Fluorocarbon tippet sources

I read today that there are only 3 companies in the world that manufacture fluorocarbon tippet, and 2 of them are in Japan. If this is so, then clearly each company makes tippet for a number of brands (Seguar, Orvis, etc.) and there must be profound similarities between the brands. In fact, it seems likely that many of the brands are identical except for the packaging...and price.

I examined the fluorocarbon that I have at home, and could find no obvious differences between many of the brands that I have. This goes to items like stiffness, labeled diameter, and labeled strength for the "first generation" tippets. The new second generation tippets are clearly less stiff than the first generation products, however.

If this product overlap is real (i.e., if all the first generation tippets are virtually identical, and all of the second generation tippets are virtually identical) then it would be reasonable to buy fluoro tippets solely on price.

Can anyone confirm or refute my suspicions about the similarities (or exact sameness) of these products?

I just use Rio.

I like to keep things simple since they are basically the same price...

I understand what you are saying. However, there are currently some very good online sales on Fluoro tippet ($3 or 4 for a 30 meter spool), and I am tempted to stock up if there are not substantial differences among the brands. For example, the Orvis website has their Mirage for sale for about $4 and the Sierra Trading Post has Dream Cast Ghost Carbon fluorocarbon for sale for about the same. In fact it is the Dream Cast product that started me thinking about this. Clearly Dream Cast is a small player in the market, and one would speculate that they are selling a product that is identical to some major brand, only with different packaging. But I'm just speculating, and I hope that someone actually knows if this is true. Likewise, I would speculate that the Hook and Hackle fluorocarbon is identical to some of the other (major) brands.

Anyone know?

I tend to agree with you that they are all pretty much the same. I buy the "house brand" fluorocarbon from Hook & Hackle for $10 per 50 yards. It appears and seems the same to me as Rio which runs $15 per 30 yards -- more than twice the price by yard. I see that there are several other fly shops also carrying what appears to be the same tippet material (identical spool).

I do like to have consistent tippet spools and I don't like the generic, house branded spools, so I re-spool it on old Rio spools.

Cannot refute the claim that there are only a limited number of manufacturers, but even if this were true, it does not necessarily follow that the products are identical. No reason why the same factory cannot produce multiple types of leader material based on the specifications of their customers. This sounds suspiciously like the myth that all the fly tying hooks come from the same place, therefore the cheap no-name brands are just as good as the premium (hint: they're not).

That being said, personally I think it eminently reasonable to buy fluorocarbon on price just as long as you like the quality of the product. I won't touch the ridiculously priced stuff on those dinky 30m spools, and have tried and discarded several other brands as too brittle. I've settled on Maxima Fluorocarbon which runs a bit more than $15 per 200yd spool. Considerably more reasonably priced than anything you're going to find i a fly shop.

YMMV.

I guess everyone has there own way of doing things but here is an example of what whatfly is saying about a manufacturer making different line for different companies. I have researched this in the past in order to try and get fluoro at the cheapest price possible.

The Maxima stuff can be used but there smallest selection is 5lb and .008 in diameter. Rio Fluoroflex Plus at 4x is 7lbs and .007 in thickness. Usually I am needing 5X in really clear water to land 18-25 inch fish so I need as much strength as possible in the thinner diameters. Fluoroflex 5X is 5lbs at .006.

There is advantages to this.

So it depends on your needs I suppose. If the water is tea colored or I am pulling them out of clear with regular mono line then I do not even go to fluoro...

You can buy 200 yard spools of Seagar fluoro for right down to 4# test for $11. That way you only need to buy the expensive stuff in 6 or 7x. I can build 3 totally fluoro leaders that sell as a package in a brand name for $12-15 for less than $1.00 by using the 200 yard spools. Stored properly they will last many years and you can build 100's leaders.

Great idea! I'm guessing that the large spools of fluorocarbon line are comparable to the tippet. Surely Seaguar must contend that the tippet is different or better in some respect or else they would not be able to justify the cost of the small spools of tippet. I can't imagine that the the fluoro line would be inferior, or else there would be a lot of unhappy and dissatisfied spin fishermen!

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Originally Posted by wizard

You can buy 200 yard spools of Seagar fluoro for right down to 4# test for $11. That way you only need to buy the expensive stuff in 6 or 7x. I can build 3 totally fluoro leaders that sell as a package in a brand name for $12-15 for less than $1.00 by using the 200 yard spools. Stored properly they will last many years and you can build 100's leaders.

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I would check the diameter of fluoro line marketed for spinning reels, as spinning line tends to be much larger diameter for a given breaking strength than tippet material. 4# test spinning line and 4# test tippet are not, in my experience, the same product. I don't see much point in trying to same a few dollars to buy a spool of line that is three or four thousandths larger diameter than I would ever use.

Also, bear in mind that just because line is made by the same manufacturer, the line is unlikely to be made to the same specifications for different brand names.

In Flourocarbon Tippet material And mono I have nothing but praise for Frogs Hair. Fine diameter & good not strength . Been using it for years.

My conclusion from the posts above is that none of us know much about the "overlap" of brands of fluorocarbon tippet. That doesn't surprise me, really, as i would guess that this would be a closely guarded secret for the retailers. Based on the lack of demonstrable differences among the first generation fluorocarbon tippets, I will resort to bargain hunting, using the cheapest that I can find until I learn that this strategy is flawed.

Thanks to those who responded.

i've tried a few, seaguar, orvis, airflo included... and currently am using YGK which comes in a "doughnut" packaging... its in 100m spools and is about $20 for the #2.5 which works out to be about 8lbs. if i'm fishing flies that i want to sink, i'll use fluro, otherwise its mono =)

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Originally Posted by jgrossing

My conclusion from the posts above is that none of us know much about the "overlap" of brands of fluorocarbon tippet. That doesn't surprise me, really, as i would guess that this would be a closely guarded secret for the retailers. Based on the lack of demonstrable differences among the first generation fluorocarbon tippets, I will resort to bargain hunting, using the cheapest that I can find until I learn that this strategy is flawed.

Thanks to those who responded.

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I spent over 18 years inspecting factories for fire insurance and saw a wide array of articles made. Very often various brands came out of the same building with only different colors and labors being the only difference. I never had an opportunity to see fishing line manufactured the closet was string for weed trimmers, and the same held true there. So it would not surprise me at all that there would be only a handful of manufacturers of fishing line. I know Trilene and Stren are now owned by the same company, Pure Fishing, a division of Jardin, headquarter in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

As long as it works for you then I say go for it...!

I've used Orvis Mirage and have been happy with it and have some Rio that seems to work just fine as well.

I experimented with using fluro spinning line (Berkly Vanish to be exact) as leaders when bluegill and smallmouth fishing and was not happy with that at all. I found it to be much stiffer than the Orvis or Rio and tended to fail especially when throwing clousers and heavier weighted flys when smallmouth fishing.

90% of the time I usually use Berkley Vanish. I buy it in the big spools. When I need finer than a 4lb tippet I use Orvis Mirage. I only use it for nymphing so rarely need to go down to the fly fishing branded "tippet" material. I'm not to anal about my nymphing leaders.