Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Best knot for tying fly to tippet?

What is the best knot for tying a fly with turned down or turned up eye to a tippet? Is it the same knot for light lines, say four pound test and under, and for heavier lines? For light lines and smallish trout, I keep going back to my old standby which is what I call a figure eight Turle knot. I have doubts about its strength, doubts that have increased in recent days when I've been fishing some big rainbows in a private lake. I'm looking for a knot that has three features:
1. easy to tie correctly with cold fingers in dim light,
2. pulls the fly straight in the water (which eliminates clinch type knots for turned or bent down hook eyes)
3. is strong enough to retain most of the line strength.

Last evening I donated another big steelhead fly to a massive rainbow's mouth. Thought I had snagged bottom for a second or two. Good fly: black marabou leech of sorts with a few red mylar foil strips trailing back from a fuzzy black body with a fluffy front puff behind a brass bead head. About an 0 or maybe 1/0 long shanked hook. The big hook keeps the small trout off through they nip at the tail a bit.

In a few days I'm heading away from e-mail for about a month so will monitor your expertise for a few days and check again on my return.

There is a great easy to tie, compact knot illustrated in "Midge Magic" by Don Holbrook and Ed Koch. It's the best I've used, doesn't seem to matter what size line from 7X to heavy tippets. I don't know if it meets your requirements for non-clinch type knots. I use it on everything, no matter the hook size. The knot can be tied by "feel" in dim light.

okanagan: I've been using the same loop knot for everything from chironomids to salmon flies. It seems to have excellent knot strength and once you learn to tie it correctly leaves a tiny loop around the hook wire that allows the fly action with the river current or hand retrieve or to dangle straight down on a dead slow retrieve as in chironomid fishing. Not sure if it has a name or not.

Hard to describe but I'll give it a try.

1. Form a loop in the last three inches with an overhand knot (like starting to tie your shoes). Tie this loop so the tag end of the leader emerges from the top side of the overhand knot you've formed.
2. Reduce the overhand knot loop to about 1/4 inch diameter. It helps to hold the loop firmly in your left thumb and index finger by the edge the wrap over is on from this point on.
3. Run the tag end through the eye of the hook.
4. Feed the tag end up through the loop from the bottom side. This should be the opposite to the side the tag first emerged from the original overhand knot.
5. With the tag coming out the top side (from the bottom) of your loop cross the line under (don't go across and over the standing end) the standing end of the leader and make two wraps around the standing end similar to two wraps of a partial clinch knot.
6. Feed the tag end back down through the loop. It should be going out on the same path that it originally entered the loop in step 4 but in the opposite direction.
7. Reduce the size of the knot and the loop by holding the tag end in one hand and the standing end in the other. Shake it gently applying light tension until you end up with a small loop and knot close to the hook. Moisten and cinch by holding the hook and pulling the tag end.


It won't be that easy to tie in bad light but it is strong and presents most flies very effectively. I carry a little clip on pen light to stick on my hat brim for bad light conditions.

Here ya go....... http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/jb4knots/index.html
.....Boots

stocker, that's a dandy knot, a keeper I'll use. It looks like it would be really good for plugs, jigs and lures that you want to wiggle freely. It's not what I had in mind for a fly because I wanted something that has a straight pull through the eye, in line with the hook shank.

Bootsfishing, the George Harvey dry fly knot looks ideal. I spent about 15 minutes trying to get the video to run that shows how to tie it and haven't gotten the video to work yet. I tried to tie a knot that looked like the finished one and came up with a very simple, strong knot that looks the same. When I see the real George Harvey it will be fun to see if I duplicated it. Thank you, both.

I had an odd experience this evening. About 9:45 I was fishing in the dusk when a Canada goose coming in to land just missed me and hit my flyrod. It came coasting down from behind me with some loud last second braking flaps just off my left shoulder, and hit my flyrod that was extended over the water in front of me. Startled both of us. There are some lights across the water and it may have been blinded as it landed straight into the lights and the reflected glare.

Okanagan;
Actually, I use it on dry flies too. Unlike the loop knot pictured in the attachment I fuss with my loop until it is only about 1/10 to 1/8th inch in diameter. Just slightly larger than the hook wire. For presenting chironomids it is the real deal as the hook will always hang straight down. Grease lining steelhead flies with this knot lets the fly allign easily with each change of current flow. Come to think of it it's the only hook attachment knot I use anymore for any fly.


Tight lines.

Okanagan, you feed the line down into the eye, towards the barb;
bring the tag back up and make two, back to back, over the line loops;
then wrap the tag end, two - five times, around the outside edge of both loops; pull the line until tight and then pull the tag until tight, trim tag....hope that is understandable......Boots

I like the Palomar knot for strength. I use the non-slip "Lefty Kreh" Loop for my steamers to give them action.

We sit in the brush with a shotgun, camo and decoys and the geese won't come within a mile. Trade the shotgun for a flyrod and the stupid things land right in your lap! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

C&B

What comet said!
Except for my pike flies, then i use a round turn and a half hitch with a "twist and melt" system if I am using wire, but then only if i am fishing in reAL BIG FISH country ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Catnthehat

It's been nearly a year since we started this post. FYI update: the George Harvey knot is my standard for bent eye flies now. Great knot, quick, easy to tie once mastered, seems strong though haven't tried it on big fish yet. Thanks.

It will work fine as long as there is not alot a material near the hook eye...it won't work on some dries.......Boots