After fishing with Chad a week or so back and noticed he was using the new Dai Riki tippet material and spools, I thought I'd give it a shot. I must say that not only is the tippet great stuff, the design of the tippet spool is one of fantastic. I want to fish the new material for a while and decide whether to replace my old Rio products, but the tippet holder itself, might be worth the price of use...

Don't change until you've tried Enrico Puglisi's PowerFull tippet. It's stronger than anything on the market (6X is rated at 4.4#), supple, has good knot strength, very low twist and shine. I've been using it in 4X through 7X for seven years, and haven't found anything its equal.

EP

Eric, I may have been bit by the flouro carbon bug, and wonder (since I have not seen the Power Full in flouro. Your thoughts on Flouro vs. Power Full and fishing needed to be hunted with Flouro?

I cannot comment on fluorocarbon tippets because I've never used them, and honestly have never seen the need. I'm a notorious cheapskate, and I don't fish subsurface much, so those factors undoubtedly influence my opinion and preferences.

I have a "feel good" thing with the PowerFull simply because I don't even think twice about horsing a big fish on it -- even in fine diamters. I've very seldom had it fail on me, and when it has, I think it was probably because I kept it on the tippet holder (in the sun) too long.

EP

I've been using the new Dai Riki tippet and holders in 3-6X since last summer.
Paul you're right the spool by itself is worth the price of admission,I haven't noticed any problems with the tippet itself either.It seems to have decent abrasion resistance,holds a knot well,low visibility on the water and a good breaking strength so there may be better products out there but I like the Dai Riki and will keep using it until I try something I like better.

I've been using Dai Riki tippet off and on for nearly 20 years now. The old flat spools with the spring line holder got me going on it, and even today, I'm still using the same tippet spools that I bought back in the '80's. It doesn't matter what brand of tippet I use today, I still hold and dispense it from my old Dai Riki spools.

I don't know about the EP leader and tippet material, but I know the current Dai Riki is very good.

Mark

Can anyone compare the Dai-Riki and EP vs Rio tippet?

I liked the Rio because it had pretty good strength, but I don't know if it's as strong as the EP at the same tippet size.

I have been using flouro a lot this year but for the life of me, some days tying a knot in that stuff is like trying shampoo a cat with the vacuum cleaner on.

I used the Rio tippet a few years back, before switching to the Dai Riki tippet and I dont know if was a bad batch that I bought, but every time I hooked a fish the tippet would snap off. I had like 3 different sizes. 3x, 4x and 5x. I got so fustrated that I ended tossing the stuff and started using orvis until I discovered the dai riki dynamic stuff and I still live by the dynamic stuff. Its great material. Dont know much about the EP brand. But I suggest giving dai riki a shot.

I used the Puglisi PowerFull all last summer. I discovered that carrying the spools on a "holder" attached to the vest is not a good idea. I got "UV rot" real bad on four spools. Ended up replacing the 4X - 7X spools that were on the holder, and tippet will reside in inside pockets of the vest from now on. I thought for a while I had a bad batch of tippet, but it was "my stupid." I had no trouble and nothing but praise for the fresh material I used from mid-July through September.

EP

My experience is that any brand of mono will exhibit uv rot, if left in direct sunlight for any length of time.

As for dai-riki, rio, ep, I don't have any experience with ep, but I do with the others. It seems like a toss up, and I use both interchangeably. In fact I will often have both brands on the same leader at the same time. I'm not picky about that.

Mark

Yup. I'm aware of that. Primary reason I like the PowerFull is that it is about 1# stronger than any of the others in the fine diameters.

Eric