How do you keep your tippet from rotting? Is the Simms g3 vest the only answer?

[Bedlam]

I have been using a external tippet holder on my $19 vest I bought the first time I went fly fishing. I find I am buying "fresh" tippet every time I go fishing because my tippet seems to rot. I know I need a new vest, and the money I have spent on tippet has me considering the Simms G3 vest due to the tippet pocket feature.

Is there a cheaper way to keep your tippet fresh? I need a new vest, but $199 for a vest seems like a lot, but not if it better preserves my tippet, I think it may be worth it.

Thanks for the help.

[Longs for Cutts]

The vest isn't the problem. Either the tippet or how you're storing it is. I am on the water 150+ days a season in weather ranging from 15 and snowing to 95 and bright sun, and some of my less-used spools (6x, 1x) last two seasons before getting brittle.
--Make sure you store the tippet in a cool, dry place out of the sun. A hot garage isn't the place.
--If you're buying bargain basement stuff, buy better. I use RIO Powerflex as my general tippet, Orvis Mirage for tiny flies and spooky fish as well as nymphing for big fish, and Orvis AR and Maxima ultragreen (I think the Orvis is just rebadged Maxima) for streamers.
--If you're buying good stuff, there's a good chance it's expired, has been sitting on the shop shelf too long, or came from the warehouse screwed up. We dropped Dai-Riki for the latter problem.

[TyroneFly]

When not in use I store my tippet in an old ice chest. That way it remains cool, dry and out of the light. I have tippet material that is 8+ years old and it seems as fresh as the day I purchased it.

[flyguy66]

In 31 years of fly fishing, this tippet "rotting" problem is something I have never experienced. For starters, fluorocarbon doesn't break down. Second, regular monofilament breaks down in UV light. Extreme heat or cold can change its elasticity. UV rays are just invisible lightwaves. The sun makes a lot of them. Keeping mono tippet in the car or even laying out in a room with windows will speed its demise. But getting it (and all of your fishing gear) out of the vehicle and putting your tippet in a shoebox will solve the problem. Living in MS, a garage, shed, or barn that is not climate controlled will shorten the life span of a lot of your fishing gear if you leave it all in there (or a car/truck) all summer. The adhesives used to make much of our stuff stick together will fail when exposed to prolonged temps in excess of 100 degrees. There's no good reason for this other than the cheap ***'s who are making our stuff these days. There are better bonding agents available to them and they know it. You can store MILSPEC gear in a CONEX for years in the desert at 140 degrees and nothing falls apart. And a lot of that stuff is less expensive than ours! Your tippet problem won't be solved by a vest.

[BlueDun]

Like the others who responded, I've not had a problem with tippet and I have used outdated tippet, tippet left to dry in a damp vest, etc... (in other words, I do not do anything special to preserve tippet).

Perhaps it would help if we knew what was happening to your tippet that makes it seem to be rotted?

[Normand]

i too have not experienced any problems with tippets or even packaged leaders and i leave them in my car all summer long in hot conditions.

what do you do to your gear to have it break down?? i dont get it

[Eight Thumbs]

I'd like to add my name to the list of individuals who have not had tippet or leader problems but I do routinely replace 6X, 7X, and 8X tippet every two years. Don't ask me why I have 8X tippet. I almost never use it so it must be one of those "just in case" items in my vest. BTW, tying thread in smaller sizes is another matter altogether. I've had several spools of tying thread go bad after 8-10 years and break repeated with almost no pressure at all. On the other hand, I've also had thread that was still usable after 50 years. 8T

[Gandolf]

Hi all,

I have seen nylon, even when stored inside out of the sun in a temperature controlled location, begin to break down after it had been around for several years. Most of the standard, non-fluorocarbon, tippet it nylon, and I have even seen some types of it loose strength after just a few years. By the same token, some I have bought more than ten years ago is still good.

Like every other chemical material, there is lot to lot variation when nylon is made, and there are processing variations as well. What that means, in our case, is that there will variations in the useable life span of leaders and tippet material that we buy, even if we buy the same brand and type from year to year.

As some folks mentioned above, there are only a few things that will help cause deterioration of tippet or leaders, that we are likely to encounter very often. These include high temperatures, UV light, and such things as oils, etc. Treating the tippet with floatant, especially if it is not cleaned after fishing, may also shorten its life.

So, what can we do to help prevent damage to the tippet. Keeping the tippet on the back shelf of our car and letting the sun shine through the back car window on it is about the worst thing we can do for the life of the tippet. When it has to stay in the car on a hot sunny day, keeping it in the passenger compartment near the floorboards on the shaded side of the car, is far better than in the trunk or on the back shelf.

As to storage in the vest, I have a relatively cheap (IE: $25 fifteen years ago) vest, but it has pockets that shield contents from the sun, and the tippet is in those. I have had excellent luck with tippet life.

Regards,

Gandolf

[Ray Kunz]

A question for Gandolf, ---- Is there a possibility that Nylon leader material could loose a plasticizer component, like the plastic on our auto dashboards, where treating with a material like Armor-All would help it retain its pliability?

[John_N]

I'm like you in that I store my tippet on an "external" holder, on one of those cords that hangs from my vest. Like the others though, I haven't had any unusual problems with the tippet material deteriorating either. Is there something else that might explain it? Are you using insect repellant or sunscreen or a spray-on floatant or something that might be finding its way onto the tippet spools because of the fact that they're hanging outside your vest? One day's exposure to sunshine shouldn't make any difference, especially with the elastic bands that are around most spools. If you think that might be part of it somehow, do like I do and hang it from the inside of your vest. I did it to keep them from getting in the way more than anything, but I hang the cord inside the vest near the edge. Plenty convenient when I need it, out of the way when I don't.