Fluorocarbon tippet or not?

[FISHEYE]

I think I catch lots more fish with fluro in certain situations. I fish some very clear streams here during the egg drop and if I fish with mono, I do not catch many fish. put fluro on and its like turning a switch on. In murky waters no difference.

In the salt, I use fluro. I think it makes a difference on the flats in shallow clear water. I also like the abrasion resistance with the heavy bite I use for tarpon. Plus with fluro you can straighten it right off the spool, but with mono you can't.

[Ralph]

I've spent a fair number of years filming fish and people fishing from an underwater viewpoint (in many different situations - fresh and salt). Both mono and fluoro are easy to see, even in fine tippets, and neither is more or less visible than the other. In our classes we toss mono and fluoro into an aquarium and have the students guess which is which. Nobody can see a difference. In regards to stiffness, abrasion resistance, elasticity, flashiness, etc., all those variables are controlled in the manufacturing process and neither is inherently different than the other. Fluoro does sink a bit quicker than mono of the same diameter, but the fly has a lot more to due with floatation than the leader.

Out of curiosity I have used many brands of both mono and fluoro and never found the results to weigh in one corner or the other. Simply for the environmental and cost reasons stated above I don't use fluoro. In my humble opinion, the best tippet on the market today is Stroft. VERY consistent diameter and breaking strength. Perfect amount of stretch. It seems to be the material of choice among the Euro fishing teams who are really anal about this kind of thing (but they also use fluoro!).

[WinterrunRon]

I've spent a fair number of years filming fish and people fishing from an underwater viewpoint (in many different situations - fresh and salt). Both mono and fluoro are easy to see, even in fine tippets, and neither is more or less visible than the other. In our classes we toss mono and fluoro into an aquarium and have the students guess which is which. Nobody can see a difference. In regards to stiffness, abrasion resistance, elasticity, flashiness, etc., all those variables are controlled in the manufacturing process and neither is inherently different than the other. Fluoro does sink a bit quicker than mono of the same diameter, but the fly has a lot more to due with floatation than the leader.

Out of curiosity I have used many brands of both mono and fluoro and never found the results to weigh in one corner or the other. Simply for the environmental and cost reasons stated above I don't use fluoro. In my humble opinion, the best tippet on the market today is Stroft. VERY consistent diameter and breaking strength. Perfect amount of stretch. It seems to be the material of choice among the Euro fishing teams who are really anal about this kind of thing (but they also use fluoro!).

Good 'nuff for me... although I do like Orvis Super Strong. Never bought into the, "invisible under water" claim anyway.

[BillB]

It occurs to me that we are trying to make invisible a line that must appear to fish a hawser. I mean these guys can spot a 22 BWO in a swift river and discern all sorts of tidbits about it. The venerable Ed Zern wrote an interesting and entertaining take on this very subject in "To Hell With Fishing."

[Ralph]

Good 'nuff for me... although I do like Orvis Super Strong. Never bought into the, "invisible under water" claim anyway.

Orvis SSS is AWESOME! If I had to guess, SSS and Stroft come out of the same mill.

[Bruce Berman]

As to the question about knotting flouro to mono, I've found that these knots do not hold. I've heard that the flouro can actually cut through the mono. I now use tippet rings if I'm tying a flouro tippet to a mono leader, so with each line tied to opposite sides of the small ring, my knots hold.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Big piles of mono on the river banks and in the rivers are from spin fishermen, not fly fishers.

Anyone dispute this?

**If those big wades of mono were FC and from fly fishers I would be rich.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

FC doesn't rot or degrade over time. If it does, it is very slowly.

That is why I use it. Got tired of throwing away spools of old mono.

I don't throw my FC into the waterways.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We don't promote FC in our shop but we have it for those who want it.

**Kind of like religion, you have to have faith first.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I believe that FC sinks faster than nylon based mono.

**Hal Janssen uses it on his 25 to 30 foot hand tied leaders on the end of a floating line so they will sink faster.