Way back in those days, I'd cut a double taper line to fashion a rudimentary shooting head.
Tried all sorts of running line including a hollow braid that was horribly coarse~~think it was a type of builders string line.
Old John Seirpinski used similar & I remember it made one hell of a noise as it went through the guides.
Another method was to splice a lightweight level line to an overweight bit of a double & if it was pretty good if the ratio was correct.
Using systems like that was a bit tough on the early carbon fibre rods.
They didn't like being overloaded & I managed to break a couple.
One was a 3M rod, one of the very first in the country, that I got off Geoff Thomas.
It was a two piece with a shonky brass ferule that made me cry when it folded.
I remember one day fishing alongside Barney Northcroft & he was using his mighty split cane double hander.
My wee lightweight with the shooting head was doing better than his great weapon & he was mighty un-pleased
I let him have a couple of casts tho & he didn't want to give it back.
Ah, memories..