How much does tippet size matter

[Streammagic237]

So after watching the East versus West video, it got me thinking how much it really varies stream to stream and region to region what people consider going light and heavy for tippet is . I guess my question is how much do you think tippet size affects catch ratio? How much time and consideration do you put into this part of your set up and when do you think it really can be a game changer . I just wonder if you take out the getting a good layout with 2o's and 22 dries how much does the size really affects the fishing ,

Heck if you have half a night crawler on I think you would still catch most trout on 15 lb mono ....

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Streammagic237,

It matters way more to the fisherman or woman than it does to the fish. Obviously, if you are fishing tricos using 2 or 3X is difficult simply because the diameter of the tippet is not a good match for the small fly.

I've caught fish on midges and tricos and have never fished or even owned smaller than 6X tippet in my lifetime. Properly cast and presented flies will always out fish clumsily cast flies every time! I always try to use the largest possible tippet all the time, but that's probably just me.

The angler's skill obviously plays a role, but people over playing midge caught 8-inch fish like they were bonefish capable of stripping the fly reel does way more harm than they think.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[Swattie87]

Similar to Tim. For me tippet size is 100% dictated by fly size, and I generally fish larger “attractor” style flies more often than subtle more natural looking ones. I mostly fish small freestoners, if we’re talking Trout, and bigger is usually (not always) better than smaller when it comes to fly size for that application.

I carry 2x-6x. 3x-5x covers probably 99% of my Trout fishing though. 4x being the most common size I fish. A common small stream set up for me is 4x to a size 12 or so dry, and then 5x to a size 16 or so dropper nymph. (I only step down to 5x for the dropper so that if I snag the dropper and need to break it off, there’s a better chance I don’t lose the dry too. I want one of the knots in the 5x to fail.)

2x gets used if I know I’m gonna be doing nothing but streamers all day. Or I’ll just use regular old 10lb mono in that scenario too. Can’t remember the last time I used the 6x. Years probably. BWO’s more than likely, as they’re about the only thing I carry smaller than a size 16 or so. The 6x is used so infrequently that it’s in the backpack portion of my pack, where other, less frequently used items are. I should just toss it.

Yeah, tippet size can make a small-ish difference on super technical fish, think like classic limestone spring (Letort/Big Spring/etc), or for the super highly skilled nymphing guys. But those aren’t really situations I often find myself in. And I’m not good enough to pretend that going from 6x to 7x on a Trico or BWO is gonna make a difference.

 

[nd1001]

I like thin tippet for tightlining, I think it helps the flies get down quickly. I’ll most often fish 6x, going to 5x in heavier flows.

 

[Sylvaneous]

It does tremendously to some Euro-nerds. They sell/buy/use HALF sized tippet, like 5.5X. Nuts.

It matters most for dry flies because you need to have a drag free drift. I THINK (it was almost 30 years ago) that I might have used 8X tippet for tricos in the Lehigh Valley. I DO use 7x sometimes on sz. 16 mayflies: almost always on sz. 18. I can't keep it from dragging any other way and I don't want to use 4 ft of 6X. I catch 6 lb steelhead on 4X. I've used 3X or 2X on those occaisions when I'm throwing a REALLY BIG dry, like drakes or Salmon flies or bit golden stones. Only my biggest flies get 4X like stonefly nymphs. Not much else. 5X suffices because I rarely fish a nymph bigger than 12, and that's the rare occaisions when I'm fishing goldern stones or March Brown nymphs. So really, sz, 5X to 7X will work for most any standard PA fly fishing with 4X for the big/heavy stuff.

 

[Letort]

I think the size of the fly you are fishing is the most important determining factor. A small fly with too heavy tippet will not get as good a drift as possible. Conversely, a heavy fly on a micro tapered leader is hard to control and get to turn over.

For picky fish, a longer leader, irregardless of the terminal tippet, is important.

 

[troutbert]

For trout fishing:

I use 5x the most. 4x for largish dry flies and nymphs. 3x for streamers.

Nothing else really. I have not used 7x for decades. In the past I used 6x a fair bit but haven't used it in recent years.

Even for BWOs, I use a size 16 hook and just tie the fly smaller than normal for the hook size, and use 5x tippet. Making the tippet pretty long can somewhat substitute for a fine tippet.

And I just don't fish midges and Tricos. No need. In the low, clear water situation you can do very well with a size 12 or14 black ant pattern on 5x leader.

When "storm chasing" on freestone wild trout streams, I've typically fished Stimulators with 5x, but more recently I've been using 4x and it doesn't seem to reduce catch rate.

