Pike bite tippets

[Stonedfish]

Anyone know of a place that sells already made wire tippets?
I don’t need the pre-made whole leader with the mono included, just the made up wire tippet.
Preferably with a loop on one end and a quick change clip on the other end.
I just need a couple. Though I’d check before I buy the stuff to make my own.
SF

 

[SculpinSwinger]

Careful with your choice of quick change clip. Pike were opening duolock clips one me. I prefer Stay-Lok and Rio twist clips, I Albright the wire to my mono, perfection loop on the other end for me. @clarkman ?

 

[rattlesnake]

z leaders on eBay are decent and reasonably priced.

 

[Stonedfish]

z leaders on eBay are decent and reasonably priced.

Thanks.
These look like they’d work. I probably won’t have much time to use them but would like to have a few on hand just in case.
I’m thinking the 60 lb. Is 12” of wire a good length for pike?
SF

(3-Pack) MUSKY / PIKE STRANDED WIRE LEADERS (BEARING SWIVEL) FASTACH CLIP | eBay

FASTACH CLIP / SNAP. FASTACH CLIP makes changing lures fast and easy. Size 4 - 100# Fastach Clip. Size 5 - 150# Fastach Clip. MUSKY / PIKE STRANDED WIRE LEADERS - Bearing Swivel. Z LEADERS Musky / Pike Stranded Wire Leaders are the most popular leader type choice when fishing for toothy fish.

www.ebay.com

 

[Merle]

When I was gearing up for Hawaii and thinking there was a slim chance of a barracuda, I bought a spool of this stuff called Tiger Wire. It’s a really supple and small diameter braided wire that you can tie pretty much any knot you’d use with mono. I was using 15# I think but it was available in higher strengths as I recall.

Andy

 

[Old406Kid]

When I was gearing up for Hawaii and thinking there was a slim chance of a barracuda, I bought a spool of this stuff called Tiger Wire. It’s a really supple and small diameter braided wire that you can tie pretty much any knot you’d use with mono. I was using 15# I think but it was available in higher strengths as I recall.

Andy

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it's no longer available.
This is a quote from Stripers On Line.

"I finally run out of Tyger wire fighting bluefish after all those years.
Go to order some 15lbs test.... can't find a place and those that still post it on their fly stores, is Out Of Stock.
Tyger has no more on line web site on the internet
Called their phone number.... That's out of service.
Tyger was by far the best I've used on toothy critters. Didn't kink as much as the others.
Held the knot and the fly had the best action out of all the wires.
I can't believe their product is not around. It was the best I've used.

Anyone have a stash on hand?"

 

[SculpinSwinger]

Thanks.
These look like they’d work. I probably won’t have much time to use them but would like to have a few on hand just in case.
I’m thinking the 60 lb. Is 12” of wire a good length for pike?
SF

(3-Pack) MUSKY / PIKE STRANDED WIRE LEADERS (BEARING SWIVEL) FASTACH CLIP | eBay

FASTACH CLIP / SNAP. FASTACH CLIP makes changing lures fast and easy. Size 4 - 100# Fastach Clip. Size 5 - 150# Fastach Clip. MUSKY / PIKE STRANDED WIRE LEADERS - Bearing Swivel. Z LEADERS Musky / Pike Stranded Wire Leaders are the most popular leader type choice when fishing for toothy fish.

www.ebay.com

I use about 12” 30-40 lb coated stainless steel. It does get curves set in it after catching a few fish, their teeth strip the coating off the wire.
Some just use hard mono or heavy fluorocarbon, but I have faith in wire.

 

[Stonedfish]

I dug around in some old boxes and found a spool of this stuff from some past saltwater trips. No issues tying perfection loop with it. I’ve also got some small black swivels.
I think this will get me by for right now for the limited opportunities I’ll have.
Any preference on wire to mono loop to loop versus tying mono to a swivel?
SF

 

[SculpinSwinger]

That should work. I Albright the wire and mono togetheryes I like chameleon!

 

[tyler]

Albright.

