Which knot do you use?

[lucfish]

My guide buddy uses the blood knot and his knots NEVER fail, the light wire hooks straighten first. If it's good enough for a guy who makes a living fishing, it's good enough for me.

[Papasequoia]

I was just thinking the other day about my choice in tippet knots and I almost always go for a blood knot. I like the streamlined look of them and how I can get tag ends that come off perpendicular to my running line.

You will have to show me your trick for tying that knot next time we meet. I find it an incredibly difficult knot to tie in small diameter tippet (5x) - it's easy to tie with two ropes or strings when practicing and maddening when trying to do it with slippery tippet, for me anyway. Thus, I use the extremely simple and sufficiently strong (imho) surgeon's knot for all of my leader to tippet, tippet to tippet knots.

However, there is one scenario where knowing the blood would be very helpful for me and that is on the (relatively rare) occasions when the line breaks above the flies and knots and I just want to retie the tippet material that has the split shot and flies to the remainder of the tippet or leader material. Tying the surgeon's and trying to feed those flies and split shot through the loop is no easy task.

[NorcalBob]

My most used knot for attaching tippet to tippet is a double surgeons knot.

[Rob909]

I don't even remember where I picked this up, but it was quick and easy, and it's all I use now.

I guess people call it the "Orvis Tippet Knot". I tie it with my hemostats and it is super quick.

Rob

[Rasputinj]

I don't even remember where I picked this up, but it was quick and easy, and it's all I use now.

I guess people call it the "Orvis Tippet Knot". I tie it with my hemostats and it is super quick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8BV3ZeaoE


Rob

Thanks I will have to try it, looks very easy

[rkfiske]

Jon - I am okay at tying blood knots but I find that they're tricky unless you tie them frequently. When I used to build my own leaders, I got pretty good at doing them. There's some muscle memory included in how you hold the end that is twisted together. It's definitely not something I can describe online but the next time we fish together, remind me and I'll show you how I do them.

One thing I noticed that I prefer about blood knots is that I can tie them while my tippet or line is still on the spool, I don't have to clip off a section to pass it through a loop the way you need to when tying a surgeon's knot (unless I'm missing a trick to doing that).

After fishing again for the first time since summer this past weekend, I realized I'm still pretty confident in my blood knots and lost more fish to clinch knots failing at the fly as opposed to the blood knots I was tying. Perhaps since I was going a bit slower and tying the knots more deliberately it helped.

[flybob]

Double Surgeon......it is quick and easy, and I have had one yet to fail on me!

As a side note, I used to ignore wind knots, until I lost a big bass with one!
I am now a believer that the line strength is reduced by 50%!
Now, as soon as I see one, I replace the tippet!

[gabe]

double surgeon loop. fast, easy, and effective. use it to make my leaders for everything but dry flies.

[fly addict]

Double Surgeon......it is quick and easy, and I have had one yet to fail on me!

As a side note, I used to ignore wind knots, until I lost a big bass with one!
I am now a believer that the line strength is reduced by 50%!
Now, as soon as I see one, I replace the tippet!

Been there done that. We should call them for what really caused them, tailing loop knots. Fly fisherman are so vane, Bobbers are indicators, tailing loops are wind knots, we drink micro brews instead of Bud Light in a can, and we smoke cigars or E-cigs rather than cigarettes. We would rather eat at a Sushi Bar than at MacDonald’s. I guess that is why I like fly fishing so much.

[darrin terry]

I don't know Mark. I call them wind knots just because that's what they're called. Indicators or bobbers. I gave up cigarettes 5 years before I started with cigars and pipes. I gave those up 13 years ago. Never tried e-cigs/vaping. McDonald's over sushi, every time. Unless there's something better, like cheese and ham wrapped in a tortilla creekside. I flyfish because it seemed a greater challenge. It was. Is. The rest, meh. * it. Except beer, craft brews, microbrews, Coors. Not Bud. Except that Bud light can that tried to float by me down the Kings about 5 years ago. The fishing gods obviously demanded that I make a sacrifice by drinking it. I did so. Two casts later I caught a 22-23 inch trout. I'll take that trade off.

[Ironmachin]

Since a Surgeon's know is two turns, does that mean when people refer to the knot as "double" and "triple" mean four and six turns?

[darrin terry]

A double surgeons knot is an overhand knot with an additional turn, a triple has one more turn. A double is usually considered very weak. A triple is far more reliable.

[briansII]

Since a Surgeon's know is two turns, does that mean when people refer to the knot as "double" and "triple" mean four and six turns?

Depending on who you ask, a double is 2, or 4 turns. A triple is 3 or 6. Both sides claim being correct, but there is only one right answer.

I'm in the 4 & 6 turn camp.

briansII

[midger]

Since a Surgeon's know is two turns, does that mean when people refer to the knot as "double" and "triple" mean four and six turns?

Depending on who you ask, a double is 2, or 4 turns. A triple is 3 or 6. Both sides claim being correct, but there is only one right answer.

I'm in the 4 & 6 turn camp.

briansII

Frankly I've never had any knot strength problems with the double turn surgeon's knot because of weakness and it's held under pulls from some pretty large fish. I do use the triple (for me that's 3 turns) on the smaller tippet sizes (5X and smaller). Generally if the tippet breaks it's my fault for horsing the fish--not the knot's fault. ymmv