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Fish & Fly Knot Directory

Although there are many different knots used by anglers, there is a limited number of proven, basic knots. The following knots will cover most requirements from attaching your backing to the spool, or arbor, of your reel, attaching leaders to line, fly to leader and tying your own leaders.

• Attaching backing to reel - Arbor Knot.
• Attaching backing to fly line - Nail, Needle & Nail-less nail knots.
• Joining two lengths of leader material - Blood, Surgeon's Knot or Water and Double Grinner or Uni knots.
• Loops and loop to loop connection - Surgeon's Loop, Perfection Loop and <NEW> Loop to Loop connection.
• Tying on flies - Tucked Half Blood or Improved Clinch, Turle, Palomar, Double Turle, Trilene and Orvis knots.

Whichever knot or knots you use, all knots must be tied with care. It is all too easy to rush tying a knot, pull it up badly and find that it slips. Always moisten or lubricate knots in nylon before tightening them. Doing this reduces friction which creates heat and can damage the nylon, as well as helping to tighten a knot without kinking the material. Also different knots work better with some modern materials better than others. Trial and error is the only way to find the knots that suit you and the materials you use. Again, take extra care when using modern materials such as double strength nylon and fluorocarbons.

Virtually all knots should be trimmed so that there is no more than a millimetre or two of line or nylon sticking out from the knot.

It is always worth spending some time practising tying new knots before you have to tie them under pressure beside the water: trying to change a fly as the light is fading and fish are rising furiously. Finally, test all knots before using them in anger.

Terminology

Tag end: At the end of tying a knot, the tag end is left 'sticking out' and is trimmed short.

Standing end: This refers to the rest of the line, whether line or nylon on a reel or spool or a length of tippet material that has been cut-off a spool.

Attaching backing to reel
		Arbor Knot Use the Arbor Knot to attach the end of the backing to the arbor or spool of a reel.
Attaching backing to fly line
		Nail Knot This is a good knot to use to attach the end of the backing to the fly line. It can be tied with a nail or, more easily, with either a tube or a needle.
		Needle Knot This knot can be used to attach permanently a thick length of nylon to the end of the fly line, to which, in turn, the leader is attached.
		Nail-Less Nail Knot As no nail, tube or needle is required to tie this knot, it can be tied beside the water.
Joining two lengths of leader material
		Blood Knot A good knot for joining lengths of nylon, for example when making up leaders.
		Surgeon's Knot or Water Knot The surgeon's knot or water knot is a good knot for joining lengths of nylon or leader material and can be used for attaching a tippet to the end of a leader.
		Double Grinner or Uni Knot This is an excellent knot for joining two lengths of nylon because the two halves of the knot are tightened independently.
Loops and loop-to-loop connection
		Surgeon's Loop A very good knot for making a loop in the end of a length of nylon and is easy to tie. By tying a surgeon's loop on the ends of two lengths of nylon, they can then be joined using a loop-to-loop connection.
		Perfection Loop The main benefit of this knot is that the loop formed lies directly in line with the main line.
		Loop to Loop connection Also used to connect the looped-end of a leader to a braided loop attached permanently to the end of a fly line.
Tying on flies
		Tucked Half Blood Knot or Improved Clinch Knot This is one of a number of knots to use to attach a fly to the end of the tippet. The final tuck makes it a much more secure knot than the basic half blood knot.
		Turle Knot This knot is probably better with bigger flies where there is more room between the hackle or dressing and the eye.
		Palomar Knot Ranks alongside the Trilene knot as the strongest knot for attaching a fly to a tippet.
		Double Turle Knot This is an improved and more secure version of the simple turle knot.
		Trilene Knot This knot has the advantage that the tippet is passed twice through the eye of the hook which is known to improve dramatically the performance of most knots used to attach flies to tippets.
		Orvis Knot Another good knot but without quite the same degree of ultimate strength as the Trilene or Palomar knots.

Coming soon:

Duncan Loop
Pitzen knot

Many thanks to Tim Pegg of Thilmcraft Graphics for the knot illustrations. E-mail: thilm@paston.co.uk