 

[clarkman]

I'll add my 2 cents in a bit. From the sounds of things, I might be a touch contrarian. (Sp?)

edit: I've gone back and forth on this one. If I'm using wire, I just use Beadalon 49 black .018", but I lean towards fluoro (I just catch more fish with it). a harder fluoro like Seaguar AbrazX. I can get away with 50lb, or even something like a mason hard mono in 40lb (could probably even get away with 25lb on that). At some point, with anything but 40+lb wire, you'll get bitten off, I haven't yet and I've put a whole bunch of tigers in the net over the last ~7-8 years. The thing you've gotta remember is that muskies and pike teeth aren't serrated, so they're not slicing things, but if the point comes down right in the middle of your tippet, that's how you get bite offs. Bottom line though, not all fluoro is created equal. You could use 80lb Red Label and it'll get bitten through easier than the 25lb Mason Hard Mono or the 40-50lb AbrazX.

It should also be noted that every single one of my flies have the barbs crimped. They typically come right out in the net.

Regarding clips, I've used the fastach clips and they work well except occasionally they'll get stuck in one position. That's why I stopped using them because you only get so many opportunities and I don't want that to fuck things up, so I just pre-rig all of my flies with ~12" of bite and loop to loop it to my leader (~4' of 30 or 40lb with a 75lb barrel swivel in the middle).

 

[ifsteve]

Its been a long time but I took 3 trips to Manitoba for pike on fly. In those three weeks worth of fishing here's what I came to.

I ended up going with hard mono (25 or 40#) over wire. Still get a few bite offs but a lot more hits that using steel bite tippets. Fishing right next to my bro who tied all the flies and he stuck with wire. No clear answer but I did catch more fish than he did. Since we were side by side using all his flies and same fly lines I got enough data to convince me that more eats even with a few bite offs was the way to go.

 

[clarkman]

Its been a long time but I took 3 trips to Manitoba for pike on fly. In those three weeks worth of fishing here's what I came to.

I ended up going with hard mono (25 or 40#) over wire. Still get a few bite offs but a lot more hits that using steel bite tippets. Fishing right next to my bro who tied all the flies and he stuck with wire. No clear answer but I did catch more fish than he did. Since we were side by side using all his flies and same fly lines I got enough data to convince me that more eats even with a few bite offs was the way to go.

Yeah, after sucking it up and using wire all of last year, I'm completely convinced. Last year I had my worst numbers year since my second year doing it.

Then again, with a day like yesterday, they were so on I don't think it would have mattered....but I was using fluoro.

 

[Stonedfish]

so I just pre-rig all of my flies with ~12" of bite and loop to loop it to my leader (~4' of 30 or 40lb with a 75lb barrel swivel in the middle).

Good info all. Much appreciated.

Randy,
You mention loop to loop with a barrel swivel in the middle.
So a barrel swivel in the middle of the 30-40 leader that your fluoro bite is looped to?
SF

 

[clarkman]

Good info all. Much appreciated.

Randy,
You mention loop to loop with a barrel swivel in the middle.
So a barrel swivel in the middle of the 30-40 leader that your fluoro bite is looped to?
SF

yeah. I've started doing that this year. I really helps keep your line from tangling due to big flies perhaps spinning on the cast.

 

[mtskibum16]

@clarkman Why not just have the swivel between the wire and leader? Or some sort of snap swivel right at the fly? Can you just give a quick summary of your complete rigging for tigers then?

 

[clarkman]

@clarkman Why not just have the swivel between the wire and leader? Or some sort of snap swivel right at the fly? Can you just give a quick summary of your complete rigging for tigers then?

I don't know if it would make a difference, but I don't want the shiny thing that close. I may go back to not using a swivel in there as well because it's just another addition that could fail (lots of guys swear by them). I'm already handicapping the potential for failure by not using wire for a bite tippet.

My basic leader setup: fly line--> ~2' 40lb--> 60-75lb barrel swivel--> ~2' 30lb--> large loop--> ~12" heavier fluoro (or wire if that's your preference)--> fly (nonslip loop knot).

With that short of a leader, you're not going to have too many issues turning things over if you went with a straight shot of say, 40lb (or 50 or 30) for the leader either.

Also, going as light as I do for my bite tippet is more based off of Brad Bohen's setup than anything else. I feel like I've caught enough to have a decent sample size on how many bite-offs (so far none for me--Brad says it's in the 1% range for him).

I used to incorporate a short section of 25lb in there in case of hang ups. But you really don't have to be that tight into structure with these things.....not like some bass fishing.