Tippet Lies

Wetswinger said:
It's not really surprising that sizes and strengths vary. Company's are there to make a profit. A little manipulation to find their market share is standard operation. Marketing and hype rule the day. Just look at the fly lines. Is it really a 6# or maybe a7#.? Well, spend another $100 to find out which one you like. Buyer beware..
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No, but when people rely on a product to do what it says on the tin, it should do what it says on the tin. Marketing claims are one thing, saying something breaks at 11.9lbs when it breaks at 9.8 is crap.

Also, if I were pursuing an IGFA tippet class record, and my tippet stated it was 12lb, but it turns out to break at 16lb, then I'm not gonna qualify for the record because IGFA is gonna test my tippet and check my fish against the 15lb class.
 
Jake I guess I wasn't clear.

Lets just take RIO 4x as an example. How many different spools of that are you testing?
 
Jake Watrous said:
No, but when people rely on a product to do what it says on the tin, it should do what it says on the tin. Marketing claims are one thing, saying something breaks at 11.9lbs when it breaks at 9.8 is crap.

Also, if I were pursuing an IGFA tippet class record, and my tippet stated it was 12lb, but it turns out to break at 16lb, then I'm not gonna qualify for the record because IGFA is gonna test my tippet and check my fish against the 15lb class.
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Never do in search of a class tippet record unless you use gauranteed rated material OR send the actual material you plan to use to IGFA for testing before you go. Then you'll know for sure.
 
ifsteve said:
Never do in search of a class tippet record unless you use gauranteed rated material OR send the actual material you plan to use to IGFA for testing before you go. Then you'll know for sure.
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Agreed. I’ve never gone in search of a record at all, but was using that as an example of why way underselling tippet rating might be undesirable.
 
Following. I just had half a dozen flies break off mid-tippet yesterday and would love to read the results when available. Thank you for doing this!
 
ifsteve said:
Never do in search of a class tippet record unless you use gauranteed rated material OR send the actual material you plan to use to IGFA for testing before you go. Then you'll know for sure.
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Perhaps, but what if a person is fishing what they think is 5lb, catches a whopper of a fish, sends it in, and learns that they were fishing with 7lb? It'd probably be a frustrating experience that can be fairly easily avoided.
 
For years I have miked every spool of tippet I buy and written the actual diameter on the spool. My number seldom matches what is printed on the spool. And, yes Virginia, .0005 does make a difference. Calipers usually only read in .001 increments whereas micrometers read in .0001 increments, lots of room for error there.
 
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A lot of the stuff I fish, I don’t think diameter really matters. That is to both me and the fish.
Some fish just aren’t really leader shy, so if you want to use 20 lb test for SRC, go for it. You’ll still catch fish.
SF
 
I just returned from seven angling days in British Columbia where I did a lot of indicator fishing with chironomids, some as small as size 18. I'm a believer that at times fluorocarbon helps hide the leader so I use it on small flies. I forgot to look at my spools before leaving home and had very little 5X fluorocarbon tippet and I ran out. So - I've revisited this thread (@Stonedfish - while you don't think diameter matters for your saltwater fishing, I think it does for bobber fishing small flies.... ;-) Good thread, some very interesting information provided in the links.
 
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