New Rio tippet spool bands

[dudemanspecial]

I received an order in the mail today that contained a few spools of Rio Powerflex. 2 spools had the old white tippen band with the hole in it and the other 2 had a solid thick rubber band with no hole. Anyone else seen this? It may be old news as I haven't purchased any since summertime. Not sure I like it.....

 

[Jay_H]

I have some Absolute Trout that has the rubber bands. I just leave a string of the tippet out of the band and it uncoils easy.

 

[wildtrout2]

I've always had issues with the band with the holes coming apart. It plays hell with my OCD. 🙂

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear dudemanspecial,

Just go to Dollar Tree and buy a bag women's hair scrunchies for $ 1.25 plus tax and you'll never worry again. I even use them as spool tenders on fly reel spools. Just remember to leave some of the tag end out when you cut fresh tippet.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[Broodstock]

I’ve gone through all the tippet to find ones I like the best (the leader material) and inadvertently analyzed the design of the spool tender bands.

The rio elastic with a hole is my favorite, as long as the tag end does not get lost inside. Then it’s a pain. The best part about these are that you can rewind the spool if your tag gets too long. Also the size printing is nice.

The trout hunter rubber is two different bands and they are thin. They work great, except you can not rewind them. Also there is no “knob” to pull on to get the band off. I have to grab it with hemos. There is no size printed - you have to memorize colors. This sucks.

Cortland has elastic with no hole. The stitching usually snags on the tippet and this is annoying. No size printed and again, colors.

SA and orvis both have rubber, single layer with the knob that makes removal easier. There is the size printed on the band which is nice. No snagging.

I’m sure there are aftermarket ones but I haven’t explored those. I am also refilling floro with segaur, or putting cortland from a guide spool onto trout hunter to fit into my C&F pack.

 

[falcon]

The new bands might be designed for better UV protection.

 

[tomgamber]

I've used the hair ties Tim mentioned when the bands with holes wore out. Personally I would welcome the rubber band version.

 

[dudemanspecial]

I liked the old style because you could retract the tippet if you pulled a bunch out.

 

[riverwhy]

Dear dudemanspecial,

Just go to Dollar Tree and buy a bag women's hair scrunchies for $ 1.25 plus tax and you'll never worry again. I even use them as spool tenders on fly reel spools. Just remember to leave some of the tag end out when you cut fresh tippet.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

Repackage with a fancy name and huge markup and you will make a fortune. Might have to use the ones with the camo print!

 

[wgmiller]

The "rewind" function certainly is nice to have!

 

[dryflyguy]

The Orvis SS tippet went to this thick rubber band too
Its very tight and does hold the tippet on the spool better.

However I dont like using it as much as the old elastic keepers.
Tougher to pull the tippet out
And as someone else already mentioned, if you take out more than you need, its hard to wind it back

 

[Tigereye]

I've used the hair ties Tim mentioned when the bands with holes wore out. Personally I would welcome the rubber band version.

I replaced all mine with thick rubber bands. Tie a knot in it and leave the tag end. Looks like a figure 8 with one large loop and one small.

Those one with the holes are worthless imho

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Personally, I think I’d like the new Rio rubber bands, although I’ve yet to use them. I wonder if they sell those bands separately so you could use them on other tippet spools, although other tippet brands might have narrower spool widths.

For those do-it-yourselfers, here’s another suggestion for making your own tippet spool tenders. My wife made me a handful of these several years ago to use on spools of thread, but you could make them in whatever sizes you’d need.

These are made with 1/4” elastic bands that are readily found in fabric or craft stores, like Jo Anne’s Fabric store. After cutting the elastic band to the desired length, the ends are secured with a fold over metal clip, also purchased at the same stores.

 

[jifigz]

I despise that design when I bought SA tippet a year or so ago. I had tippet coming off the spool when I didn't want it to. I was missing the Rio and Orvis nylon band with the grommet-ed hole. It was enough to make me say that I'd never buy a spool of SA tippet again, but if they're all going to that crappy design....😒

 

[joebamboo]

Trout Hunter has always used rubber on their tippet spools. Much better the ones with holes!

 

[Bamboozle]

I use a tippet dispenser when trout fishing so I really don't have to fuss with various manufacturer's tippet spool bands. HOWEVER, in the situations where I carry spools (warmwater) and on the spools in my tippet dispenser, for decades I've been using soft, different colored pony tail bands.

First off, the bands hold the tippet material just fine. Then I use the 7 colors of the white light spectrum (ROY G. BIV or Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo & Violet) to indicate tippet size with red being the heaviest and violet the lightest.

Even though these pony tail bands don't usually come in all colors of the rainbow, I can still tell what size tippet is on a spool if I know what colors came in the package, what size tippet I usually carry and remember Roy G. Biv. I've been doing this so long that I standardized a few colors.

For example, when trout fishing I usually carry 3X - 8X. Indigo pony bands were always non existent when I first came up with this idea so I just skipped that color. Therefore, 3X is red, 4X is orange, 5X is always yellow, 6X is green, 7X is blue and 8X is violet.

When I warm water fish, I typically carry .013", .012" & 0X - 3X or six sizes. That makes red .013" and violet 3X. I guess if you carry more than 6 spools you could look for other color bands but I have a feeling most people carry less.

BTW - I use this same system to tell me what size tippet is on the end my line when I put away a reel.

I keep one of each color pony tail band in the case for my reel. When I'm done fishing, I wind in the line & leader almost to the end, wrap the last foot or so around the reel foot and secure it with the color pony tail band that matches the tippet size.

The next time I use that reel, if it's a trout reel and there is a orange pony tail band securing the line, I know my tippet is 4X and .012" if it's a warmwater reel.

 

[Bamboozle]

...For those do-it-yourselfers, here’s another suggestion for making your own tippet spool tenders. My wife made me a handful of these several years ago to use on spools of thread, but you could make them in whatever sizes you’d need.

View attachment 1641239149

These are made with 1/4” elastic bands that are readily found in fabric or craft stores, like Jo Anne’s Fabric store. After cutting the elastic band to the desired length, the ends are secured with a fold over metal clip, also purchased at the same stores.

I use Gudebrod thread (I have a 3X lifetime supply) that has a little groove in the side of the spool to hold the thread end and the size is embossed on the edge of the spool however...

The spool pictured (I forget which brand) appears to have a yellow cap in one end of the spool. I have a few spools like this and I just pry up the cap, put the tag in and push it back down to secure.

 

[dudemanspecial]

Trout Hunter has always used rubber on their tippet spools. Much better the ones with holes!

I hate the Trout Hunter stuff because of both the rubber and the stupid proprietary hole size. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[joebamboo]

I hate the Trout Hunter stuff because of both the rubber and the stupid proprietary hole size. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I totally agree with you, the tippet material itself sucks!