Limp or Hard

[maxima12]

Or stiff or soft. Thought I would get you attention. I am talking tippet.


Question. 1

favorite tippet material


Question. 2

hard or soft

The most understood and probably most neglected is the leader. We pretty much take them for granted. Then why so many formulas. Is someone trying to tell us you can improve your catch by improving your leader. Yes


Let's just take a rather new tippet material, Stroft gtm. Known as the strongest in the world. yes-no? Made in germany and imported by uni products canada. Hard to get. yes-no?


Question. 3


will this tippet make you more sucessful

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Minimus : Depends? GG

 

[Susquehanna]

1. Depends on application
2. Depends on application
3. Don't know but probably not

 

[Narrlybynature]

1. Good quality fluorocarbon
2.currently using “soft”. I picked up a Froghair leader tying kit last year and have been using that as my starting point for all leader except for tight lining stuff. While the 4-6x stuff is very soft, the 20-40lb butt material is reasonably stiff. With proper formulas those leaders are awesome. Understanding leader formulas has been eye opening. I used to taper about 4 sections on my leaders with very little knowledge of proper construction, last year when I got this kit I started tying leaders according to formulas. My new leaders are deadly accurate and they cast completely different than my old mish-mash guess and tie leaders.
3.eh, I caught fish before fluorocarbon, fractional difference. It’s more peace of mind for me.

 

[maxima12]

favorite tippet material, hard or soft. answers, depends. I do think I am right by stating the most neglected by fly fishermen, is the leader, leader material and most of all the formula.

so far no conclusive data on preference.

frog hair? how can it be stiff and soft too.

 

[moon1284]

Maxima ultragreen for tippet for dries, maxima chameleon for streamers.

 

[PennKev]

maxima12 wrote:
Question. 1

favorite tippet material

Nylon: Rio Powerflex, but I've had good luck with other brands SA, Orvis etc..

Fluoro: PLine 100% Fluoro. I would gladly buy the fly fishing specific brands if they were reasonably priced, but any perceived benefit they have over bulk PLine is not worth the extra cost. While I prefer fluoro for subsurface applications, the "tippet" brands don't offer much advantage over *quality* conventional line, aside from a wider range of sizes available. I've also recently started using Blackbird Phantom fluoro to fill in the smaller sizes not available with PLine. It's more expensive than PLine but still economical.

Question. 2

hard or soft

Somewhere in the middle. Knot strength and durability are just as big of a consideration IMO. The materials I mentioned catch plenty of fish and I don't have knot or durability problems.

Question. 3

will this tippet make you more successful

I don't know, but finding a material that works for you can remove a lot of potential frustration. However, now that I think about, I've had more good experiences than bad with various leader/tippet materials. The bad experiences being almost exclusively with trying to use inexpensive lines from the conventional fishing world.

I would say that everyone should learn to tie knots very well and to not be lazy or in a hurry when tying them out on the water. This should be a priority over finding magic unicorn mane fibers tippet material.

 

[maxima12]

Beautiful, now were getting somewhere. Expense? Who thought a spool of tippet would cost more than a good steak!

 

[tomgamber]

i use whatever is cheap and make it work.

 

[RLeep2]

I have the same suspicions about fluoro that I have about chiropractic. There may be something there of value, but I've yet to reach a state of being completely sold.

For day to day trout work over the past 10 years or so, I've used and liked Trouthunter and Rio nylon. But I feel basically the same about most of the top tier from Umpqua to Orvis SS to SA, etc.

I use Mason butts on warm water leaders with Maxima as second preference. I'm not at all picky about the mid sections of my leaders and have been known to use anything from the old Cabelas that was rebadged Climax to Stren.

I generally use SA or Rio for smallmouth tippet, but also use Spiderwire Magna-Thin mono. The .009 (2X) is 8 lb. When we were in Maine last year, I picked up several spools of the Air Flo nylon in 0X through 2X for smallmouth and was quite pleased with it and intend to buy some more.

Overall, once you're beyond the soft/hard preference choice, I think most of the preferences expressed for any of the normal name brands is more about religion than actual quality differences. They all seem about the same to me.

 

[wbranch]

Rio nylon or Orvis nylon. I guess they would be considered limp? But what do I know? Not much about the properties of small diameter tippet material. I usually spring for one large, 100 meter spool, of Orvis fluorocarbon 5X every season. Does it allow me to catch more fish? Probably not but I like the concept of invisibility.

 

[maxima12]

Back in the days future passed, Dai Riki velvet was the soft, limp tippet. No longer available. Dai riki dynamic is Bailey's soft tippet now. It does have stretch and is good on limestone streams.

for a soft tippet material many seek for presentation and drift. I would think a toss up between Dai Riki Dynamic, and Trouthunter.

Right now Kelly Galloup slide in has a special on trouthunter tippet. $4.00 a spool. Not bad considering 50 yards I believe

Very good reviews on both.


on a Harvey formula these work fine. Play with the Harvey formula a little. Put little more on top and shorten up midsection and end.


try this out, 12,28,16,12,10,6,6,6,30 or 12,28,16,8,8,8,8,8,30 inches


10 1/2 footer start with 25 lb. .020

 

[GenCon]

Ive been using Maxima for 30 yrs. Fresh and salt water. IMO it ties the most consistent knots. For trout I use maxima clear down to maxima green for lower mid section and tippet.

GenCon

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Flouracarbon gets my vote.I perfer non shiney ? stuff. Brand is a matter of taste and wallet depth. Stockers don't know and the old wise ones only get fooled a few times before they wise up. i think it's presentation above leader material. A bad knot in any type of tippet is probably more important as well.GG

 

[Narrlybynature]

maxima12 wrote:
favorite tippet material, hard or soft. answers, depends. I do think I am right by stating the most neglected by fly fishermen, is the leader, leader material and most of all the formula.

so far no conclusive data on preference.

frog hair? how can it be stiff and soft too.

The the large diameter I find stiff enough for the butt sections because its 30-40lb test. The Tippet ranges(4x-6x) are very soft. I supposed in cross brand comparison Froghair will probably be softer overall.