Tip-Top
From The Angler's Dictionary — your encyclopedia of fishing rods, reels, and tackle
The tip-top is the guide mounted at the very end of a fishing rod — the last ring the line passes through before reaching your lure. Unlike other guides that are wrapped to the blank with thread, the tip-top slides onto the rod tip and is secured with heat-activated adhesive or a hot-melt glue stick. This makes it the easiest guide to replace if damaged.
The tip-top serves a critical role: it is the point of maximum flex during a fish fight and experiences the most line contact during casting. A damaged or missing tip-top will fray your line at the contact point and dramatically reduce casting distance. Replacing a tip-top requires matching the tube diameter to your rod tip, heating the old adhesive with a lighter or heat gun, sliding off the damaged top, applying fresh adhesive, and pressing the new tip-top on straight.
Tip-top kits containing multiple sizes are inexpensive and available at most tackle shops, making this one of the simplest field repairs an angler can perform. Keep one in your tackle box — a cracked tip-top insert can cost you a fish, but replacing it takes less than five minutes.