[Scud]

What do you guys think? Is flurocarbon worth the extra cost? I'm inquiring especially for use on tailwaters. Also, is it compatible with regular material for tying on as a tippit? Thanks.

[22midge]

Get you some Seaguar Grand Max and you will never ask again.Be safe

[Silvercreek]

Originally Posted by Scud

What do you guys think? Is flurocarbon worth the extra cost? I'm inquiring especially for use on tailwaters. Also, is it compatible with regular material for tying on as a tippit? Thanks.

Flourocarbon is harder than mono so when tying flouro and mono, don't use a blood knot. Use a triple surgeon's knot.

[cowboy]

I'll add my 2 cents. I do beleive it's beneficial for extremely pressured fish. I use it myself and am quite fond of it. If you use the real small stuff for dries, be aware of the fact that fluro is not the best choice for floating dries through choppy water. Also, the lack of flexibility will interfere with getting the perfect, drag free drift, from time to time.

For wets and nyphing, and streamer fishing, it just can't be beat. Its sinks, and I use a fluro leader that acts almost like a mini sink tip.
I use orvis mirage, I got it for 9.99 but they sell it in 40 yard spools so its worth it. Strong stuff.

[dshort]

I use orvis mirage

The mirage is good stuff I use it in 2, 3 and 4x. I recently bought some of the Orvis Max Knot in 5, 6 and 7x. It's expensive but so far I've been really impressed with it.

[Riparian]

No expert advice here and Im open to being proven wrong (especially if it means I catch more fish)

But I think its a gimick.
If a fish cant see the hook sticking out the back of the fly he cant see the tippet. He can however see how the tippet affects the movement of the fly and if flouro is stiffer than mono then I would say it is likley that it would have more a negative effect than positive. Also if you still want flouro but not the price do what I do with mono. I go through alot of line, and tippet is expensive. But 300 yard spools of spin fishing line is not. Just look on your tippet spools and find the coresponding diameter for the X rating. Then go down to your local fly or bait shop and find some good spinning line, which is ussually (and falsley) rated at break strength (4lb test), find the line with the diameter that corresponds to whatever X tippet you are looking for in mono or flouro, and spool it onto your used tippet spools. Saves a ton of money and makes you less cautious about pulling off 24 to 48 inches of tippet, or cutting back 24 or 48 inches of tippet when those situations are called for, rather than just tying a fly onto what you got and hoping for the best.

Note: big spool of spinning rod line are not made to the same standard as tippet spools so if you are looking to catch a record I wouldnt recommend this. For all other purposes this is best though. Some times the diameter will be a little bit off (.001 inches) from one section to another, and the actual break strength will be a bit higher as well, trying a more quality spinning line will solve these problems faster. Also you may get more stretch with some of the lines so test them out to see that you get the one you want, you dont want alot of stretch, it makes it difficult to get a good hook set on a fly rod. Which is the only benifit I see in flouro.

Take Care,
Riparian

[Bfish]

I am in Riparian's camp, well spoken R. However...

Originally Posted by Riparian

Also you may get more stretch with some of the lines so test them out to see that you get the one you want, you dont want alot of stretch, it makes it difficult to get a good hook set on a fly rod. Which is the only benifit I see in flouro.

Most flouro actually stretch more than mono.
Interesting reading here:
http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbon2.html

Damyl's Tectan (mono fishing line) works great for tippet material for me and comes true to it's stated size and test strength.

[Scud]

Thanks folks for the information. I do appreciate it. Scud

[Silvercreek]

There are differences between mono and fluoro that no one has mentioned.

One is water absorption. Mono absorbs water gets weaker. Fluoro does not and maintains it's strength.

Monofilament is porous and flouro is solid so that for a given volume, there is more material in fluoro line. Therefore, for a given X size, flouro has the potential for being stronger than mono. Check out the line strength ratings of Rio mono vs fluoro tippets and you will see that the fluoro is stronger than the mono. The "rio" difference though is in wet strength. Mono will get weaker and fluoro will maintain its strength. The absorption of water by mono also weakens the mono knot including the tippet to fly knot.

In dirty water, there probably is no difference in visibility between mono and flour. But in clear water there is. I agree that fish primarily do see drag and that is the #1 reason fish will refuse a fly. But fish also do see the leader. Some fish ignore it and we will catch those. But what about the big fish that refuses? We cannot say that what the reason is. Could it be that it saw the tippet?????

I've read reports of fish spooking from tippet material, specifically the sheen of tippet and the shadow from the impression of the tippet on the meniscus. Tippet and leader resting on the water, depresses the surface slightly in an irregular fashion. There is a difference in light refraction between tippet and water and so the tippet and leader cast both a shadow on the bottom of the stream and light "sparkles" from refractions. These fly fishers "degrease" their leaders with a fullers earth compound to remove the sheen and dull the surface. They also sink the portion of the tippet near the fly to reduce these effects.

This has convinced me that for some fresh water fisheries, leader visibility is not only important but critical to catch the largest and most difficult trout.

For salt water fly fishing, I think it is pretty "clear" that fluorocarbon is more effective for the same reason that clear fly lines are more effective. Using both clear lines and fluorocarbon leaders in fresh water minimizes the variable of line and leader visibility.

Modern fluorocarbon tippets are limper that the older fluorocarbon tippets. They are limper than fluorocarbon fishing lines. They are also stronger for a given diameter. I use the fly fishing tippet version of both mono and fluoro because I want the strongest material, but that choice is yours.

Mono weakens with UV exposure, fluoro does not, so again for salt water fly fishers, there is an advantage for fluoro. They can use the same material year after year and buy it in bulk.

[gqualls]

I usually fish the regular tippet on DH water. When I fish a tailrace, or the D, I usually go with floro. I've used 6x and 7x floro tippet with success. I know floro is more expensive but I think there are times when it does matter. I've been using floro from Hook and Hackle for 2 years now and I like it alot. It is not as supple as some of the others but gets the job done for me. I think a 50 yard spool is about $10, which lasts me for about a year. I am getting the hang of fishing with lighter tippet; fished two days last week with 7x and didn't break off one time. Didn't catch anything over 18 inches, but managed to catch a few. All in all, floro is a "thumbs up" for me.