Best knots
Question:
This is my first season flyfishing — streams and small rivers in New Jersey. The other day I tried using some 7x tippet material and ended up losing two flies when they snagged on something during my cast (or retrieve) and the knots slipped. I haven’t had this problem with 4x and 5x. So now I’m wondering what knots to use when tying the fly to a very fine tippet and would be grateful for any suggestions. Dave
Response:
Dave, I use the improved clinch knot to tie my fly to the leader. It shouldn’t make any difference if your leader material is 4X or 7X except that you can break the 7X much easier. When you tie a knot moisten it before tightening and use a firm steady pull. Ernie Harrison Like to make fly-fishing stuff? See: http://users.ccnet.com/~emh/ – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is my first season flyfishing — streams and small rivers in New Jersey. The other day I tried using some 7x tippet material and ended up losing two flies when they snagged on something during my cast (or retrieve) and the knots slipped. I haven’t had this problem with 4x and 5x. So now I’m wondering what knots to use when tying the fly to a very fine tippet and would be grateful for any suggestions. Dave
Response:
When you tie a knot moisten it before tightening and use a firm steady pull.
…and remember that saliva lubricates better than water.
Response:
Hi Dave, Besides lubricating the knot you also want to be sure you tighten the knot very slowly. If you tighten it too fast the heat that is generated will weaken the knot. -Greg – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is my first season flyfishing — streams and small rivers in New Jersey. The other day I tried using some 7x tippet material and ended up losing two flies when they snagged on something during my cast (or retrieve) and the knots slipped. I haven’t had this problem with 4x and 5x. So now I’m wondering what knots to use when tying the fly to a very fine tippet and would be grateful for any suggestions. Dave
Response:
Hi Dave, Besides lubricating the knot you also want to be sure you tighten the knot very slowly. If you tighten it too fast the heat that is generated will weaken the knot. -Greg
Remember to test the knot after you tie it, and check it again after every fish and every snag. (Do as I say, not as I do.) If you get a wind knot in the tippet replace it. I don’t think there’s anything more aggravating than losing a nice fish (and maybe your last effective fly) because of knot failure. — something bogus to avoid spam)
Response:
Dave, I use the improved clinch knot to tie my fly to the leader. It shouldn’t make any difference if your leader material is 4X or 7X except that you can break the 7X much easier. When you tie a knot moisten it before tightening and use a firm steady pull.
otoh…I use a simple 6-turn clinch knot for 5X and 6X tippet, and a simple 5-turn for 7X and the dreaded 8X tippet. Spit-lube, always; test the knot, always – and re-tie if suspect. Moreover, I also carefully run the last three or four segments of the leader after each fish is landed (especially if I have only one BHGRW ;^) and replace any segment that has been chafed or nicked (run the works between your lips and you can detect the smallest injuries to the line). I truly cannot remember the last time I lost a fish or a fly because of a problem with a knot or the failure of a leader. Not a brag – but to demonstrate that such obsessive/compulsive behavior isn’t always A Bad Thing – I landed nearly three dozen fish including some 20+ inch salmon with that one fly and a trailing midge larva a couple of weeks ago (though I went through nearly an entire spool of 6X tippet doing it)… I found long ago that – at least with my two favorite tippet materials in the sizes mentioned above and in consideration of the wire diameter found on the hooks used with those small size tippets – an improved clinch does not "improve" the knot and in fact puts the knot at an unnecessary risk of being "burned". For larger hook and line sizes (and especially the sizes I use when salt water fishing) I have found it necessary to use the improved clinch… /daytripper
Response:
Remember to test the knot after you tie it, and check it again after every fish and every snag. (Do as I say, not as I do.) If you get a wind knot in the tippet replace it. I don’t think there’s anything more aggravating than losing a nice fish (and maybe your last effective fly) because of knot failure.
Amen to that, I had a rather large fish that decided to untie one of my blood knots the night before last. I never got to see him and all he left me with was the twisted end of my leader. Pulled like hell, though I caught a truck! SS
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is my first season flyfishing — streams and small rivers in New Jersey. The other day I tried using some 7x tippet material and ended up losing two flies when they snagged on something during my cast (or retrieve) and the knots slipped. I haven’t had this problem with 4x and 5x. So now I’m wondering what knots to use when tying the fly to a very fine tippet and would be grateful for any suggestions. Dave
Hi All, Here is some info that might help. After many years of looking at sell through numbers I know that 3x through 6x are the top selling sizes of tippet materials, so in many cases 7x and especially 8x can sell so slow that it might be very old. We carry 3 brands of tippet now instead of 7 so it turns faster and is fresher. I end up throwing away a few dozen 7x and 8x spools at the beginning of every season. We code our tages with the date we receive it and when we stock it, we put the new on the back of the peg. This way it doesn’t sit on the shelf for years. Another point might be to fish a soft #3, #4 or #5 line rod at the largest with these light tippets so you don’t break off fish so easily. I also like racket drag (click and pawl) reels for lighter tippets. I would tie up your leader with a fly on and pull test them with a light spring scale to see how you are doing before you go fishing. We have a special, very expenive, Chatilion line testing machine and when I am not working, my staff gets it out and pull test every combination of knot and tippet you can imagine. I just ask them what they are using if I want to know what is the best thing going. (Today they are mostly all using Rio FC and in 6 months they will be using something different) Besides having fresh mono and carefully tieing good knots, I would take a tapered leader to 5x, then add 6" of 6x tippet for a transition section, then 3′ of 7x tippet. Another thing you might want to know is that they don’t always get 7x or the 7x spool or 3x on 3x spools. You might want to ‘mic’ your tippet to be sure it is the diameter it is suppose to be. I don’t have all the right answers, but this is some of the stuff I have learned from selling fly fish tackle for 34 years and being around some real good anglers. I learned a lot from some real good fly fisherman and I am learning something new every day. Once you think you have all the right or best answers, you are a ‘goner’. I am ready to be shown a new or better way to do anything and if you are not, you are all done.
Response:
We have a special, very expenive, Chatilion line testing machine and when I am not working, my staff gets it out and pull test every combination of knot and tippet you can imagine. I just ask them what they are using if I want to know what is the best thing going. (Today they are mostly all using Rio FC and in 6 months they will be using something different)
(much snipped) That’s interesting Bill. It has always surprised me how little testing seems to be done by the tackle trade. You would have thought that the big monofil manufacturers would have done all this stuff for us years ago, so that we had the definitive last word on best knots for various duties; relative knot strengths, etc., etc. There were some interesting articles published in the leading UK magazine Trout & Salmon’ recently. Two keen anglers (one a PhD scientist) did some interesting tests on monofils and knots, but these were about the only scientifically conducted tests I can recall having seen. I find that a lot of the published knot literature offers conflicting advice and doesn’t seem to be based on any rigorous science. Tight Lines, Tony Deacon
Response:
Here is some info that might help.
(all the good stuff snipped) As usual, very informative, Bill. Mark faulkner
Response:
Related Posts
- How Do You Figure Stops for Traffic in Timekeeping?
- Trichotillomania (TTM) anyone?
- Yesssss.......... my "book" LOL
- The dominoes are beginning to fall..
- and now (spoilers)
- 3 years now
- I can't belive I did this - funny!!!
- ok, here goes...;)
- LORD VALVE LORD VALVE LORD VALVE LORD VALVE LORD VALVE LORD VALVE LORD VALVE LORD VALVE
- Ginger beer experiment (newbie problems)
