I've had old timers tell me that leader and tippet technology is the biggest advancement in fly fishing over the last half-century. Within my own twenty-five years of fly fishing, I've seen fly shop wall space grow to include tippet spools of nylon and fluorocarbon in all X sizes (sometimes in half sizes too), with most manufacturers offering multiple options for stiffness and breaking strength in each diameter.
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It's all gotten a little complicated, I suppose. And my friends at TCO tell me that fielding confused questions about tippet is a daily chore. So let's answer three important questions about tippet. What type? (Nylon vs Fluorocarbon.) What size? (How thick of a diameter is best?) And how long should your tippet section be?
Note: this article is not intended to be a comprehensive write-up for all things tippet. Google search will supply you with that. Instead, I'll give you a real world, stream-level account of what works for me and the Troutbitten guys.
Real quick, just for clarity, both fluorocarbon and nylon are monofilaments. So yes, fluorocarbon tippet material is monofilament, and so is the regular stuff we all used until about a fifteen years ago ' that's nylon. Using the term 'monofilament' for nylon is a holdover from way back when single strand polymers were first introduced and took over for gut leaders. So yeah, we can move on from that now.
I'm a skeptic at best and a cynic at worst. So when the shiny ads for fluorocarbon monofilaments appeared in my fly fishing magazines, I paid no attention but to chuckle and turn the page. I was sure I had no use for them.
For nymphing '
A decade ago I learned about euro nymphing, and I started fishing and adapting the Mono Rig to my own style. All the euro-nymphing guys I learned from swore by fluorocarbon, yet I resisted. Nylon worked well for me. I was used to it. I had a stockpile of the stuff, and it was much cheaper. I'm a fisherman, after all, and inherent in that term for me is a do-it-yourself nature with an urge to cut corners.
But I'm also an open-minded realist. On one warm fall day the plastic clasp of my tippet stack broke. I lost every spool and was left with no terminal tackle. Two miles from the parking lot, I turned to Sawyer, a long-time fishing friend, with my hand out. 'I'd like to try your fluorocarbon now please,' I said sheepishly.
Sawyer handed me his stack, with 3x-6X fluoro, and I nymphed with it for the rest of the day.
It took no time at all. Perhaps an hour later, and I was sold. I discovered that fluorocarbon has an uncanny ability to untangle, and that provided a significant advantage over nylon. I had slung around two-fly nymph rigs for years, and in a full-day of fishing, there are inevitable tangles that get the best of everyone. (Don't let any jackass tell you differently.)
I'd come to believe that ninety percent of the time, the mess was best solved by cutting off the rig and starting over,. But I learned something that day. The same tangles in fluorocarbon seem to fall out of their vexing loops and twists with minimal effort. In short, using fluoro keeps me fishing more and frustrated less, and you gotta love that.
READ: Troutbitten | You're in too Far Now
Since that day, I've tried many brands of nylon and fluorocarbon for nymphing, and I strongly prefer fluoro. It's naturally stiffer than nylon, and for me, that's the line I want for nymphing.
Some of the modern fluorocarbons aren't stiff anymore. I prefer high quality fluoro that is slightly stiff, but still has the right amount of flexibility. Yes, I want it all (and I want it now).
I recently read in Jonathan White's book, Nymphing the New Way, that he prefers Stroft, a supple nylon material. Because this is fishing, there are about a hundred different opinions and twice as many variations that work. I don't want a soft material for nymphing. I like slightly stiff, flexible fluorocarbon.
Also, I don't care about the fluorocarbon property of being nearly invisible to fish underwater. In my rivers, I'm not so sure that the refractive index of a monofilament matters. (Likewise, I don't know that the diameter of tippet matters to the fish either).
I nymph with fluorocarbon because it tangles less and because it's much more durable against things like rocks and split shot than nylon.
For dry flies '
I still prefer the flexibility of nylon for dries. To me the best dry fly tippet is as soft as I can find it ' super supple. I want the tippet section to lay out in s-curves at the end of the cast, providing the dry with plenty of slack. Read: Dry flies need slack
That is exactly what I don't want for nymphs.
This one might be easy.
Generally, I use the thickest tippet I can get away with but still have good movement to the fly.
