Garden State Trout

Some brands, mainly Orvis, have "expiration dates on their tippet spools. Does anyone follow these? Having done less fly fishing over the past few years I have a collection of a few older spools. I recently tied up some leaders and strength tested some knots and sections, it all held up fine.

I know mono of fluoro will break down from UV expose and probably excessive heat as well but given these have been stored inside, room temp and in the dark of a drawer or fishing vest pocket Im still going to use them. I start breaking off fish for no good reason or have failed knots then I will go buy more.

Tom

When I guided, this was a non-issue as I went through multiple spools of each size every year. But now I noticed some sizes go a year or two, and I replace those even if there is line left. I have also had bad tippet spools right out of the factory at least a few times, and those were also quickly tossed out and replaced.

If you've been storing it in a cool place and not in direct sunlight, you're probably ok. Also, it’s possible for abrasion (against a rock for example) or a weak knot to cause an older tippet to “break.” Hard to tell if it’s just the tippet or if something happened to it. Your best efforts are going to be only as good as your weakest point, so personally I wouldn't set up an otherwise nice rig with line that's too old--it might cost you landing a fish.

Tippet help up fine yesterday! I dont use anything smaller than 5x so I still have confidence in it.

I have never paid any attention to expiration dates and have never had a problem to the best of my knowledge. As far as I know most tippet manufacturers don’t even have expiration dates on their products.

Your knots will break alot more when your tippet is bad.