One of the more unfortunate fads in fly fishing is the perceived need to cast to and hook trout with what amounts to micro tippet. Granted, today’s monofilament and fluorocarbon technology is pretty stellar, and 18 inches of 7x tippet is stronger now than it was even a decade ago. It’s still overkill.
Surely, the you must use light tippet to catch my trout crowd will rebut me in the comments section. That’s fine. You might, indeed, need to cast a size 24 RS2 on 7x tippet over a finicky Henry’s Fork rainbow in order to get a look. And, sure, that fish probably sees a dozen different RS2 patterns on any given October day, meaning, of course, that it’s the tippet that makes all the difference, right? Uh-huh.
When and if you do hook up, a two-foot-long rainbow on 7x tippet is going to tire and come dangerously close to exhaustion before even the most-skilled angler can bring that fish to hand. Again, I’ll check the comments section later to read the, “Nuh-uh! I catch and release big trout on 7x tippet all the time!” missives.
My point is this. Sure. You might be able to do it. You might be able to entice the strike and ethically play the fish to hand without having to spend 10 minutes keeping the fish alive before you release it with a little hope and a “good luck, buddy.” But you are the exception, not the rule. On that, we must agree.
A quarter of a century ago, when I moved to Idaho, a well-respected local angler preached to the local fly fishing club that 3x tippet should be the baseline tippet for most anglers. Were there exceptions? Certainly. But, he said, if you continue to go lighter and lighter, you need to come to grips with the fact that you’re going to kill fish—or just break a lot of them off.
Feel free to share your theoretical fly-fishing algebra, but you absolutely do more harm to trout, particularly big trout, when you try to land them on wispy tippet. It’s just not strong enough to allow for a quick fight and a quick release — which should be the ultimate goal of any trout angler in the time of hoot-owl closures, low stream flows, 72-degree rivers and triple-digit days.
Want to be a real hero? Size up to a 4x stretch of tippet and see if you can make the perfect presentation—and perfect very often means that the trout sees your fly before the tippet, anyway. If you hook up, you’ll be doing the trout a favor in the process. A shorter fight means the fish is fresher when you point its face into the current. It might survive the fight of its life and, just maybe, live to hit another size 24 midge.
And, if you think you should go with lighter tippet when you’re fishing smaller water for smaller trout, think again. Small-stream trout generally live in more austere environments. They’re much more opportunistic and, with a few exceptions, anything but “leader shy.”
If you’re chasing foot-long cutthroats or eight-inch brookies, fight the urge to tie 6x tippet to your 4x leader. It’s unnecessary and, should you happen upon a nice trout that pushes your 3-weight fly rod to its limits, you’ll have enough strength in your string to land the fish and see it off safely.
About 10 years ago, I simply stopped buying 6x and 7x tippet. I will occasionally use 5x tippet, but very rarely. And only when I absolutely have to go deep — like when I’m Euro-nymphing, for instance — will I use fluorocarbon leaders or tippets. That stuff lasts forever, and once it’s in the water, it’s there for the long haul.
The new challenge, rather than trying to see how many trophy trout you can land on skinny leaders and tippets, should be settling on a number that’s good for you and good for the trout. For many, that’s 4x. For me, 3x tippet is still my baseline (see tips Nos. 120 and 121 in the Little Black Book of Fly fishing).
With 3x, I can turn over big hoppers and stonefly patterns, and it’s not so vividly visible during an October baetis hatch that it prohibits the occasional rise. Hell, on smaller water, it’ll even work for small streamers.
The new “give them a break” mentality when it comes to our trout should extend beyond the “keep ‘em wet” mantra and the pledge to stop fishing when water temperatures hit a certain threshold. It should extend to our tackle and our technique.
Go bigger on your tippet. Be a hero and release your next big trout with a fighting chance.