The fish were rising, and I was wasting time. Small beads of perspiration appeared beneath the brim of my hat. I’m not ready for reading glasses, I said to myself. I’m not going to be that dude with three inextricably intertwined lanyards attached to my sun hat, my reading glasses, and my Maui Jims. I’ve never been good at macramé. Two options presented themselves: Drink a quart of carrot juice a day for visual acuity or get some tippet rings. As I’m unlikely to replace my caffeine addiction with a juiced alternative, tippet rings it is.
My first foray into tippet rings was marked by most, if not all, of the usual errors. Why read directions when you can get it wrong all by yourself? I started by trying to remove just one tippet ring from the safety clip. I succeeded in dumping several tippet rings on the floor, where, I assume, they still lie. If only I’d watched Simon Gawesworth’s video on tippet rings, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.
When I smartened up, I removed the tippet section—approximately two-and-a-half to three feet—from the end of a brand new 12-Foot 5X RIO Powerflex Plus Trout Leader (http://www.rioproducts.com/fishing-leaders/freshwater/powerflex-plus-leader-2-pack/). I then tied the shortened leader to the tippet ring located closest to the opening of the safety clip, securing it to the tippet ring with a clinch knot. I removed the tippet ring from the clip (closing it carefully to avoid my previous mistake) and tied a three-foot length of RIO’s new 5X Powerflex Plus Tippet (http://www.rioproducts.com/tippet/freshwater/powerflex-plus-tippet/) directly to the tippet ring with another clinch knot. Voilà ! I now had a 12-foot, 5X leader with a tippet ring securing the tippet to the remaining portion of the leader.