It’s hard to imagine how you could improve something as simple as a tippet spool but the geniuses over at Scientific Anglers have done just that. They’ve added a built in line cutter, a rotating hub that allows the spools to rotate freely (which will work very nicely with my DIY tippet spool holder system), and UV inhibitors that prevent the tippet from degrading in sunlight.
The color-coded spools are available in freshwater mono, fluorocarbon, and saltwater hard mono and unique interlocking system. You’d think with all of these extra features, they’d jack up the price. On the contrary, the price is the same as I pay for Rio Powerflex (a mere $5 for the freshwater mono) for a generous 32 yards!
They’ve even decked out the spools with waterproof labels to prevent peeling so you’ll never have to guess if that old spool in the bottom of your gear bag is 5x or 6x. These spools are so well designed, it’s hard to consider them disposable. In fact, I might end up reusing them by respooling them once they’re empty. Well done Scientific Anglers!
Incredible! Honestly the water proof labels are going to be a huge help for me because I’ve dropped every single spool I have in the water at least a couple zillion times. Can’t wait to get a few of these
Nice packaging. Do you happen to know the # strength per X rating for them? I’ve been using Rio for years because it seems to be a tad bit stronger than most of the competition and it holds knots well. However, the extra strength to X rating is seldom ever warranted or needed.
JD
JD, the test is listed here (for the freshwater mono): http://buy.scientificanglers.com/tippet/freshwater-tippet.html The 5x is 4.8 lb. test compared to Rio Powerflex which is 5.0 lb. test in 5x. Not enough of a difference for me to be concerned. Tenkara rods provide so much tippet protection already that I don’t think 0.2 lbs. would be noticed.
Agreed, tenkara rods a so forgiving that 0.2 lb on a 5X is not enough to make much difference. However the Rio 6X (my standard) is rated at 3.4 lb which is 0.4 lb stronger than most of the competition and that is a significant increase to warrant it’s use above another. I just checked the link you put up and it shows SA 6X to have a breaking strength of 3.7 lb this could make it my new standard. Thanks for the link Jason.
JD
They are cool, but to me it just seems like they are putting together things other people have already done. Rio has color coded spools, interlocking hub joint, UV shield, and tippet retainer band with identification. Loon has the cutter built into the band. Even though the SA tippet has 9% more material it is 15% more expensive than rio powerflex and that extra strength of the rio line may be the difference on that big fish.
Now if they would only tie themselves…
not so much re-inventing the wheel as replicating what their competitors do to try to finally be competitive with Rio, Frogg hair, seagar etc etc etc.
For example:
(1) SA was always lower breaking strain than Rio powerflex or fluoroflex plus (my preferred choice – twice the costof mono or copolymer, but the cost is small by comparison to the cost of gear and petrol etc), I switched from SA in the 80’s and haven’t looked back – I still prefer SA flylines, but leaders and tippet, nada.
(2) Rio has been doing this for over a decade, except for an embedded cutting tool, which I don’t need either, happy with teeth, clippers, or combined forceps (preferred choice).
(3) how many spools do you need for tenkara anyway? the locking spools is handy but should be done anyway, and for tenkara, not as relevant. I normally just fish with the one spool, I select the tippet size based on river and time of year (5X for early season or winter, 6x mostly, 7x or 8x for high summer and pressured rivers, etc).
In other words, SA has only (almost) matched what its competitors have been doing for decades. thanks, but I don’t see a need to change.
BTW, I buy my tippet from Rio in 100yd guide spools – same spool, just three times the amount, and cheaper.
AND, I prefer a black RIO spool so I don’t have bright colours hanging off my chest (lanyard) waving around to flag my presence to the fish,
AND, to serve the above objective, the first thing I do with a tippet spool is rip the label off (leaves a plain black spool for a Rio) – RIO put the material details on the elastic band – so don’t care about waterproofing a label or brightly coloured labels.
good on them for finally competing, but not earth shattering.
I’m late to the party but thanks for the links and review. I found another one here:
http://www.tackletour.com/previewscientificanglerstippet.html
(no affiliation)
I just ordered 5x, 6x and 7x in both freshwater and fluoro, since I needed tippet anyway and why settle for less than the best?
This is a no brainer – all the right features combined to make a perfect spool.
As for the cutter, why wouldn’t you want this? Instead of grabbing a separate tool, just pull and cut, one handed.
Great job 3M.