Sharkskin Running Line with grey load zone identifier performs great. Today I fished it with my Z-Axis Switch rod using a 30ft Rio Max Shooting Head, the line shot like crazy, had little memory and it’s tapered section at the junction of the head allowed me to pick up the line with the head out of the tip guide. It made fishing a shooting head much easier. The clickety clack of the loops through the guides when setting up the cast was minimized greatly.
The upside to this shooting line is that it utilizes the micro-replicating surface of all the Sharkskin fly lines. That surface helps the line shoot and float better than any line we have ever used. The Sharkskin surface also minimizes tangles. A particularly critical aspect to running lines, as they tend to get piled up at your feet, finding a way to catch themselves on any exposed d-ring or zipper. The large loop connection makes for easy change of shooting heads, and the tapered gray load zone identifier at the junction of the shooting head lets you know you are nearing the shooting head.
As for the negatives of the Sharkskin running line, the roughness of the surface has bothered some folks. If you are not careful you can create a groove in your finger. The shooting line currently is offered only in floating versions .032 and .035 diameters. The price is $59.95 almost double the cost of some other running lines.
The bottom line is weather you are using a floating running line for a conventional shooting head system or for you Spey line set up the Sharkskin shooting line is worth considering. -CD
