OPST Commando Heads

[Jamie Carracher]

Has anyone fished with these lines before? I happened upon demo videos on YouTube last year, and was really intrigued by the ability to get distance with single handed roll/spey casts. I am toying with rigging a 6 wt single handed rod and targeting bass, snakehead, maybe even northeast Ohio steelhead. 

From what I've read, people say they cast well but are no good mending. Also unclear if you can switch between casting styles. Would love any thoughts.

http://www.opskagit.com/commando-heads.html

[Rob]

I have a 5wt commando head and can easily roll cast 60 feet. The issue is with stripping in the running line. I thought the head would be great for roll casting from shore for shad. Line launched extremely far but the retrieve was tedious. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 10, 2020, at 5:19 PM, Jamie Carracher <jcarr...@gmail.com> wrote:



Has anyone fished with these lines before? I happened upon demo videos on YouTube last year, and was really intrigued by the ability to get distance with single handed roll/spey casts. I am toying with rigging a 6 wt single handed rod and targeting bass, snakehead, maybe even northeast Ohio steelhead. 

From what I've read, people say they cast well but are no good mending. Also unclear if you can switch between casting styles. Would love any thoughts.

http://www.opskagit.com/commando-heads.html

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[robert mills]

These are short Skagit heads, meant to cast sink tips and swing flies. I don't like how they cast but many do. I have a slew of heads that may work depending on the rod you have if you want to try. The main reason they don't work for mending is because of the way spey running lines work, they are essentially (and in some cases are) just mono, you can't pick up a 300gr head with mono line to mend.

If by switching castign styles do you mean going from a Skagit to a scandi cast or going from a Skagit to overhand/switch casting? One of the reasons you don't see switch lines anymore is that its chuck and duck casting when you overhad cast such heavy lines, yes it can be done, but it can be unpleasant.

I am currently building a 8'6" "spey" rod that would use heads very similar to this, although I prefer SA's Spey lite line, I also have a 9'6" Pieroway Renegade 5/6wt that is intended to cast the OPST heads if you are interested. OPST also came out with a line of rods Ed Ward designed himself just last month.

 Lastly I wouldn't go after Ohio Steelhead with a 6wt singlehand rod as an FYI, many people don't even use 6wt doublehanded rods.

[robert mills]

Learning line management for mono running lines takes some practice.

Also Reagen will hopefully chime in at some point.

On Monday, February 10, 2020 at 9:20:28 PM UTC-5, Rob wrote:

I have a 5wt commando head and can easily roll cast 60 feet. The issue is with stripping in the running line. I thought the head would be great for roll casting from shore for shad. Line launched extremely far but the retrieve was tedious. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 10, 2020, at 5:19 PM, Jamie Carracher <jcarr...@gmail.com> wrote:



Has anyone fished with these lines before? I happened upon demo videos on YouTube last year, and was really intrigued by the ability to get distance with single handed roll/spey casts. I am toying with rigging a 6 wt single handed rod and targeting bass, snakehead, maybe even northeast Ohio steelhead. 

From what I've read, people say they cast well but are no good mending. Also unclear if you can switch between casting styles. Would love any thoughts.

http://www.opskagit.com/commando-heads.html

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[Josh Cohn]

Get the integrated setup much easier/more enjoyable handling, fishes great in the top 10 feet of the water column.

On Monday, February 10, 2020 at 5:19:23 PM UTC-5, Jamie Carracher wrote:

[Dan G]

As I understand OPTS Shooting Heads are intended to be paired with OPST Smooth Commando Smooth allowing Spey style casting with a single hand rod.  I've been using both the heads and Smooth for a little over a year.  I've been casting the line on six weight rods.  The heads vary in weight depending on it's intended use.  I frequently use my "kit" on the Potomac.

[Richard Farino]

OPST makes many different products, but the gist of it is that Ed Ward (he’s the W in M.O.W. tips by Rio, and pioneer alongside 2 other guys that invented and refined Pacific NW steelhead casting, or Skagit casting) wanted a versatile single and 2-handed casting line to his own specs.  Simple, heavy heads that loaded well and shot far with minimal effort.

 

He came up with a taper design for some Skagit heads, for tips that go on the front of the head of different densities and sink rates, and stiff mono shooting lines that maximize shooting distance.  If you’ve ever seen him cast his lines, you’ll see how remarkably easy it is with the right setup to get this stuff to cast.  These are called Commando Heads and Commando Tips.  The running line is called Lazar Running Line.

 

As time went on they added a few things to their product selection like Micro Tips for lower line weight single handed rods, and most recently rods as well as a fully integrated line (head and shooting/running line) attached.  This line is called the Commando Smooth.

 

Couple of pointers – Rio Products makes all of OPST’s lines.  Additionally, using a fully integrated line is great if you only plan on using that reel on one outfit or scenario, but they would use reel on multiple setups.  Changing the heads and the tips out is very easy, and one of the reasons why they chose to start that way.

 

We stock heads from 150gr all the way up to 475gr.

 

They’re not for everyone, but they make using spey techniques on single handed rods easier and more fun in my opinion, although I wouldn’t go so far as to say you should use them for shad or in Shenandoah, but to each their own.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

R

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[Regan Burmeister]

I have used those heads with Lazer running line to fish for shad and smallmouth bass my 6wt and 8wt single hand rods using single hand spey casts.

All good fun. The heads are capable of lifting pretty heavy sink tips in the 5-7ft length, need that for shad fishing. 

Yep, mending Lazer line does not work well. You can use a fully integrated line and mend better or just have normal running line but with a head system, take the penalty for not being able to cast as far. Other options: Wulff Ambush Triangle Taper line, or just really over line your rod. Like use an 8 or 9 or 10wt weight forward or double taper line on your 6wt, just for single-hand spey casting. Lot of fun there too.

Come out to the next casting church (15 Mar), we can work some single-hand spey stuff.

Regan

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