What is the difference between flouro tippet and flouro fishing line?

[PaScoGi]

Why do flourocarbon tippet spools of 30 yards cost $15? Why can't I just buy some Stren at Walmart and get like 200 yards for $8?

I checked the breaking strength of name brands tippet and it matches the fishing line that spin fishers use.

I can understand 6x & 7x tippet, but for 5x, 4x, & 3x I can just use regular fishing line right?

Unless there is a difference, let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Bamboozle]

It's all about the diameter to strength ratio.

Fishing line on average is less strong for the same diameter than tippet material. Diameter is what matters most in most fly fishing applications so we over-pay for that and those cute little spools it comes on.

For example, 4lb fluorocarbon tippet material is around .006" or 5X while Stren FluoroCast 4lb is .007" or 4X. That's not a huge difference, but you can't get anything thinner in Stren.

However a ton of fly fishers use plain fishing line when size DOESN'T matter.

The choice is yours!

 

[poopdeck]

Doesn’t matter to me. What does matter to me is having the little spowls that snap to each other. I construct all my leaders at home with regular mono and then only use the real tippet when I have to.

 

[pcray1231]

Generally quality control is better on tippets.

Mic the stren. The thinnest spots will be the diameter stated. But much of it will be considerably thicker.

There's some variation in tippet too but its more consistant.

Nothing wrong with using the stren. For most of us, the $$$ we spend on a couple of spools of tippet every year is nothing. We use far less line than spin fishermen, and diameter is more important to us.

 

[JerryC]

Generally, I use whatever I have on my spinning reels. I really don't have the need to measure the diameter of the tippet I'm using. I'm not chasing world records. Also, I tend to think in pound test rather than X's. That said, I do have spools of fluorocarbon tippet ranging from 6X to 11X if I'm planning to fish for trout, though I will use 4# and 6# fluorocarbon or mono for them. Somewhere I have a spool of 2# Stren, probably mono. Most of my fishing these days is warm water. I have spools of fluorocarbon ranging from 8# to 40#, though I seldom go below 12# even if I'm fishing for panfish.

 

[PaScoGi]

thanks all much appreciated

 

[Beernut]

I buy 200 yard spools of seaguar red label and refill those little spools as needed.

 

[moon1284]

The difference is stren and Berkeley trilene suck- even for gear rods. But if that's what you like and are used to there is no reason they won't work.

 

[allan_s]

No issues but I will echo the post above. Stren is horrible for any rod LOL

I have used seaguar invisx to good success in the past in 4lb.

 

[JeffK]

+1 on Invisx 4 lbs. It is equivalent to a 4.5X and is my basic nymphing tippet these days. Will add smaller 6x tippet to it if fishing midges and small olives down to size 22, but basically everything else is Invisx 4 lbs. Makes life simpler. I never liked Stren 2 lbs, even for spinning, but use the 6 lbs for smallmouth spinning reels.

My son lived in Reno NV and the locals fished 3X or 4X even with midges. Need to tie a loop knot with small flies and heavy tippet so the fly moves freely, but it works. 90% of fishing was for stockie size rainbows, but every now and again a brown trout measured in lbs rather than inches would grab your fly and nobody wanted to bust one of those off with a skinny tippet. The local tailwater (Little Truckee) fished a lot like the Little Lehigh. First time I went there a local I went with rigged me up with the exact same flies as I fished 2 days earlier at the Little Lehigh - only with 4x tippet. I fished 4x with small flies a few days after I would come back from a trip out West, but then drifted back to 6X after a while.