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fluorocarbon leader why so expensive and scarce?

4K views 18 replies 15 participants last post by  GAT 
#1 ·
I usually buy a couple Flouro leaders to take rocky ford each year. For the past 3 or 4 years i have found a shortage of 4x and 5x Flourocarbon leaders, but no shortage of Flouro tippit.

any idea why we have a shortage and why it is so expensive?

Bye the way, I scored the last 4x and the last 5x Flouro leaders from the vending machine at desert anglers in Ephrata on Fri afternoon. the rocky ford bruts were fooled By the low vis line
 
#2 ·
Interesting question, I was shopping online for floro tippet today and wondered about it myself, especially the expensive part. I assume it is expensive because many have been led to believe that they can't catch fish without it. The same reason there are $900 fly rods and reels with $300 spare spools. I read the entire Yellowstone Anglers Tippet Shootout and it had some enlightenment on floro for sure. It seems some are definitely superior to others but some of the advantages are so minute that it hardly matters. One takeaway that I had was that Rio Powerflex nylon is about the best tippet material of any kind and it sells for roughly 1/3 the price of floro. In all but the very clearest water this seems to be the equal of floro but has higher knot strength and is more uniform in size from one X to another.

I carry a range of sizes in both floro and Powerflex tippet and find myself using floro for more exacting situations and sticking with the Powerflex for almost everything else. No answer for the shortage of floro leaders-I don't own a single one.

Ive
 
#5 ·
I bought a couple spools of Berkley Vanish in the spring for chironomid fishing and it seemed to work pretty well. The only difference I have found is the diameter of the cheaper fluoro is significantly larger than that of the more expensive kind (Rio, Umpqua, etc.). I could only see it making a difference on a couple fisheries. When it comes down to it, the fish are going to take it if they are in the right mood.
 
#6 ·
No need for a floro leader, that's why they're hard to find. Floro tippit is indispensable on the other hand. The better quality(higher price) is smaller diameter for the same breaking strength. Unless I'm going stealth mode on some really selective fish, eight pound P-Line floro gets it done for me.
 
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#12 ·
For sinking flies, I tie many leaders with fluorocarbon tippets, and often the second section, with mono upper sections. For stillwater sinking leaders, I'd prefer to use all fluorocarbon. But the Orvis Mirage fluoro spools in my kit (circa 1997) are too kinky in the larger diameters; I can't straighten them by hand-stretching. Does anyone know of a brand of fluorocarbon that's fairly kink-free? (That quality is one of the most important parameters for leaders, but is seldom discussed.)
 
#13 ·
I'm with Lue. I fish stillwaters with mono tapered leader and use fl0uro for the tippet material... mind you I use abnormally long tippet material but I've never bought a flouro tapered leader because I see no need with my set up.

As far as kinking goes, I've actually found that the more expensive brands kink more than the less expensive brands. Climax flouro doesn't kink on me nearly as much as the more expensive stuff -- I don't know why.
 
#14 ·
I use Fluoroflex 1x for most of my streamer fishing, and might get 3x for stonefly nymphs or spring creek streamer fishing. I like that it really stays good for my next outing, no need to tie on fresh tippet.

@Swimmy my favorite bobber rig is a 4' butt of 20lb Amnesia to hold the bobber, a perfection loop at the end of that, and whatever length of tippet clinched onto that. It's simple and it gets my flies down with no expensive tapered leader to add unnecessary drag or buoyancy.
 
#17 ·
I've used them all, as others have said.

Ive trusted P-Line and Seagaur for years. The difference that I've found between those mentioned, and the higher priced ones, is smoothness of the line me itself.

The lower end has minor "bumbs" as you run your fingers over it, yet the spendier models are my h smoother.

What I found on the water was...nothing. Nothing as performance goes anyway.

Been fishing with Fluoro since the early 90's. Find 100℅ Fluoro, and where its distribution point, and you can determine which "lower end" lines are coming from -(usually sold in 250 yd rolls, in gear section) and save some serious coin.

You are welcome for the vast amounts of knowledge you just gained fr my post.

:D
 
#19 ·
Greg, the Metolius is my favorite river in Oregon and where I learned just about everything I know about flyfishing moving water. The Metolius is my grand instructor and I loved her dearly. However, as I primarily fished nymphs with a dropper, dead-drift system, the leader really didn't make that much difference. The folks who do the best on the Metolius use some manner of nymph system.

Compared to the blue ribbon rivers in other parts of the West, the Met is not really a dry fly river and while you can catch trout with dry flies but you'll catch many, many more with nymph patterns.

I don't believe that you need flouro for fishing moving water... unless you're after the added strength.
In moving water, fish must make up their mind very quickly and normally don't have a lot of time to inspect your tippet so I don't see the visibility factor as all that important when you're fishing rivers.

If you're having problems catching many trout with dry flies on the Metolius, the leader has nothing to do with it. Switching to flouro won't help. Switching to nymph fishing will.

I stopped fishing the Metolius when the population of Bend and Redmond went through the roof and the river became crowded. Nowadays I only fish stillwaters and for stillwaters, I believe flouro is required to catch more fish.
 
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