Brian Niska’s King Rig

Photo: Cameron Miller

Brian Niska owns and operates Whistler Fly Fishing, a fly fishing school, guide service and specialty fly shop in Whistler, BC.  Brian is a certified Master Casting Instructor and Two Handed Casting Instructor with the FFF, and we’re lucky to have him as a guest spey instructor at Alaska West.  Brian will be teaching our spey instruction program from July 3 – 10, 2009.  Sorry, Brian’s week is sold out, but you can always get in touch to be put on our wait list.

Brian’s king setup is built around the Whistler shooting head, a line that he designed for Loop.  The Whistler head is a floating head with a progressive intermediate front end to which sinktips are attached.  In Brian’s words…”Because a good portion of the head is sinking, you get a lot of line underneath the surface, which slows down the swing.  With this line you get the same amount of sink from 10 feet of T-14 that you would normally get out of 15 feet, and you get a slower, slinkier presentation.  The design of the line allows for a reduced overall grain weight and therefore more sensitivity in the swing and more ability for the fly to swim.”

The Summary

• Loop 9132 Opti Rod – 13’2″ for a 9 weight
• Loop Classic 811 Reel
• Loop Whistler Shooting Head, in 8/9

The Detail

• 30 pound Rio dacron backing, attached to the spool with an arbor knot
• Bimini twist in the line end of the backing
• Loop LTS 40 pound running line, attached to the backing using a loop to loop connection created by a double nail knot loop tied in the running line with 20 pound Maxima Chameleon
• Kevlar loop attached to the running line end of the shooting head by whip finishing tying thread and sealing with a thin coating of Aquaseal
• Running line tied to the Kevlar loop directly using a clinch knot
• T-14 sinktip attached to the welded loop on the front of the Whistler head via a loop created in the T-14 by doubling the T-14 and creating a nail knot loop with 20 pound Maxima Chameleon
• Butt section of 1 1/2 feet of 20 pound Maxima Ultragreen nail knotted directly to the T-14
• Tippet section of 15 pound Maxima Ultragreen tied to the butt section with a double surgeon’s knot
• Intruder-style fly in blue, purple and chartreuse with a #2 Gamakatsu Octopus hook, attached with a non-slip mono loop