FFIM

All......

I know some guys use anything they can scrounge up, or whatever’s on sale at the time they need some, but I’m sort of fanatical about my tippet.

I use Rio, both mono and flouro. For me it just works. I’ve tried, in the past, Orvis SuperStrong, (liked it) and Froghair ( didn’t like it), and various and sundry others......but I almost always go back to either Rio or Trouthunters. Just great stuff. A Buddy that owns a fly shop has tried to get me into the Stroughs ( or something like that....Stroft??).....but I usually stick with my tried and true.

I had a few of those Bean $10 gift cards from Christmas presents that were set to run out tomorrow, and couldn’t get the hooks I wanted from their web site. (. So I just bought new Rio tippet from 2x to 6x. I abhor using old brittle tippet......so I change it every year or thereabouts.

I’m well aware some guys say tippet properly stored is safe to use for a decade or so......but I just don’t chance it..

I was on Christmas Island several years ago with a Buddy. He was breaking off every Bonefish he hooked......with 12# flouro. I thought WTF?? We were perplexed until I grabbed his tippet......and it snapped like human hair. It turned out he was using 10 year old tippet. On a $4000 trip he didn’t spring for a spool of $12 new tippet. I just threw him a spool of my backup tippet......and he never broke off another Bone the rest of the week. Lesson learned......for both of us.

Change out your old tippet.......because Murphy’s Law will surely raise its ugly head, and you just might lose the trout of the summer by using old, brittle tippet.

I’m so anally retentive on this that I do write the date of purchase on the spools. That’s a bit overboard....I know......but I always figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Skrimping on tippet.......or cheap shitty hooks.......just seems like false frugality to me. As always, ymmv.

Dave M

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"Fish the West every year. Life is short; and you'll be dead a long time." Chris Hutchins--2009

Firstly, how can a spool last anyone more than a year or two. I got through at least one or two of everything between 3x and 6x.

Second, if kept dry and out of the sun, spare spools will last for a couple of years, but as soon as they start getting wet, and shined on, I find that they are shot by the next spring.

I am however a discount shopper and usually stock up in March on whatever Sierra Trading Post has on sale. It was there that I first tried Stroft or whatever it is. Their spools and foam rings suck, but the tippet was fine. Their claim to fame is that you get 4.5x strength out of 5x diameter.

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"Fishermen...spending their lives in the fields and woods...are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation." - Thoreau

Dave you can call the fishing department at the mother store and they will get you what you want for tying material, hooks etc. I try to call early morning or late at night when they aren't busy with customers.

I'm a big fan of Rio products as well, I often wondered how long tippetit hung around before I purchased it.
Usually pick up my first few spools in the spring and find myself buying more later on in the season. I also tried redeeming some10 dollar cards for fly hooks on line before they expired,could not find them on line now I know what to do.Ended going over to Maine sport in Rockport great selection of hooks worth the trip, closer than beans for me

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K- FLY

I have to agree with this. I was always so cheap that I would use as little tippet as possible when tying one on that it affected my mood while fishing. I didn't want to waste any. It took a while until I realized that whatever I wasted with a long tag end couldn't be calculated into anything more than one tenth of one cent. A small price to pay for speed and less aggravation on the water. I spend and waste way more money on stuff that I don't care about to skimp on fishing gear.

I'll be honest.... I've got, and use, spools of tippet that are 3, 4, maybe even 5 years old. I haven't had any issues. I do keep it all in a pocket in my vest, not hanging off my vest out in the sun. Maybe that helps it keep. Every now and then I'll break a knot when rigging up, then I'll chuck the spool. I tend to burn threw 2 or 3 spools of 5x and 6x each year, so those are always fresh. It's the heavy stuff, 1x, 0x, 20#, 25#..... that's the stuff that is older.

