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How Stuff Works: Tippet Rings

Over the last few years, tippet rings have been gaining more and more popularity and acceptance.  Most new fly fishermen love them.  Most traditionalists hate them.  What are they?

In case you’re new to the sport, lets start with a quick overview of leaders.  The leader is simply the monofilament connection between the the heavier fly line and the actual fly. Typically 7 1/2′ to 12′ in total length, leaders are tapered from a thick butt section that attaches to the fly line to a finer tippet section that attaches to the fly.  Check out this link for more detailed info on leaders and tippet.

As you change flies (or lose them in trees), your tippet gets gradually shorter until it is no longer the proper length, or worse, you’ve cut it away to the point that you’re in the thicker part of the leader.  In this situation, you would cut a length of tippet from the appropriate size spool of tippet material, tie it to the existing leader, and ultimately rebuild your leader back to its original length and size.

Though tying the knot to splice the new piece of tippet back to the leader is not very complicated with a little practice, many anglers struggle with it, or don’t want to take the time to learn it.  For these fishermen, the tippet ring is like an answered prayer!

Varying sizes of tippet rings

Tippet rings are very small metal rings, available in a few different sizes, that simplify this splice.  You tie it to the end of your leader using whatever knot you prefer for tying on a fly.  Then you tie a piece of tippet to the ring using that same knot.  You could also tie a second piece of tippet off the ring to add a second fly for a dropper rig.  So, all of your frequent connections can be made using the same knot.

Multiple tippet rings are stored on a clip and for convenience, are often threaded and attached before removing from the clip

This is one of the biggest benefits to using tippet rings.  It just simplifies the process, particularly for someone who may not fish frequently and may have trouble remembering or executing various knots.  Another benefit is that they can greatly prolong the life of your overall leader since your always replacing tippet off the ring and not cutting part of your leader away every time you change tippet.

Of course, there are also down sides – at least in my opinion.  First, I don’t think it makes as strong of a connection as when you splice using more traditional Surgeons or Blood Knots.  This may not make much difference on smaller fish, but I believe you have a much better chance of breaking off a big fish if you’re using a tippet ring.  Second, the tippet ring creates a “dead spot” in the leader which can negatively impact you in a couple of ways.

One way is with straight line nymphing.  This technique is commonly used in mountain streams and requires a certain amount of feel.  With that tippet ring creating a dead spot between leader and tippet, I believe you’re more likely to miss some of the more subtle takes of a trout.  That dead spot also can create problems with accuracy.

One of the main functions of a tapered leader is to transfer energy during a cast.  It’s what helps prevent things like hard splash downs or tippet pile-up on a cast.  When you put a tippet ring in the middle of all of that, the dead spot created can act almost like a short in an electrical current.  The energy doesn’t transfer smoothly from the taper of the leader to the tippet and can create a hinging effect – resulting in a significant loss of accuracy.

Like most things, you have to consider the kind of fishing you do and how important things like feel or accuracy are to you.  For me, they’re pretty important.  For others, they may take a backseat to convenience.  And that’s okay!  Figure out your system and roll with it!

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How Stuff Works: Leaders & Tippet

It’s nearly impossible to talk about leaders without talking about tippet, and vice versa. However, we could go into an enormous amount of detail on either of them – so much so that it would defeat the intended purpose of a brief monthly article that attempts to provide a simple definition of how particular pieces of fly fishing gear “work.” So, consider this a broad introduction of how the two things work together as part of the overall fly fishing “system.” We’ll talk about each individually in more detail in future articles.

Typical Leader and Package

The leader is the monofilament (usually) connection between the weighted fly line and the fly. Most commonly 7’ to 12’ in length, the leader is typically tapered and consists of three parts: the butt, the taper, and the tippet. These parts can be completely separate and easily distinguished in formulated leaders that are created by knotting different diameters of monofilament together. However, most commercially produced leaders are created with an acid process that results in a knotless, seamless taper from top to bottom.

In either case, the butt is the thickest section that attaches to the fly line. Its purpose is to “turn the leader over” with the cast. A leader with no butt, or too thin of a butt, has a tendency to collapse rather than extend and straighten. The tippet is the thinnest part of the leader that attaches to the fly. It is intended to allow the energy of the cast to dissipate, resulting in a cast that doesn’t crash on the water. The tippet also allows for a less visible connection to the fly. The taper is the section between the butt and tippet that provides a smooth, progressive transfer of energy. A leader with a thick butt tied directly to thin tippet has a tendency to “hinge.”

Leaders are primarily sized by their length and tippet size. So, if you purchase a 9’ 5x leader, it has a tippet size of 5X and its overall length is 9’. As a general rule, longer leaders are advantageous for not only creating more distance between fly line and fly, but for achieving better drifts in “technical” currents. However, they are more difficult to cast and more prone to find overhanging limbs! A shorter leader can allow for more accuracy in tighter areas.

The tippet is sized by its diameter and is indicated by a number followed by an “x.” The bigger the number, the smaller the tippet, so a 6X tippet is considerably smaller than a 2X tippet. Without getting too deep into the history of what now seems a rather antiquated system, it all works off the number 11. If you subtract the tippet size from 11, you get the actual diameter measured in thousandths of an inch. For instance, 6X tippet is .005”. It works in reverse too. If the actual diameter of the monofilament is .007”, the tippet size is 4X: 11-7=4. Pretty weird, huh?

Tippet Spool

You don’t need to know all of that, though. Just know that the tippet size should typically be chosen based on the fly size. Small flies should have small tippets and big flies should have big tippets. Some leader packages will have cross-reference charts on the back indicating which tippet sizes match which fly sizes. Another neat trick is to divide the fly size by 3. So a size #12 fly would best match a size 4X tippet. Could you use a 5X tippet on a #12 fly? Absolutely. This is just a guideline. But the farther you stray from the guideline the more problems you’ll encounter.

In addition to being part of the leader, tippet can be purchased by itself on spools. Tippet material can be pulled from the spool and spliced to the leader with a knot to rebuild or alter the leader. For instance, if you start the day with a 9’ 5X leader and you change flies a few times or break off in a tree, your tippet gets shorter and shorter. You can add tippet from a spool when this happens to build the leader back to its original size.