Picture this: a #18 Blue Winged Olive tied to 3X tippet has no freedom of movement. It's motion is limited by the stiffness of the 3X. But a #6 Beadhead Wooly Bugger tied to 3X has plenty of available motion,and looks natural in the water.
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Additional reading:There are general formulas for matching tippet size to fly size, and that's a good place to start. Just remember that the tippet needs to be thick enough to cast the fly, to defeat the wind resistance of a dry and manage the weight of a nymph, streamer or wet. But the tippet should also be thin enough to allow the fly to move at the knot.
Many competition anglers nymph with 6X or even 7X. That allows for plenty of motion on the fly, even with tiny nymphs. And when casting nymphs on a tight line, the weight of the nymphs or split shot does most of the casting work, so tippet turnover is not an issue.
More importantly, competition anglers choose thin diameter tippets like 6X or 7X because thinner lines slice through the water better ' they incur less drag. It may seem quite a stretch to believe that 6X can be more drag-free than 4X. But when you try it, the difference is obvious. Since 6X has less surface area, it's pushed around by the currents less (it cuts through the water better). It drags less and sinks quicker. That matters, especially to competition anglers.
All decisions have a trade off, though. I care more about landing the trout of a lifetime than I do about landing a few more fish in a day, so I still nymph with the largest and strongest diameters I can get away with. I like 4X and 5X fluorocarbon for most nymphing. When I tie on a #18 or #20 trailer, I often use 6X. Tippet breaking strengths are stronger than ever these days. You can go thin when you need to.
For dry flies I want soft, supple, flexible material, so I use nylon from 3X to 6X. For big Stimulators and PMX patterns, I like 3X, but I still want the soft flexibility of nylon.
Some guys use fluorocarbon for dries because it sinks into the surface a bit, causing less shadow. That's the kind of thing my grandfather liked to call, 'flying too low.' Thankfully, the trout I fish for aren't usually that picky. If they are, I tip my cap and find the next hungry trout.
Personally, I don't like the effect of a sunken leader. When picking up for the next cast, a sinking tippet tends to draw the fly down into the surface, sometimes creating a pop as it goes under and quickly comes back up, flying off toward the backcast.
Last point on tippet thickness. Some flies twist a tippet that's too thin. It can happen with large dry flies. And I've encountered the unwanted twist while swinging Harvey Night Flies, so I use at least ten pound Maxima Chameleon for those flies at night. Some streamer designs can do the same thing. Trout that are attacking streamers and big night flies aren't leader shy, but they may be the fish of a lifetime, so again, I use the heaviest diameter I can get away with.
Last question. How long should the tippet section be?
Again, I recommend going as long as you can get away with. I frequently use a tippet section that's 4-5 feet long for the terminal section of my dry leader. All that extra-soft tippet gives me great s-curves and plenty of slack.
There's a limit to what an angler can control, of course. And ten foot tippet sections are impossibly inaccurate. There's a boundary for every situation. I go right up to it and use the longest tippet section I can still control with precision.
When fishing streamers or wet flies on a swing, there's not much need for long tippets. Yes, long and thin tippets will get you a little deeper, but depths with swinging or stripped flies is more easily achieved with weight, casting angles and retrieve speeds.
However, dead drift nymph fishing or using old school streamer tactics can greatly benefit from longer tippet sections. Remember the principles mentioned above, that thinner tippets take on less drag from the currents? Likewise, multiple diameters of monofilament (tapered leaders) under the water create the unwelcome situation of a leader being pushed around by varying degrees.
So for dead drifting, I use tippets long enough that just one diameter is under the water (two, at the most). The currents then act evenly across the entirety of the tippet section under the water, improving the dead drift and lending more control over the rig.
' Nylon for dries. Fluoro for nymphs and streamers.
' How thick? As thick as you can get away with.
' How long? As long as you can get away with, for dries. And for nymphs, as long as necessary to keep one diameter of tippet under the water.
I know that tippet preferences are personal. So share your own discoveries or disagreements in the comments section below.
Fish hard, friends.
For over a decade, I’ve searched for visible monofilament suitable for building Mono Rigs. There are many options for hi-vis mono, but my preferences are specific. And for so long, I couldn’t find anything that checked all the boxes.
That search is over (for a while). Sufix Superior Neon Fire is my go-to monofilament for building butt sections and tapered transitions.
