Tippet-Needed?

[robbie514]

I would like to know if you absolutely need tippet or if you can use just your leader.

 

[PennKev]

robbie514 wrote:
I would like to know if you absolutely need tippet or if you can use just your leader.

You can. But if you want to be able to make adjustments to your presentation and such you'll want to add tippet. Not to mention that after a few fly changes you may start getting into a noticably thicker portion of your leader which will negatively affect the presentation of the fly. Also, you may snag and break off the fine end of the leader on the first cast and then you're screwed if you have no tippet or spare leaders.

Tippet is also economical. As the fine end of the leader is used up you can repair or rebuild it with tippet material many times before the leader is junk.

The truth is I use so much tippet material it's ridiculous. I'm always making adjustments and repairs to my leader. Cutting back and rebuilding, adding longer and lighter tippet, etc.

I never leave home without a selection of tippet material. I always have 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6x in my pack with 3, 4, and 5x being the most critical. The larger sizes like 2x can be useful in rebuilding a damaged keader or for streamer fishing, but are not as important as the other sizes.

Tippet may seem like one of those things that you can do without, but in practice it is almost essential.

No, strike that. IT IS ESSENTIAL.

 

[robbie514]

Thank you for that. It really helped.

 

[pcray1231]

Agree with PennKev. You need to have tippet with you.

But examine the leader. If using a store bought leader, it likely has tippet built in. You may not need to add any off the bat.

But as Penn Kev says, you'll start eating some of that away with fly changes, snags, etc, and it'll need replaced. You may want to lengthen or shorten for presentation purposes. You may want to cut back and replace with larger tippet if you're gonna use streamers, or cut back and replace with finer tippet if you wanna use tiny dries.

Having it on hand keeps you from having to replace a whole leader every time you want to change the tip!

 

[CWE24]

Sorry if this is off topic but what would be the best knots to tie the tippet to the leader. I have been searching for a good video or guide but have had no luck.
Thanks

 

[pcray1231]

You'll get a lot of different answers. The most common seems to be "whatever you first learned and can do quickly streamside", keeping in mind cold hands and so forth.

I use a blood knot. There's double and triple surgeons and I'm sure some others as well.

And some use tippet rings.