Nice job on the ankle, Brian. Your timing could have been better, though. Thanks for the reply.

As for the short head: I don't have a micrometer at the moment, although if I pursue the cut and splice biz, I probably will in the future.

Am I correct that the place to cut is where the taper starts at the end of the head? Or should it be where the taper ends toward the end of the fly line?

Or should I just say the heck with it and use Fred Evans' method of a short section of leadcore 30 inches into the leader...I've tried that with other lines/rods and it seems to cast OK, although I can't say how it compares in sink rate.

All this is kind of new to me-- I know a little of the theory but nothing of the application. I've used the shooting head and tips suggestion from Juro's site, and it works a treat on my single-hander. I need to fine-tune the tips a bit to get the most out of it.

I'll probably be using SA's version of the fast-sinking tip material rather than T-14.

Keith