Sufix Superior mics out very close to Maxima Chameleon, per pound. Specifically, the Neon Fire has about the same stiffness as Chameleon, with a little less stretch. It handles well, and it’s relatively temperature stable — so it performs similarly in both warm weather and cold.
Here’s more . . .
I was perfectly happy building leaders from Maxima Chameleon. And I still am. Chameleon remains my preferred material for most situations, because it has all the properties I want in a leader material (I’ll walk through those below). It only lacks visibility.
I truly don’t care to see the butt section of my leader. I build visible color into my transition, and the taper continues through my standard sighter, built from Amnesia and Gold Stren. I often add one to two feet of bi-color sighter material to the end of that standard sighter, before my tippet. So all totaled I have between four to six feet of highly visible material before my tippet enters the water. That’s plenty, and I’m an accurate enough caster that I never require more visibility built into the butt section.
READ: Troutbitten | The Full Mono Rig, All the Variations, with Formulas and Adjustments
However, when we started filming a couple years ago, Josh (Wilds Media) and I realized the trouble with demonstrating tight line tactics when the leader cannot be seen. Chameleon wouldn’t do.
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Likewise, when I started guiding in , many anglers came to me with plans to learn Mono Rig tactics. And I quickly realized that those who were new to the game were much more comfortable when they could see the full butt section.
Because if you’re coming from the experience of casting with a fly line, your eyes are searching for that visual reference in the cast. Furthermore, even for those accustomed to casting long leaders, watching loops of line helps tremendously when trying to correct a lob style of cast and return to the benefits of fly-line-style casting with a Mono Rig.
Again, for most situations, I prefer Chameleon, but when visibility is a benefit, I now choose Sufix Superior Neon Fire, because it has what I’m looking for.
There are more colored lines available than ever. And for a leader junkie, buying the next brand and the latest color to come off the line is a pretty cheap hobby.
I’ll leave a list of the lines I’ve tried below. But first, it’s important to understand what I’m looking for.
The butt section of a Mono Rig is the driver. Most anglers recognize how different thicknesses of material affect the performance of the leader. We’ve previously walked through those differences, those advantages and disadvantages of Standard, Thin and Micro-thin Mono Rigs. While it’s easy to understand how much more punch and power a twenty-pound butt section has than a five-pound butt, the composition of material and its effect on performance is not so obvious.
Years ago, I published an article titled, Is a Soft Sighter Best? And much of what I argued about sighter material applies to the rest of the leader as well. In fact, it’s even more important.
READ: Troutbitten | Is a Soft Sighter Best? Not Always
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Different Mono Rigs and Euro Leaders — What Works When and Why
Stiff material carries more power. It transfers energy more efficiently. It holds the casting loop better. It casts more like a fly line. And for many of us, that ability to cast a Mono Rig with the performance of a fly line, helping push flies and the leader itself to a target is an enormous advantage. This is a very different approach than relying on the weight of the fly or split shot to bring the leader along behind it (like a spin or bait casting approach).
READ: Troutbitten | It’s Casting, Not Lobbing
So we look for monofilament that is stiff rather than soft. But, the trouble is, most stiff monofilament holds a coil. It has memory once it’s on the reel for a while, especially in the thicker diameters used for building standard leaders that cast well.
We stretch all leaders at the beginning of a session. But then some of that line gets wound back to the reel while fishing. The worst of the stiff monofilament coils easily and quickly, especially in colder temps, mostly below thirty degrees Fahrenheit.
But the best stiff line remains flat for many hours, if not the whole day, even in cold weather. Chameleon does this. And Sufix Superior Neon Fire is similar.
Some soft monofilaments actually stiffen up a good bit in colder weather, but soft lines become even softer in moderate and warm weather. The worst soft monofilament becomes almost gummy, but even the best of them has a tendency to twist and kink. Soft lines are not durable, and they lack significant power for building great casting loops — soft lines have no punch.
Opaque lines are the most visible, because they are not transparent. But any line that carries enough dye to be solid in color is also soft. There’s something in the dying process that changes the composition. And I have never found an exception to this.
I’ve tried so many lines through the years that I’ve seen these trends. Red and orange dye usually makes a line softer, while greens and yellows are usually stiffer.
These subtle differences in lines are really not so subtle once you hold them in your hands all day and spend time casting. Most dedicated anglers have developed strong preferences for their own leader builds.
