Tippett

[Tarheel2288]

Forgive a dumb question from someone trying to get the hang of fly fishing. I'm trying to hone my skills on my own, without the help of an experienced fly fisherman, and it's frustrating at times.

Anyways, is there a difference between the small spools of "tippet" and a regular roll of plain fluorocarbon line of equal diameter/weight rating?

[fishinwrench]

For all intents and purposes.....No

[brittsnbirds]

Not really.

Depends on what you are doing. If your really getting technical fishing with small dry flies it may. For running glo balls or mini-jigs under an indicator No.

Some of the higher end tippet might be a little more smaller and subtle (limp) but for trout park applications No. I frequently buy 2 and 4# Stren fluro in the refil spools at WalMart, then wind them onto my tippet dispensers. Much cheaper.

NoLuck was using Seagar and swore by it. He also catches fish 2-1 to me, maybe that's 10-1 anyway it's just preference. The last tippet I bought was from Feather Craft in St. Louis. Seemed to be more on the spools than other companies at the same price.

[Buzz]

I agree with fishinwrench. I use P Line Fluoroclear and Stren Fluorocast in 2 and 4 lb. Serves me well and a whole lot cheaper than the small spools.

[Amery]

Just keep an eye on the diameter. 2lb=7x. 4lb=5x roughly.

[Tarheel2288]

Thanks for the responses

[Ham]

Alledgedly, the line sold as leader material is much more consistent in diameter and therefore better quality than the same line in a larger spool.

[Bill Anderson]

I'm not going to unwind a ton of leader material and spend hours measuring it to find out. It's pure old marketing hype--convince a large of gullible fishermen that somehow the little bitty spool is worth $15 compared to the 100 yard spool for the same or less price, and you have a gold mine. It's like paying two bucks for a bottle of bottled water, when in reality, the stuff is just locally obtained municipal water supply water that has been filtered and given a fancy name. The bottle costs them a hundred times more than what's in it. Buy a Brita home filter and get a hundred gallons of the stuff for a few bucks. I'm not calling anyone a fool, since I have done the same gullible thing with the tippet and water stuff myself. But it's something to think about. It's like $800 graphite rods; they are a golden cash cow for the manufacturers. For $800, I can buy very good slightly used, well made bamboo rods that don't depreciate much and will last a lifetime. They aren't rendered "obsolete" by next years "latest" model, either, wich is just more marketing hype to separate you/me from our money. I'm still fishing some Orvis graphites that date from the late 1970s and early 1990s, and they are in perfect condition and continue to land fish and cast like new, even tho Orvis would tell you they are woefully obsolete. Nonsense.

[rFisherk]

I haven't check in a few years, but I found not only that mono on tippet spools was much better and more consistent quality, but most importantly, the strength rating per diameter (measured in hundreds of an inch) was much higher than anything I could buy on a filler spool. Don't know about Flouorocast and similar materials. Might be the way to go these days, if knots aren't too difficult to tie and bulky.

[XP 590]

I just have a hard time carrying those big spools in my fishing vest;-)