Practice Tying These Knots Over the Holidays

Practice Tying These Knots Over the Holidays

No matter the temps outside, there’s always more to learn and practice in fly fishing! While you have some downtime, try testing yourself on the following fly fishing knots. How many do you already know? And which ones can you add to your toolkit? 


Clinch Knot

For most anglers, the clinch knot is one of the first knots to learn. But the fundamentals are critical. If you've started to get sloppy with your clinch knots over the years, this is a great refresher to help you back into a consistent rhythm.


Davy Knot

The Davy Knot is an efficient way to connect your fly to your tippet. The Davy knot is meant to be a quicker alternative to the clinch knot and is great for small flies because of its small profile.


Double Surgeon’s Knot

The Surgeon's Knot is one that every angler should know. It can be used to attach tippet to leader material, tie in dropper tags for nymph rigs, and even help build custom tapered leaders.


Perfection Loop

The perfection loop can serve at least a couple of useful purposes for anglers. First, it’s a great loop knot to tie on a streamer or a pattern that needs a little extra movement in the water. Second, it can be used to create a loop at the end of your tapered leader or fly line in a pinch, for making that loop-to-loop connection. Check out both videos to see the perfection loop both ways. 



Albright Knot

The Albright knot is useful for connecting two lines of varying diameters. Here at Anglers All, we use this knot daily to connect backing to fly lines on light tackle reels. But you can use this knot anytime your connecting lines that are very different in diameter, like building wire leaders for pike, adding shock tippet to a tarpon leader, or repurposing old leaders.


Figure 8 Loop Knot

The figure-8 loop knot is the one to use whenever you need to attach a fly using very stiff or heavy leader material. We will often use this knot when tying on tarpon flies and in other big game situations. 


 Bimini Twist

The Bimini twist is used to attach the fly line to backing on a reel with a loop-to-loop connection. This is a great knot to use on those bigger setups (6-weight and up) where changing fly lines is a frequent occurrence. Not only does the loop connection make it easy to swap out fly lines, it’s a very strong, shock-absorbing knot for those fish that will take you into your backing. Also, be sure and watch the follow up video to see how to use the Bimini twist to create a proper loop connection to your fly line. 



Blood Knot

The blood knot is a great solution for attaching leader to tippet. Not only is the blood knot very strong, but it’s also slim and streamlined in the water. While you’re at it, take a few minutes to practice the improved blood knot as well. The improved blood knot has the same benefits as the original, but is used for attaching two materials with very different diameters. 



Contact Us With Questions

If you have questions about knots or rigging, please don’t hesitate to ask! We are here to help. If you’re in the Denver area or along the Front Range, stop by and see us at the fly shop in Littleton. Otherwise, give us a call at 303-794-1104.