Breaking a shock tippet

I went to the river to cast a popper at those tailor again this evening.

For a half hour, I was casting the popper but I had no strike. The tide was much higher than our last session on the weekend, and I didn't see much of the surface activity today.

So, I switched the popper to a streamer thinking fish were staying deep. The hit then came suddenly but fish bit off 15lb shock tippet. It was a clean cut as if it was being snipped by a pair of sharp scissors. I was thinking 15 lb would be heavy enough, so I was surprised to loose the fish like that.



I tied another tippet. 15lb again as it was the heaviest that I had. I didn't want to loose a brand new fly again though, so I decided to recycle my deer hair popper as a streamer instead.

The fly had already lost its left eye and some hairs after being attacked by those choppers on the weekend, so I was happy to sacrifice that to the fish. To make sure the fly to go deep, I put a bit of tungsten putty on the tippet.

Anyway, I thought, having such a big head, the fly should push more water which might attract attention from the chopper. It was pain to cast with #4 rod, but the rig eventually worked. The fish was on, and the tippet held this time.