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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Loop to Loop Tippets

For a while I've been thinking of doing this....and for a while I've forgotten to. So, since I'm at the computer now, and thinking of it, without any tippet in site then you get to benefit from my wonderful idea....and tell me if you think it's a good idea or not.

So, you roll out of the fly shop carrying your new spool of 6x tippet....

These spools come with yards and yards of continuous tippet. You get to the creek and pull of a few feet and attach it to your leader.  But, undoubtedly, that piece gets cut down by changing flies, losing wind knot battles, or by the massive hunger your monoMASTER has. Eventually you have to pull off a new length of tippet and reattach it to your leader.

Here's what I usually do: (on stream)
  1. Unspool tippet to about the length of my wingspan
  2. Double surgeons loop the end
  3. Cut tag end off of loop
  4. Cut the tippet from the spool
  5. Loop to loop attach to leader

What I'm thinking of doing is making all my tippet pieces ahead of time (while watching TV late at night). I could cut off the tippet, double surgeon BOTH ends, then attach it to the next double surgeon looped piece of tippet....creating a chain of tippets connected together...then respool them onto the spool. Then, on that cold wintery day when you need a new piece you could cut out a few steps in the process, and hopefully keep your fingers a slight bit warmer.


Here's what you would then do: (on stream, not counting the TV time prep)
  1. Unspool one pre-looped tippet
  2. Cut 1 loop off (need to attach the fly to this end)
  3. Loop to loop attach to leader

It seems to me that it might be a nice way to speed things up especially when fingers are numb and you are worried less about how many fish you catch and more about how many fingers you lose.

....one day, I'm going to turn my attention away from Oprah and get to doing this!

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