Tippet Breaking Strength

[leo1357]

Hi Guys,

If I understand this correctly, a lighter weight rod is good for light strength tippet as it protects it from breaking off. I would like to know the other side of this.
What strength would a person limit their tippet to in order to protect their rod from breaking (take a 3 weight for example)? Is there a generally considered strength or not really?

[pieterkriel]

Hi Guys,

If I understand this correctly, a lighter weight rod is good for light strength tippet as it protects it from breaking off. I would like to know the other side of this.
What strength would a person limit their tippet to in order to protect their rod from breaking (take a 3 weight for example)? Is there a generally considered strength or not really?

I have never really thought of this in this way, yes you would want to protect your rod from breaking but then you would take the right rod for the job when you fish I would have thought, so in your 3 weight example, typically you would fish the 3 weight setup more or less in smaller streams with the aim to catch possible small stream fish like wild trout that should not break your rod, then there is still the possibility of hooking something bigger than expected but then do you want to loose the fish because your tippet is designed to part to protect the rod, or do you play the fish carefully to protect both rod and tippet.

I for one typically select tippet based on the situation rather than the rod weight, so if I am faced with fish that is not line shy I use tippet that is stronger then at least i do not have to worry about tippet parting but rather about landing the fish quickly and efficiently, if faced with fish that is extremely skittish i use the finest tippet i can get away with but then adapt my fishing techniques to protect the tippet.

Now another way you might want to look at it, your rod may break even if you thought you used a light / fine tippet. I once broke a rod tip of a 6wt fishing 5x tippet. So in general I would not select tippet based on how much I will protect my rod.

Just my thoughts I may be wrong and have been known to be wrong in the past.

[leo1357]

Thanks for the reply, that was exactly my thinking concerning a bigger fish than normal coming along. Wow a 6wt? Sheesh what fish was that? haha. I'm guessing the initial shock to rod, before the tippet even had time to break, must have been the culprit then.

[pieterkriel]

Thanks for the reply, that was exactly my thinking concerning a bigger fish than normal coming along. Wow a 6wt? Sheesh what fish was that? haha. I'm guessing the initial shock to rod, before the tippet even had time to break, must have been the culprit then.

Can only guess at the fish, but it most probably was a yellow, and my suspicion is that I may have clipped the rod tip on a previous outing with a fly and a fast and furious take was the final straw that broke the camels back

[Andre]

I have never really thought too much about using light tippet for the purpose of protecting a rod from breaking. To me, if a rod breaks, its either a cr@p rod (or already damaged or defective in some way) or the angler doesn't know what he is doing. if a huge fish takes off and you need to stop the rod from breaking, its easy to straight stick it, and hold the reel. I have only once ever seen a fly rod break from a fish, and it was in the Okavango, with a huge tiger on the end...and the guy fishing was trying to dead lift the fish onto the boat.... yeah a light tippet might have helped, but the guy was treating the rod with very little respect. Rods generally don't break from fish, if they are used properly.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Not sure about 3wt but a 7wt is in the region of 15lb exerted pressure would pop the blank.

[Andre]

I challenge you to exert anywhere near 15 pounds of pressure on a 7wt...... Just not possible. I don't think it could exert more than about 3 to 5 pounds.

Not sure about 3wt but a 7wt is in the region of 15lb exerted pressure would pop the blank.

[leo1357]

I challenge you to exert anywhere near 15 pounds of pressure on a 7wt...... Just not possible. I don't think it could exert more than about 3 to 5 pounds.

Wait, are you saying you wont ever be exerting more than 3 - 5 lb of pressure during fishing or the rod wont take more than that?

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Just not possible. I don't think it could exert more than about 3 to 5 pounds.

Lol, sos jump the ship is sinking!!

[Andre]

Ok, attach a spring weight measure to the line, and pull with the rod, and see how much it can pull. You can use the thing you would weigh a fish with. Attach to a static object, and the other end to the line, and see how much you can pull. I'm saying that you wont exert that much pressure. Regardless of what the rod will take, its just not possible to exert more than a few pounds of pressure.

Wait, are you saying you wont ever be exerting more than 3 - 5 lb of pressure during fishing or the rod wont take more than that?