Tippet Size vs. Fish Production

[Woody]

This may be a silly question but how important is it to match leader size with fly size. Yes I am aware that there are "Rules of Thumb". When Fishing piticulary in the park with its low canopy and tight conditions I tend to use as heavy as possible leader becasue I get snagged so often. On a typical day of fishing I may catch 4 to 6 with the heavier than recomened leader. Would my production increase if I were to size leader to fly correctly. Any thoughts??

Buy the way, does anyone know where I could get a local stocking schedule or if one even exist??

[Grumpy]

I normally fish the recommended fly/tippet sizes, i may cheat & go to the largesr/next size up occasionally, that's just me.
If you're only catching 4-6 trees a day, something's wrong

Grumpy

[russ]

I refuse to use anything less than 5x. *If I am only using heavy nymphs then i'll use 4x. *Here is a link to the stocking schedule (I hope this works)
http://www.state.tn.us/twra/06fishgd_web2.pdf See page 14 of the manual or page 17 of 32 of the whole pdf document.

[Woody]

Guys thanks for the feedback. Russ this booklet has all the info I need and then some. This is quite a document. And Grumpy my tree/shrub/rock yield significantly out paces the number of fish I catch even on my best days.

[Petey]

Most of the time when I fish small streams I will fish 6x for dry's, unless I am tossing big stimulator and madam X's. I will go up to 5x. If I am fishing a double tandem to a small midge or nymph I will sometimes drop down to 7x, but not often. Usually I will if I think the trout are being picky in ultra clear water, and I am worried they can see my tippet.

I guess most the times, beyound fly size, it is how hard the fish are to get a bite out of. If they are heavy pressured fish I tend to go small flouro. If I am fishing water that doesn't get a lot of pressure and has eager to bite fish, I may tend to fish a little larger tippet and mono, cheaper!

Oh yeah, one more thing. If I am fishing a long slow super clear pool, I will go small tippet (6 or 7x) I have been known to tie on 8x before, but that is a test in futility sometimes. If I am fishing choppy water or around plung pool and falls, I will use a larger gauge tippet.

And one more thing beyond the one more thing above. In extreme situations (like real deep dark pools), if I am dropping a size 6 or 8 Stonefly that is weighted up nicely, I will tie on 3 - 4x flouro, just because you never know what will bite the other end.

You, know... after typing all of that. It maybe why I find myself tying more knots than fishing on some days. May have to streamline this thought process. May have to do like Russ... pitch 5x and let it roll.

Petey 8-)

[Sage]

In the Park: * *6X leader all the time with size 6 tippet - size 6 tippet for nymph droppers unless the H20 is crystral clear, then size 7. *Double dries are the same set up for crystal clear H2O. *Been using this set up up there for 5 or 6 years and it works well for me. For the last couple seasons, I've used Frog's Hair tippet and liked it mostly. *Sometimes I have to re-tie the knots when using size 7, probably just because I'm rushing to get the flies in the water. *Never had one jump into my hands while tying, but that would be a good story. *Interesting topic, I lood forward to reading other responses.

[David Knapp]

These are some interesting responses. For the park, I usually stick to 4x or 5x for my first fly and then use 6x for the dropper. If I am fishing a single fly, I'll generally use 4x in higher water, 5x when the water is at normal levels, and then for those late fall low water conditions I normally use 6x. I don't believe I've fished anything smaller than 6x in the park before more than once or twice. It also depends on my rod selection for the day. I break off too often when using very light tippets with a fast action rod. However, if I'm using a slower action rod, it protects those light tippets quite nicely!

David Knapp

[Waterborn]

I pretty much stick to 6x up to anything to a #14 and 5x for anything bigger and for the most part a 71/2 foot leader, with the the exception of some 9' on Little River...

[scflyfisher]

Good advice from all you guys. It's always fun to hear what other people do with their setup. b/c we all tend to have our own individual way we like to do it. I fished with an LRO guide a few years ago and he tied on 3x mono tippet with about a size 10 prince nymph and had me catching fish on little river. The water was up a little, but not bad at all. I was shocked when I saw him put this on my line, b/c I thought I would never catch fish there with anything bigger than 5x. Now, I wouldn't do this with the super low/clear water in fall and summer, but it really made me realize that I was putting more emphasis on the size of my tippet than quality of my drift. It's amazing what size tippet you can get away with on a good drift, and its nice having the comfort of 3x if you happen to hook something big which is a possibility everyday on little river. I still tend to use 5x on dries and 5x flouro for a dropper in normal water. Another intersting story, One day I was fishing slick water on the Davidson in NC, water that everyone says you have to use 7x or 8x to catch any fish. Last summer I tied on a #6 chernobyl with 3x mono. Made a good drift and a 18" brown that only eats on 7/8x came up in slick water, investigated it for 2-3 seconds and ate it. This is the biggest wild fish I have ever landed and it came on 3x in a place where everyone says you need 7/8x and #24-28 midges. Focus on a good drift b/c that will give it away long before the tippet will.

scflyfisher

[TomW]

Since we are talking about tippets..... When nylon tippet coils on the surface, each time the tippet coils into or out of the surface there is a shadow on the bottom. Does flurocarbon tippet do the same thing or not?

Tom