I've suddenly started having a problem with my tippets that's driving me nuts.

The last two times that I got a fish hooked, almost as soon as I started to pull it in, the tippet broke.

At first I thought the (improved clinch) knot was failing, but I looked closer at the tippet and it didn't look like a knot failed.

Anytime I've had a knot fail (usually 'cause I had a clinch instead of an improved clinch), it's left a half inch or so of 'mangled' tippet telling me that I screwed up my knot.

In these last two instances, though, I'm left with a straight tippet with a tiny little 'J' at the end.

So, the first thought, obviously, would be that I'm using too light a tippet. But that just doesn't seem like it should be the issue; I'm fishing a lake with bass, good sized blue gills, crappie, and a few good sized gators. I've got an 8wt rod, with an 8ft 8lb tapered mono leader, and 8lb test mono for a tippet.

Thing is, I've pulled harder to get the fly out of the weeds than I was pulling when the tippet broke. So it doesn't seem like it should be a matter of too light a tippet.

Obviously I'm going to replace the current tippet, but do ya'll have any other ideas as to what might be happening?