Quote Originally Posted by Buddy Sanders View Post
jszymczyk wrote:
I was also told by companies that make fly fishing tippet that this was the primary reason that tippet seemed to be stronger per stated diameter than ordinary fishing line. Tippet is usually rated closer to it's actual breaking strength, thus the wide difference between it and the regular mono.

The bottom line is this. If you care about the actual breaking strength to diameter ratio of your lines, leaders, and tippets, buy a scale and TEST them. Scales are inexpensive. A couple of hours testing your lines and your knots will be invaluable to you. You'll learn a lot, and be more confident of your gear.

Good Luck!

Buddy
When I first got back into fly fishing after years of bassin' I also was confused by the rating of line test per diameter of the tippet material. It was hard for me to reconcile a tippet at 5x (.006) at 4# test when my spool of 4# mono had a diameter of .009. It was only after putting the fact that lines in the marketplace are way under rated for # test versus actual breaking strength. The tippet materials being closer to closer to actual test are therefore smaller in diameter than the shelf lines in bulk.

There has been an interesting testing going on on one of the fish shows. They have been doing knot tests on various lines and knots pitting one against the other and using averages throwing out chances of bad ties or weak spots influencing the test. Consistently, regardless of knot, the lines go WAY above listed strength before breaking, but again this a steady pull test and not a snap test. Over the years I can remember a few fish that hit right at the boat and I've broken lines or even a rod with a near panic hook set with no line to stretch and forgive. I've learned in lines you can go lighter than listed test by at least a couple of line tests and still get the strength you're really looking for but less diameter.