Advice on Best Tippet Material

[Bluegrass Bill]

Hi Folks, It is hard to keep up with the numerous fly fishing products and materials that are out there. My question today is in regards to leader or tippet material. It appears that fluorocarbon is definitely the preferred tippet material for its strength and “invisibility” Characteristics.

That being said it is expensive and there are numerous brands and event types within brands. For instance there is Seaguar Red Label Fluorocarbon Line versus Seaquar INVIZX™ Fluorocarbon Fishing Line versus Seaguar AbrazX™ Fluorocarbon Line. Is one better than the other for tippet material?! Would really appreciate some advice on this, Thanks!

Any advice or recommendations for other tippet materials would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks!

Bill

Bluegrass Bill

[Bluegrass Bill]

One more thing would be very helpful to me and probably others would be to have some experienced steelheaders share their recipes for their two fly nymph leader set up. Thanks for any volunteers doing this. :)

[tallguy]

Fluorocarbon effectively does not degrade, with the C-F bond the strongest possible bond for organic molecules.. Given the many decades and centuries it will last, consider whether you personally support the manufacture and use of ultra persistent chemicals, and whether a fluoro line is an environmentally responsible choice.

[Bluegrass Bill]

Your question is very worthy and should be considered by all that fish and use either Monofilament or Fluorocarbon. It made me scratch my head and think some and gave me the incentive to try to learn more about fluorocarbon lines and the environmental concerns associated with their longevity. I came across some interesting sites one that I will share here:

http://www.flyfishamerica.com/content/fluorocarbon-vs-nylon

A couple pieces of interesting information contained in the article compared the time to degrade, 600 years for monofilament versus 4,000 years for fluorocarbon. Both time frames are a problem, with fluorocarbons being a much more significant problem.

In some of the writing on this subject I saw comments made that with fluorocarbon lines there would be less breakage, discarding and loss of lines to the environment. I see that could possibly be true but that advantage can be offset by the longer “life”

An important thing I learned from my quick search on the subject is that it is critical to be careful to minimize the breaking of these lines, making every effort to retrieve them when lines do break. Minimizing their use to the short tippet sections below the main leader also makes a lot of sense to me.

I also discovered that this subject is a hot and heavy one that has been discussed at great length on this and other forums.

[cyama]

There are a few reasons to use Fluoro. One the abrasion and sun degradation is much lower. Having tested most of the Fluoro tippets the best production tippet is Rio Fluoroflex plus. The only bad thing about that is it costs $15 for 30 yards. One of my fishing friends told me just buy Seaguar fluoro fishing line. I have been using the Seaguar Invisx for the past 4 months and have found it to be better than Rio Fluor tippet. The fly shops will probably hate this, but you can buy 200 yards of Invisx for $20. You just have to wind it up on your old spools. The best thing is you can wind up to 50 to 70 yards on a tippet spool. Fishing line is different from tippet sizing. You will need to look at diameters. For instance I would rate 10 pound Invisx at around 1X. Eight pound is about equal to 2x. Invisx has great knot strength and also does not curl up like Umpqua tippet.

[Terry Thomas]

Seaguar AbrazX is a good choice for 8 lb and up. I have been using it for the last several years and it is priced right. Yes, we do carry AbrazX as well as regular Seaguar.

[jds108]

Everything that you wanted to know:

http://www.yellowstoneangler.com/gear-review/tippet-shootout-seaguar-grandmax-trouthunter-orvis-mirage-riopowerflex-pline-dairiki-varivas-sa-climax-maxima-froghair-stoft-umpqua

[Bluegrass Bill]

Thanks folks for the information and suggestions. And what a site that "Yellowstone Angler site" is on this subject!

[johnsquires]

I read that "shootout" article from Yellowstone Angler a while back and decided to give TroutHunter a go. I've been very impressed with the product. But I've been impressed with other high-quality tippets, also.
BTW, Yellowstone Angler also does comprehensive "shootout" comparisons on rods and other gear. Pretty well done and very impartial as far as I can tell.

[betty]

Hi Bill
Ditto Cyama's comments above. Been using Seaguar Invizix for years for all my lake fishing. Keep 4, 6, 8, 10 lb, which I wind onto smalller spools (I too buy the 200 yard quantity from Cabelas--$20 approx--in the non-fly fishing section) to keep on my lanyard while I fish.

I do not use fluoro for dry fishing fly fishing, cuz it sinks.
Regards,
Betty

[Scott V]

Bill,
I buy Berkley Vanish flouro at Wal-Mart. You can get smaller 110 yard spools for about 6 bucks. I refuse to pay outrageous money that some line companies ask for their flouro because they say 1X or 2X instead of 10 pound or 8 pound. Once you see an X on a package, the price has been raised for fly fisherman.

[Dan Harrison]

Another Invizx user here. I have complete faith in it for tippet material. The 4 # is a good 5x replacement. The dia of the 4# is .0065 as compared to Grand max 5x .006 And the 6# is .008 same as Grand Max 3X .008. I have used the Grand Max as well and would say the breaking strength is very similar as well. I tested the #6 versus the Grand Max 3x and could not find any difference.

[Mr T]

I must confess I had no idea Fluoro lasted that long. Wow, might rethink using it for now-

[cyama]

Although fluoro lasts much longer in the environment, it is a very small amount of pollution/trash on creeks and rivers… Especially if you don't drop tippet changes in the water.. It is however one way you can catch more fish, don't believe Ralph on mono vs fluoro…. I know that fluoro lasts longer, but I try to reverse this impact by picking up fishing line, plastic bottles and plastic bags when I am out fishing and participate in the yearly coastal cleanup on my favorite water.

[k9mark]

My goodness...how did we ever catch fish after all these years...decade after decade fishing mono? I find no difference between them at all...Ive caught fish on both...I can see them both under water....but I cant see it's worth the price.

[cyama]

Sure you can catch trout way up high on the sierras with 3x mono and a size 10 adams, but try that on the Yuba… I think the best side by comparison of mono to fluoro was Ernie Gullie on Crowley. He had two rods set up one with mono and one with fluoro. I can't remember the numbers, but I think it was five to one on fluoro. I have fished with several people that fish with mono and the same flies and well the numbers are quite different….

[Bluegrass Bill]

Thanks everybody for all the comments and opinions offered. I do believe I can use whatever advantage the fluoro will give me, especially on waters like the Yuba. Thanks to this discussion and the reading I have now done I am a lot more educated on the subject than I was before. Like Cyama, I will do my part to be very careful with what I use on the water and and pick up as much line discarded line as I can when out on the water. Hi Betty, nice to hear from you. Hope to catch up with you at Davis lake later this year. Thanks again everybody.