The reason to use heavier tippet is pretty simple. I've had some big trout break me off. I would have liked to have seen those trout. With heavier tippet you can lean on big fish, turn their head, and bring them in.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Just to add: going up can be as important as going down for another reason. Try throwing a hopper all day on 5X, then examine how twisted up your tippet gets. Same fly on 3X, and it won't happen.

I love half sizes too, but I am certainly a dirty euronympher 😉

 

[JG63]

Dear Streammagic237,

It matters way more to the fisherman or woman than it does to the fish. Obviously, if you are fishing tricos using 2 or 3X is difficult simply because the diameter of the tippet is not a good match for the small fly.

I've caught fish on midges and tricos and have never fished or even owned smaller than 6X tippet in my lifetime. Properly cast and presented flies will always out fish clumsily cast flies every time! I always try to use the largest possible tippet all the time, but that's probably just me.

The angler's skill obviously plays a role, but people over playing midge caught 8-inch fish like they were bonefish capable of stripping the fly reel does way more harm than they think.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[JG63]

For trout fishing:

I use 5x the most. 4x for largish dry flies and nymphs. 3x for streamers.

Nothing else really. I have not used 7x for decades. In the past I used 6x a fair bit but haven't used it in recent years.

Even for BWOs, I use a size 16 hook and just tie the fly smaller than normal for the hook size, and use 5x tippet. Making the tippet pretty long can somewhat substitute for a fine tippet.

And I just don't fish midges and Tricos. No need. In the low, clear water situation you can do very well with a size 12 or14 black ant pattern on 5x leader.

When "storm chasing" on freestone wild trout streams, I've typically fished Stimulators with 5x, but more recently I've been using 4x and it doesn't seem to reduce catch rate.

The reason to use heavier tippet is pretty simple. I've had some big trout break me off. I would have liked to have seen those trout. With heavier tippet you can lean on big fish, turn their head, and bring them in.

Yup! Well said - my eyes are not what they once were but gradually losing feeling and sense of touch in my fingers makes knot tying harder beyond 5X

 

[ROVERT]

I think tippet size is far more important from stream to stream and technique to technique than it is from region to region.

If you are fishing big flies that move a lot, you can get away with heavier tippet. The same is true if fishing for unpressured fish. Those circumstances are more likely to be present out west but they have tricky currents, small flies, and pressured fish there, too.

I fish plenty of 3x here in PA for wets, nymphs, and dries, heavier for streamers. I pretty much only fish 3x, 4.5x, and occasionally 6x.

On a related note, I mic'd a bunch of tippet earlier this year. There's a good chance you are fishing heavier tippet than you think you are no matter where you are fishing.

 

[troutbert]

It does tremendously to some Euro-nerds. They sell/buy/use HALF sized tippet, like 5.5X. Nuts.

I didn't know about this. Now I want some 4.5x tippet. Not for Euro-nymphing though.

 

[greywolf]

Over the last couple of years I stopped using 6x and 7x completely and use 5x only occasionally. The 3x and 4x fluoro I now mostly use , catches as many or more fish than I ever got on thinner tippet, and the fights with larger fish are much faster and easier.

 

[PennKev]

I use very little beyond 4x, 3x, and 10lb fluoro. Occasionally 5x. Rarely 6x. I bought a spool of 7x once but ended up throwing it away after several years.

 

[jifigz]

It 100% depends on the stream, the conditions, and the fishes' behavior as to what tippet I choose. Yes, fly size matters some, but water clarity the how spooky the fish are matters more.

 

[dryflyguy]

I also think it depends on other factors:

Heavily pressured streams usually call for lighter tippet IMO
I challenge anyone to use 2 and 3x on the Delaware River

Also think it makes a difference when streams are at their lowest levels - especially in still water pools

 

[kbobb]

In George Harvey's trout fishing book I think he describes sticking pieces of large diameter tippet through live beetles and floating them to feeding trout. The trout ate them even with the big tippet. His conclusion was drift mattered more than tippet dia.
During cicadas last year I fished them with minimum 3x and sometimes 2x and took trout on hard fished creeks without a problem.
I think lengthening tippet is more important sometimes than reducing tippet dia for getting a good drift.
I agree with the above on using thinner tippet for nymphing so the flies get down quicker.

 

[poopdeck]

I just want my leader to turn over correctly with the fly I’m fishing. If my tippet fits through the hook eye the fish will come.

 

[JimKennedy]

It has to be small enough to fit through the eye of the hook. Other than that, largely unimportant.

Trout that are "leader shy" because they have been caught before will look for the glare of leader floating in the surface film, so if you use soap on nylon to get it to sink, or get some fluorocarbon to mitigate the issue. But a wary trout is a wary trout and it may not hit just because its small smooth brain senses something is wrong.

