Tippet problems

[nedbm3 0]

I have been having a problem with my tippet lately. After every fish I caught, it would wind up and leave balls of tippet. I got another brand of tippet and I am still having the same problem. Even after a few casts, the tippet winds up without me catching or snagging anything. I am thinking it is a leader problem. I have a loop on my fly line and tied a loop on my leader to connect it. Maybe I am doing something wrong? Can anyone help?

 

[Sean Juan 0]

Sounds like your fly is spinning thus putting a twist in your tippet. This is very common but with a leader tied without loops the twist is spread over a greater area and isn't as noticable right away.

 

Does this happen reguardless of what fly you are using or does it happen more with one type of fly?

 

There will almost always be some tippet twist - just like there will be some fly line twist - the trick is to minimize it and try to head it off before it becomes a huge problem.

[jcstikfish 0]

QUOTE

it would wind up and leave balls of tippet

 

I am having trouble visualizing this. Are you getting a birds nest at the end of your leader/tippet?

 

Are you casting with a really tight loop? Try opening up your cast a bit, this may help.

 

What kind of fly/presentation is this happening with? Moving water or still?

 

 

Maybe with some more info I could try to help more.

 

 

~James

[Shaq 0]

This is very common esp. when using large flies and small tippets. ie: Your using a 16 adams parachute on 6x tippet and everything is fine. You see some stones and tie on a #10 stimmy and the tippet gets all twisted. To combat this, go up in tippet size the stimmy doesn't twist on the 4x. ect.

[atroutbum2 0]

It definatly sounds like the fly is forcing the twists into the tippet, when casting. Changing to a diffrent fly, or a larger, more torque resistant leader material. should cure the problem. Sometimes changing the fly proportions( like making the wing smaller) when tying the fly will let you get away with ysing a larger fly with a lighter tippet. There is a rule of thumb for fly size/ tippet size. It goes tippet x times 3 = ideal fly size. for example if your using a 4x tippet, you would want to use a #12 fly.

[nedbm3 0]

Basically it is happening in moving and still water with any fly i was using. I might be doing to tight a loop. I will see what happens when I go out tommorrow.

[atroutbum2 0]

Nymphs,wets and streamers too, or only on winged dries? It sounds to me that something is acting like an airfoil and forcing the fly to spin arround during the cast. This has happened to me but only when fishing winged dry flies.

[nedbm3 0]

It was only winged dry flys. I was thinking it was my connection from the leader to the tippet. I went out today and the same thing was happening. I put on a size 16 elk hair caddis and it was fine. I never had this happen before. I am still thinking it may one of my connections. Either from my fly line to my leader or leader to tippet. This is starting to get very frustrating.

[atroutbum2 0]

It isnt a problem with any of the connections,its the aerodynamics of the fly. the wing ( usually on catskill and parashute style dries) is making the fly spin arround during the cast. The tippet dosnt have enough strength to resist the spin, going to a smaller fly or a larger x tippet should stop this. Even a more aerodynamic style of fly would help, which is why you didnt get twist with the elk hair caddis