the myth of the uncontrollable shooting heads
Okay, I'll wade in...
I agree that longbellied DT or Spey lines are better line control tools for distance casting using conventional line control methods. But don't write off those shooting heads just yet...
I used to believe that you couldn't control heads at distance. I stuck to long-bellied Spey lines and got pretty good at casting them a long way as I believed that casting far with such lines gave me an advantage over others, especially people using heads. Heck, I'm even on record on the other BBs as saying that you need a long-bellied line, you can't control shooting heads etc.
Then I met Derek Brown, Per Stadigh and Dec Hogan. All are superb casters and anglers, all cast in different styles, and all demonstrated to me that you can in fact control those shooting heads quite well out beyond 100ft. To prove the point, Derek threw a full sinking 50ft head across the Thompson's Graveyard Pool a few years back and was able to do pretty much what he wanted with it. Per has written about his methods with 45ft heads and the Scandinavian casting styles on the ISC BB. And Dec chucked a Windcutter over 100ft across the Skagit last August to show me how he controls the drift. No problem.
Briefly, all three used a variation of the method skilled drift fishers use when bottom bouncing: rod tip up, keeping as much line off the water as possible and maintain a direct contact with the head. Once they have the line doing what they want they drop the rod and fish out the cast in the conventional manner. I should note that all advocated seriously examining the need for mending--on many steelhead runs, apart from a reach mend while the line is still in the air and/or an initial mend to straighten everything out, they don't monkey around with the line any more than they have to.
So while I once was a long liner and still enjoy long-bellied Spey lines and picking up and throwing those big casts on the Thompson's giant pools, these days I'm experimenting more with the Underhand method and 35ft - 45ft shooting heads. I'm still learing the techniques, so I can still cast farther with long-bellied lines, but I'm now out over 100ft with the heads and am finding that by employing the line control methods that best suit this line system I'm doing just fine.