Abel Nipper Review WCA Guide Tested: Every season, new fly fishing gear and tackle floods fly shops and the online world hoping to grasp the attention of anglers and customers. As a fly shop owner, we recognize it’s hard to differentiate between the plethora of angling gear choices. So, we put the gear in the hands of those that demand the most and the best, our WCA Fly Fishing Guides. We picked our top new products in the WCA Fly Shop for the 2016 Fishing Season. We placed those items in the hands of our guides to wear, use, cast, fish, abuse and enjoy! Simply put, it’s gear that is WCA Guide Tested. Beginning his 6th season at WorldCast Anglers, George can do it all. After a couple days on the water with his Abel Nippers, he has formally announced his is with cheap nippers.
“I had held off procuring a set of high end nippers, wondering if they could possibly be worth the extra dough, and my feeling now is that I regret having waited so long. I have a very bad habit of biting tippet with my four front teeth, especially in diameters smaller than 3x. Having a beefy, sharp, and attractive set of blades hanging around my neck to take care of that job has been an excellent addition to my program. Given the current fishing situation where 1x and 2x tippet diameters are the name of the game, getting a good clean cut on the end of the line when splicing line and tying loop knots is a must.
For the last few years my primary line cutting device has been the scissor clamp, which has been solid, though I’ve noticed that by dedicating these Abel nippers for the job, the game has been improved. First off, I keep them hanging around my neck but tucked into my shirt all day long. They are always there when I need them, whereas with the multi-functional scissor-clamp I am always misplacing them as they primarily serve me by extracting hooks from fishes mouths, which is at times a heated and exciting affair. When I cannot immediately find my nippers, I bite the tippet, and now I have a notch in one of my finest teeth.
The Abel nippers have surpassed my expectations and can now be found next to my favorite sunglasses every morning as I consider them one of my few mandatory pieces of gear for the day. My dentist is out of luck for a little while, as these nippers are going to prolong the life of a few of my favorite teeth, as well as help me get that 5x tippet thru the eye of a few hooks that much faster.”
