It’s safe to say that there’s no such thing as a ‘wind’ knot. Blaming the wind for the knots found in your leader is nothing more than excuse for a few common casting flaws. Nonetheless, knots find their way into the leaders of even the best casters from time to time, so to protect our ego, we…
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knots
The Becker (Orvis) Knot
For most fishing situations, our knot of choice is the non-slip mono loop knot. We use it to attach flies to tippet for everything from trout, to bonefish, to king salmon. It’s strong, dependable, and allows for good action on the fly. However, the non-slip mono loop can be a bit bulky and sometimes a…
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Gluing Knots for Extra Strength
One of our most popular post series to date, is our ‘Expert Rig Series,’ where we give the details of how some of the industry’s best anglers rig up for their respective fisheries. We are fortunate to get to fish with many world class anglers on a day to day basis, many of which are…
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Reinforcing Welded Loops
When targeting strong fish such as king salmon, tarpon, permit, or even bonefish, any added security in your tackle is a good thing. These fish have the ability to make runs deep into your backing and test the strength of your entire setup from your drag down to your tippet knots. Most of us are…
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Tying Nail Knots Without a Tool: Video
Recently, we posted an article explaining how to tie a nail knot without using a knot tool, tube, or nail. However, we received a few suggestions that a video would aid best in explaining this method. We couldn’t agree more! Here’s a quick video on how to tie a nail knot using nothing but your…
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Three Random Alaska Fly Fishing Tips
Want to catch more fish in Alaska? Here are three ways you can. Three Alaska Fishing Tips Cover more water. In the remote areas of our great state, fish tend to be pretty aggressive. Most anglers would be better served by covering more water. Make a couple of quality casts into a piece of water…
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Nail Knots Without a Tool
These days, with fly line factory welded loops, pre-looped tapered leaders, and slip-on braided loops, the nail knot seems nearly irrelevant to many of us. The loop to loop connection has grown to be the most popular connection of fly line to leader for most anglers. Although it may not be your first choice, knowing…
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Lubricate Your Knots – Well!
Some of the most common rigging mistakes we see at our lodges involve knots that haven’t been lubricated well. Two of the knots that we use most frequently – the blood knot, for attaching sections of leader together, and the non-slip mono loop, for tying on a fly – really need to be lubricated well…
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Making Loops on Sinktips
A second installation in our sinktip strategies novella, here’s a looping method that began as what Alaska West guide Jeff Hickman dubbed a ‘bush fix,’ and has since become one of the two main ways we’re custom building on-the-river sinktips to suit the current conditions. First off, get yourself about 40 feet of Rio’s T-whatever….
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Hand-Tied Leaders for Saltwater Fishing
Today we hear from Bruce Chard – legendary guide in the Florida Keys and teacher of our bonefishing schools at Andros South – about why he prefers hand-tied leaders for fishing on the saltwater flats. Bruce Chard on Saltwater Leaders I have seen a lot of leaders break in my days – unfortunately – but…
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