Flurocarbon Tippet

[nacnud]

Interesting re the Maxima, was it the clear or brown?
I was out with my son yesterday, he hasn't been fishing since last season and his brown maxima, which was bought last season was snapping like thread, 4 & 6lb. Been stored in his fishing bag in the house in the dark.
I think a lot has to do with how long it's been lying in the shop, and how it's stored again in the shop.
I've not had a problem with fluro but definitely have had with ordinary mono and copolymer.

[Highlander]

To cut a long story short he was using a blood knot for his droppers and tucked blood for the flies.

You are dicing with death using a blood knot with fluo. It is not a suitable knot. Fine with nylon wetted & pulled in slowly it has very rarely let me down It will fail at some point in fluo. I am told a 3 turn water knot or grinner is best way to go. Having said that I little or no idea what is best as I have not used the stuff since it first appeared on the scene some years back. I am sure there are suitable knots out there though.

Tight Lines

[arawa]

Interesting re the Maxima, was it the clear or brown?
I was out with my son yesterday, he hasn't been fishing since last season and his brown maxima, which was bought last season was snapping like thread, 4 & 6lb. Been stored in his fishing bag in the house in the dark.
I think a lot has to do with how long it's been lying in the shop, and how it's stored again in the shop.
I've not had a problem with fluro but definitely have had with ordinary mono and copolymer.

It was the clear. 4 different spools and at least one must be four years old. Just checked them again and they are still fine.

[sagecirca]

I have never had issues with knotting fluorocarbon.  I blood knot my flies and use a 3-4 turn water know depending on how thick the nylon is.  The thicker it is the less turns I use.  I can't say what fluorocarbon was like 'back in the day' as I am not that old but I have been using G3 since it first came out-which must be around 15 years ago now and as I said previously, I can't recall having had any breakage issues with it. 

[ianmck]

I've had a good few breaks with fluro, especially with droppers, and have also found it goes brittle on the pack quite quickly. That said, I think it can be useful during very bright weather for spooky fish.

[corsican dave]

i buy brand new before a trip abroad. for the sake of £20 (for two spools) it's not worth taking a risk. however, i do wish manufacturers would put a date & batch no. on the spool, as it's difficult to know how old the stuff is. i would guess the best bet is to buy from someone like sportfish who are likely to have a high turnover

[mattheweastham]

I do use fluoro for some specific purposes: any stillwater wet fly pulling, lure fishing, straightline nymphing, and sometimes even dry fly fishing. That said, I'm reluctant to venture too far into the world of high tech fluoros - the ones which offer ridiculous strength to diameter ratios and which cost a small fortune. I'm suspicious of those for the same reason I'm suspicious of some copolymer brands which make similar claims. I totally rely on and trust Fulling Mill fluoro - it's good value, stiff, abrasion resistant, sinks and 'grips in' quickly, reassuringly thick for its stated BS and you could drag it through a field of razor blades and it would probably come out unscathed. Knotting is simple - half blood at the hook, 3 turn water knot of FO8 for droppers. I've had wild lake trout in the 4-8lb bracket heading rapidly in the opposite direction while I tighten up and never had a dropper failure or mainline breakage yet.

River fishing, I rarely use fluoro to be honest, apart form winter grayling bugging when I use the aforementioned FM in 4lb, because of the properties mentioned above.

A mate of mine has this season started experimenting with Orvis Mirage fluoro in 0.152mm dia as part of his dry fly set up and has reported back positive things. He twice beat his UK best river brownie this spring, the latter which went over 8lb. Given the number of large fish he successfully lands, I'd say that's a pretty good endorsement of that particular product.

So I suppose it's a case of finding and then sticking with something which works for you. You read a lot on various forums about anglers saying they can't knot certain monos, or they just break for no reason etc....and I always wonder to what degree it's a case of operator error. I've heard stories about people giving knots more turns than normal because the diameter of the material is finer than they are used to....or trying to knot a fine diameter mono to a relatively large or thick wired hook.....or using weird and wonderful knots because they read somewhere that that is how you are supposed to knot a given product.

Matt

[caorach]

I too have abandoned the fluoro after some bad experiences. On Gordon's recommendation I went to Yo-Zuri and have been happy with it using it from 6lb to 20lb. While I have had fluoro failures at knots and so on the break that really made up my mind was a sea trout of probably around 2lb that caused my fluoro leader to break in a completely straight bit of leader. I felt it go and it was almost as if it stretched and then broke as it was a weird feeling. I can't remember exactly but think it was 12lb BS fluoro and it was the first cast of the day so wind knots or other strange stuff is unlikely. It was always riverge brand I used. This one event wouldn't have made up my mind but along with a series of other weird stuff it assisted me to the conclusion that fluoro wasn't for me. I know a very able angler who says it gives him an advantage with the trout on Lough Melvin. I also knew one of the great Melvin anglers who had a bad day if he didn't put double figure numbers of trout in the boat and considered a 2lb fish small. He fished bright green sea fishing type nylon in what I would guess was 50lb BS.

[Part-time]

When pretty much all my loch fishing consisted of pulling wet flies (8 to 10 years ago) I used Riverge Grand Max 6.4lb as standard. 16' to 18' cast with 2 droppers ties on with 3 turn water knots and flies tied on with tucked half blood knots. So long as I took care tying the knots I didn't have any problems; well wetted before pulling tight and then gently tightened - any kind of resistance, sticking when tightening the knot I found could seriously weaken it. It got to the stage that if I wasn't happy with a knot I re did it without even bothering to test it. I also found myself checking for wind knots more often.

I stopped using fluro when I started fishing with dries most of the time - tapered nylon leader with (after hearing about it on here) a Rio copolymer tippet on the end. This is the tippet I use most often now and, although there is more margin for error than with fluro, I still find it needs more care with knots than Maxima. Like Fred say's I wouldn't use its own for pulling wets but I've had no problem using it to pull wets (with a dropper tied to the tippet ring) when it's on the end of a tapered leader which I guess adds a bit of stretch.

Maxima clear I still use for big dries (when I want extra diameter), pulling lures and salmon/seatrout (line is rarely tested anyway ) and would probably use these days for long 3 fly casts for pulling wets. For me there is no doubt Maxima is much more forgiving and you probably have a good chance of getting away with missing a wind knot or nick in the line.       

I used fluro in the past because it gave the highest breaking strain for the lowest diameter and at the time I thought this would help me catch more. These days I don't think this makes that much of a difference anymore and is the main reason I don't use it - if I was fishing somewhere/a method where I thought it did I wouldn't hesitate to use it, just taking a bit extra care with knots etc.     

[Laxdale]

The following video tells an all to common story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c255SPVSWcE