Peter

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"A good game fish is too valuable to be caught only once"
Lee Wulff

This. 4-5-6-7X is almost always fresh and I go through a lot of it. Ditto for 10 and 12 pound for stripers. But everything I use to tie butt and mid sections of leaders, or heavy tippet for streamers or jumbo stonefly nymphs, gets used until it's done.

If my 9 pound test 3X streamer leader is reduced by UV exposure to 6 or 7 pounds, that won't be what's to blame when I break off the season's best trout. (That will be the wind knot, the abraded spot I didn't notice, or my own stupidity.) When the 6X drops from 3 pounds to 1.5, that's a different story.

^^^^
This. While I've had bad tippet before, it's been a rare occasion. For local fishing, I keep fishing them until I either use up the stock I have on hand or find the spool to be going bad. If I'm going on a trip- I'll buy new stock. Generally- I burn though 4x and 5x the fastest- usually about a spool of each per year. I don't use 6x much.

Generally- when I loose a fish or a fly- it's to a wind knot or abrasion.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues

Kind of off topic, for AK I’ve completely switched to tippet rings and barrel swivels. Typically, a couple of feet of 15 to 20 lb Maxima to the swivel, then 0X Rio to the fly. Then all you replace is the tippet when it gets short. Fly gets tied on with a non-slip loop knot. Works great! Mouse flies tend to spin, takes care of that too. Probably will work in Maine, if down sized.

In a recent tippet shoot-out, Trouthunter and Stroft were the top rated tippet, beating out Rio and all the others. STROFT???????? who ever heard of Stroft? Well, Stroft, a German company, is the largest tippet manufacturer in the world and also the best selling. In the world, that is, not the United States. I've been using it and I like it a lot, very accurate. Where might one find this Stroft tippet, they don't even have a distributer in the US? You might try www.theflyfisherman'splace.com in Warren, I don't have it on-line yet but I'll try to do it today, while you're there sign up and get all my new product notifications. Just a shameless plug. Terry

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"An lá ag iascaireacht is an lá go breá."

In Europe, no one uses flouro at all... everyone uses "nylon" as they call it, which I've come to learn is mono. And they use a lot of it for their various European nymphing methods. Any guys I've fished with ALL have the 100m spools. And yes, they all use Stropf, Germans are very good at making things that last a long time. For our Maine rivers, there is an ABR version, which is coated so it has Flouro type qualities, but ABR stands for abrasion resistant. I only had good expereince, and I really came to like their 5.5x tippet that had 4x breaking strength.

Be warned, unless they have done away with their foam spool keepers, their spools are crap. Like putting garbage tires on a Porsche.

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"Fishermen...spending their lives in the fields and woods...are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation." - Thoreau

I'm all about the flouro and I'm a RIO guy these days. If I'm fishing enough, I should be using my tippet up within two years max. I use up 0X, 1X, 3X, 4X, 5X. My 6X is old and probably crap.

One strange thing I've seen recently is that one of my buddies who is super serious about streamer fishing now fishes about 2-3 feet of brown maxima as his streamer leader attached to a sink tip -- he also runs a second streamer pretty often, about 2 feet behind.

I'm not really sold on his approach, but I see where it helps -- when the fish are tight to the bank, you get that streamer down FAST, but you can still run neutral bouyancy flies (Rapala-style). That's his game (and mine some of the time).

On my streamer rod, I personally prefer a sink tip and a longer leader composed of old butt material (bring on the jokes) and another 3 or 4 feet of 1X.

I run 3’ of straight 2x off of my sink tip for all of my streamer Fishing. I have done it for years and swear by it. I heard that too much Leader diminishes the benefit of the sink tip, which resonated with me, so I have stuck with it.

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"Fishermen...spending their lives in the fields and woods...are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation." - Thoreau

Sink tip/Streamer fishing - I've been using straight Maxima Chameleon for years and it's never longer than 4'.

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"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." Albert Einstein

Is it true that mono will break down over time in the environment but that flouro won't?

If so, that's significant enough of a difference to dictate my choice.