The biggest factor is micro-drag, but only when the fish is concerned about micro-drag. We've all experienced a bad cast where the fly is zipping across the surface and a trout chases it across the creek to slam it. But mostly, drag is your biggest problem.

Also, we get hits from remarkably few of the fish that see our flies. I fished Big Gunpowder yesterday and really pounded it over about a mile section. I had four hits on my float-indicator-bobber and five hits on my fly (but one was a big creek chub).

Maryland DNR biologists estimate there's a trout for roughly every linear meter of river from Prettyboy to Loch Raven, which means I probably fished over 1,600 trout in that mile. On a certain level, and considering I got the same number of hits on a bobber when there was zero bug action, fly fishing has a strong dumb luck component to it. We can console ourselves with talk of not catching any because the tippet was too thick, the color of the fly was off by a paint swatch fraction, the weather was too bright, dark, windy, warm or cold, the moon was full so they are sleeping off a night of gorging on mice or whatever else we'd like.

The memories of the days when they are biting and I can do no wrong make me want to believe there's some minor adjustment I can make on the many more days when I make a thousand casts and only have an eight incher to show for it.

 

[Bamboozle]

Talking trout & me here...

Tippet size is more related to fly size than stealth. I fish a lot of small stuff, down to a size 32 on occasion so I also fish tippet down to 8X.

I only use fluorocarbon because it sinks, stretches less, it's denser so it casts better, twists less, has better abrasion resistance and especially because it doesn't flat spot like mono. Currently, I only use JDM Seaguar Gran Max or Orvis Mirage.

In my experience, I can get by with less than perfect drifts with a more supple tippet so when I am making repeated casts to repeated picky risers (like when Trico fishing), I'll always fish a lighter tippet like 7X or IF I think it will make a difference, 8X.

I especially like light tippets when fishing terrestrials because I can get a better splat. It is VERY common for me to fish 7X when using a size 16 foam beetle, bee or inchworm. MANY times at many places using the same fly without moving an inch or casting to different fish, just going to a smaller/lighter tipper of the same length made the difference.

For most of my non-blue line dry fly fishing using the size flies I fish most often, I am using 6X and at places with weeds or a lot of obstructions like the Letort, 5X. Blue lining on top is most often done with 4X or 5X.

Sub surface anywhere; 3X or 4X when deep dredging and lighter on small droppers when it may be 5X and as light as 7X on midge pupa.

The fear factors some folks have with light tippets are exacerbated by unfamiliarity and seeing low stated breaking strengths. IF you ever think you will need or want to fish 7X or 8X, do yourself a favor and add it to your leader, tie it to a tree branch and with the rod you will be using, pull until it breaks...

I think you will be shocked just how strong 1.5 to 2 lb test really is...

As far as twisting with light tippet goes, fly construction & proportions, line speed, tippet length and the number of false casts causes more problems versus just using a light SIZED tippet. As an experiment, knot a hackle tipped or quill wing dry fly with a nice "V" shaped wing profile to a long tippet, make a bunch of fast false casts and you will probably end up with macramé at the end of your leader.

Afterwards switch out to some other fly with a single poly post wing and/or no stiff parts sticking out; shorten your tippet, SLOW down on the line speed, CUT DOWN on the number of false casts (IMHO, most folks make WAY too many) and I think you'll end up with way less or no twisting, even when using 7X.

True story, I was fishing a bee pattern modeled after the picture on a package of Bill Skilton foam bee bodies (miss your foam Bill 😉). This was essentially a length of appropriately colored cylindrical foam lashed in the center of a hook with a few turns of hackle for legs, sort of like a big McMurray ant.

I was using some at Clarks Creek on a 7X tippet, but unless I slowed down my line speed DRAMATICALLY, my leader was twisting like crazy. When I got home, I made a revised version by lashing down the foam cylinder at the back & front of tthe hook so it had two sections like the original, but they didn't stick out from the hook in a "V" shape.

They next time I tried them. NO more twisting, even on 7X.

Overall, it helps me that none of my trout rods are fast or remotely close to fast. That helps keeps the line speed down and also cushion lighter tippets.

As far as the fish go, because I KNOW the strength of my light tippet material and don't take fish pictures or use a net; I horse in my fish and when they are to hand, I slip them off the hook while they are still in the water and off they go in a second or two...

One final note in regards to tippet/leader color...

I'm not talking fly fishing, but for visibility reasons on spinning reels and BFS casting reels I use for trout, I am currently using fishing line that is bright (almost florescent) orange or bright green. On a spinning reel I use for warmwater fishing my current line of choice is pink. On my micro fishing rods I use black line. On ALL rigs the colored line is tied directly to the lure or hook.

In every situation I have noticed ZERO difference in the amount of fish I am catching after switching from clear lines to colored lines...

Go figure...