Fishing Q&A
Fly fishing knots.?
What are the best knots to use to tie a fluocarbon tippet to the leader and a fluocarbon tippet to my fly? Preferably 100% strength knot that won’t allow the fluocarbon to cut into itself.
Public Comments
- Eric, Excellent question and an important one since fluorocarbon is such a good product to use for fishing. The knot I use to tie my fly onto the fluorocarbon tippet is the Turle knot. You can see one example of that knot at: http://www.internationalflytyer.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=283&an=0&page=0#Post283 However, it is not as complicated as the photos make it out to be. Trying to find a web site that explains it like they should is difficult. Since the Turle knot is a little hard to explain, there are other choices of knots that work really well when tying the tippet to the fly. One is the Orvis Knot (not the Orvis Tippet Knot) but the Orvis Knot. If you link to the Orvis Knot page and click on the Orvis Knot, located way to the right side of the page, then you can click on the steps and see how this knot is tied. Another variation of the Turle or Orvis knot is the Davy's Knot and I suggest this is the one you learn. Bill Nash wrote a booklet and DVD set on tying knots and he strongly recommends the Davy's Knot as a 100% knot for fluorocarbon. It is so easy and similar to the Turle Knot that I will most likely start using it from now on. To watch a video on this knot go to: http://www.itinerantangler.com/podcasts/2006/02/video_archive_how_to_tie_the_d.html And you can go to the below site for another way to tie the Davy knot. http://utahoutdoors.com/pages/Davyknot.htm By the way, this knot or the Turle or Orvis knots should be the only knots you use to tie the tippet to the fly, even with mono. The only requirement is that when you tighten the tag end you make sure it is good and tight. Another knot that Bill Nash says is a 100% knot for fluorocarbon is the Harvey Dry Fly Knot: http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/lkknots/index4.html For a video of that knot go to: http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/jb4knots/ Yet another choice for a 100% knot would be the Palomar knot: http://www.fish4fun.com/palomarknot.htm That just about lists all of the 100% knots for tippet to fly. For the fluorocarbon tippet to mono leader, there really is no decent 100% knot. I tie a triple surgeons knot using an Orvis Cinch Tie Tool, or you can use the Cabela's version of that tool, their Cinch Knot Brass Tyer. When winding the tool around the loop I wind it three times. So far that knot has been working very well for me. Orvis: http://www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=4471&dir_id=758&group_id=792&cat_id=7894&subcat_id=6021&feature_id=17 Cabelas: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0001323312797a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=cinch+knot+tool&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=cinch+knot+tool&noImage=0 But if you don't have one of those then you can tie a double surgeons knot, where is is looped 4 times, but that is only 85% strength. Use this link to see the Double Surgeons knot but remember to wrap a total of 4 times, two on each side, not just two times: http://www.flyfishingjacksonhole.com/library/surgeon_knot-dbl.htm Another site: http://www.flymartonline.com/modules.php?file=article&name=News&sid=211 The Double Eight knot is also only an 85% knot. That is a knot used by climbers, but works well on leaders. One advantage about fluorocarbon, is you can increase the size of the tippet by one size, like use a 5X rather than a 6X. That means that if you tie an 85% knot, it is like tying a 100% knot in the smaller size. If you need to tie a loop then I would suggest the Perfection Loop. Hope this answers your question. Larry
- Here is a web page with animated instructions on how to tie various knots. Just under the chart with all the knots he describes there is a diagram for fly line and it tells what knots to use in tying the backing to the reel all the way out to tying the fly to the tippet. http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com
- You can get pretty fancy here with your knots but wht bother. The tippet to leader should be a blood knot, the tippet to fly should be a simple yet effective improved clinch knot, thats the only two knots you will need for fly fishing. I highly recomend using a flyline and a leader with a looped end for easy and fast chainging of leaders.
- I like the surgeons knot for tying 2 lines of differend diameters and the bloodknot for lines of similar diameters heres a good link to see alot of different knots in action it is very informative http://www.animatedknots.com/