For the way I cast, for what I describe and show so often with the Troutbitten Mono Rig, a stiffer leader is better. But it’s difficult to find a visible, stiff leader material that also handles well and doesn’t have much memory.
Sufix Superior Neon Fire is the best hi-vis line I’ve found, nearly matching the performance of Chameleon.
I use it in 20, 15, 12, 10, 8 and 6 pound to build butt sections and tapered transitions for Mono Rigs. I keep the same formulas for my leaders and substitute the hi-vis for Chameleon, when I want that visibility.
Here’s a link to all the Troutbitten Mono Rig formulas:
READ: Troutbitten | The Full Mono Rig System — All the Variations, with Formulas and Adjustments
And here’s a link to the Neon Fire Sufix Superior . . .
Buy Sufix Superior Neon Fire HERE, and Support Troutbitten
I told you I was a leader junkie. Here’s an incomplete list of other visible monofilaments I’ve used. For all of these, I’ll compare my experience with diameters suited for a Standard Mono Rig, with a butt section of around .017”.
Amnesia
Red, yellow, green, blue and orange — regardless of color, Amnesia is a good option. But it holds a coil in cold weather, and I don’t care for the feel of a flat (oval) line in my hands. Ironically, Amnesia can have quite a bit of memory coming off the reel. (Yes, even after it’s stretched.)
OPST Lazar Line
This is good stuff, and I wish it came in thinner diameters. The 30 lb is a little thinner than 20 lb Chameleon, so it builds a good Standard Mono Rig butt section. It does have memory in cold weather, and in warm weather it gets pretty soft. Not my favorite. But it is highly visible in both pink and green. Here's a link.
OPST Oval Line
Also highly visible. It coils and twists less than the Lazar Line. But I don’t love the feel of an oval line, and it’s not as powerful as many other lines of equal diameter. Here's a link.
Other Sufix
Sufix Siege, Elite and Advance all have hi-vis colors. I’ve been through many, and I’ve built sighters from them. However, full butt sections always have too much memory for me, especially in the green/yellow colors.
Stren
Gold and Blue Stren are another option for a visible leader. I find both to be too soft for how I like to cast.
Various Fluorocarbons
Fluoro is stiffer than nylon, so why not use fluorocarbon leader material for the butt sections? Fluoro sinks easier, so it’s not good for mending, when I choose to lay the leader on the water. Fluoro also holds too much coil coming off the spool.
Tenkara Lines
I was excited to try my first Tenkara line, many years ago, thinking that they just might be the answer. Again, no good. These lines are great until they’re spooled up on a reel. Not a problem for the Tenkara angler though . . .
Sighter Material
The colored mono sold as bi-color or tri-color is very soft. For me, it’s a poor choice for building full leaders. Ever notice that these lines are all the same consistency across brands? The colors vary a bit, and some of the dye bleeds in certain brands, but all of it is the same, very soft material, with no power and poor durability. Fine for building soft sighters. Bad for full leaders.
Pierre Sempe Indicator Nylon
This is the latest popular line in the competition scene. It’s light for the diameter, and it’s a unique material. The trade off seems to be durability. I find the Pierre Sempe to be very delicate compared to other monos of the same diameter. By this I don’t mean breaking strength. I mean it has low abrasion resistance and doesn’t hold up well to heavy use. Also, Pierre Sempe comes in sizes no larger than 2X, so sadly, a Standard Mono Rig is not an option. Here’s a link.
Generic Opaque Lines
Some fly fishing brands are now selling what seems to be the same opaque line under their own label. Spools of this line are cheaply available from China, and it has about the same properties as most sighter material, so it’s too soft to make a full butt section with the performance that I’m after. These lines are interesting, though. And I’m anxious to find a stiffer version.
READ: Troutbitten | Ask an Expert: For Tight Line and Euro Nymphing, What’s Your Butt Section?
The lines above are the notable options. Some of them may be exactly what you’re looking for. I listed each of them, because I either used them as my go-to hi-vis line for a while, or because they are a popular line among other anglers.
I’ve also tied up and fished with a slew of lines that didn’t work out. Monos from Berkley and Ande, furled monos, braided lines and just about everything you can think of.
Truly, after all of that, Maxima Chameleon remains my favorite. But for a hi vis monofilament, Sufix Superior Neon Fire is my go-to line right now.
Fish hard, friends.
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