids.
I think his sweet spot is his high and slow Skagit casting.

It convinced me to try the method for a entire session and for sure a technique I have in my rotation of casts now.

 

[huronfly]

15' replacement tips in 10 wt is 150 grains, has a 3 ft front taper to it as well. Just letting you know

 

[Ganderzone]

I picked up a xheavy mow tip, very similar tapers to the opst head, opst is another 2.5 ft longer. I'll try trip we different tips lengths, I'll be stringing it up a 4wt 8' glass rod.

 

[flytie09]

Guys cut and spliced lines 20 years ago...today you don't need to. All of the major line manufacturers make single hand spey shooting heads. Rio, OPST, Airflo, SA. If you're worried about pricing on micro skagit heads and tips...then be a bargain shopper. Try ebay, Craigs list, Speypages or here for used heads and tips. I use a Commando head and 8' of T8 - T14 tip I make myself and it works just fine. The Commando lines are found on sale for ~ $35 - $40 and a 30' length of T material will run you < $30. There's a glut of guys that bought these lines that are trying to unload them.

 

[Ganderzone]

You mention guys unloading them, why?

 

[flytie09]

They were the big thing. Kinda like Furbies.

 

[Ganderzone]

For a second I thought you were going to say beanie babys.

 

[trev]

They were the big thing. Kinda like Furbies.

I missed that, don't have the inclination to look up what Furbie is/was, but it begs the question of why if those heads were the big thing, why have they lost popularity now?
As an aside, is there a written translation and explanation of the many acronyms used in skagit and how those parts work together? My attention span is too short for video and every time I try to learn anything about that style/method the only info seems to be videos of some guy standing in water and endlessly talking then making a cast and more talking, I have to watch these things multiple times before I even notice the cast.