Tippet Size

[flyrodman]

Tomorrow I am floating the 11 Point with a fly rod. What tippet size is appropriate for this river?

[jdmidwest]

Alot depends on the fly you will be using. Typically 4x or 5x would do just fine. The water is probably still off color and fish will not be tippet shy. You will probably fishing streamers or big nymphs.

[Nortrad]

Gavin's set up for leader should do well in the 11 Pt., 3' mono butt, 6' of straight fluoro, 18" + of tippet. I'd use 3X if fishing big stonefly nymphs, water should be off color. You have to go very deep, Western style rig under a big bobber/indicator. Last year I used a rubber leg trailed by a copper john, set deep.

[Brian Sloss]

With water still hanging around 900 cfs I wouldn't go any lighter than 4x and some knowledgeable fishermen who were out Monday and Tuesday reported that the bite didn't slow at all when they switched to 3x. As Nortrad stated plan on throwing some weight on with whatever you decide to fish - we are high and the fish are hanging low.

Ryan

[Al Agnew]

Like jd said, match your tippet size to your fly, not what you think the fish will tolerate. It goes against conventional wisdom, but I really don't think trout are as line shy as many would have you believe. I use fluorocarbon tippet for everything but dry flies, and will use 1X or 2X for bigger streamers, 2X or 3X for bigger nymphs, 4X for small nymphs, 5X for little tiny nymphs that I never use on Ozark streams anyway. 4X mono for bigger dry flies, 5X for smaller dry flies. The only thing I worry about is whether the tippet will seriously affect the float or drift of the fly, not how scared the trout are of it. The only time I ever use 6X or 7X is if I'm fishing something like size 20 and smaller dry flies...and the only time that every happens on Ozark streams is during the trico hatch.

[Gavin]

3-4x about 95% of the time...sometimes 5x...I rarely find a need to go smaller on the Current, Eleven Point, or NFoW......Tiny air clear spring creeks, high pressure tailwaters & trout parks. 6-7x is the rule. Bring plenty of BB shot, some SSG's and some Thingamabobbers.

[flyrodman]

Thank you for all of the replies. I tied up some heavy stonefly patterns but i dont know the size because i ran out of fly tying hooks and used an aberdeen hook. how far away should the heavy fly be away from the indicator?

[Al Agnew]

Conventional wisdom is that the distance between fly and indicator should be about 1.5 times the depth of the water you're fishing when you're doing typical nymph drifting. I don't always change indicator depth when I come to shallower water, though. But it's all in the way I nymph fish. I use enough lead that I can get the nymphs down to the bottom pretty quickly. The lead should be ticking the bottom, which slows the drift just enough that the indicator is always downstream of the nymphs, actually "pulling" the nymphs along. My lead is six to ten inches above the first of my two nymphs. The nymphs are unweighted themselves. So the current is carrying the indicator. The indicator is pulling the lead along at the same speed the current is carrying it. The flies are kinda swinging around freely as they go along with the lead. That way, if you're drifting along in 4 feet of water with six feet between indicator and lead, and you come to a shallower section, the line is still tight between indicator and flies, even though the flies are drifting along well back of the indicator in that shallower water.