Outdoors

How to tie basic fly-fishing knots

Illustrations by Robert Prince
From the October 2007 Boys' Life magazine

Fly fishermen depend on knots and must know how to tie several different knots properly. A badly or improperly tied knot will result in lost fish and great frustration for the angler.

Here is a drawing of a typical fly-fishing tackle assembly from the October 2007 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.

Click on the knots to find out how to tie them.

TURTLE KNOT
Use the Turtle knot (or Turle knot) to make a straight connection between the fly and the leader.

1. Pass the end of the leader through the fly’s (or hook’s) eye from the front, as shown, and slide the fly up the leader so that it will be out of the way.

2. Make a loop with a slipknot in the end of the leader.

3. Pull the loop over and around the fly, bringing the free end around twice, like a double overhand knot, and tighten.

4. Pull the leader and wrap the loop around the back of the hook’s eye as shown, tighten, and trim the end.

DOUBLE SURGEON’S LOOP
A double surgeon’s loop can be used to add a tippet to the leader. For loop-to-loop connections, the double surgeon’s loop is the easiest knot to use because it is easy to tie.

NAIL KNOT
Use the nail knot to tie fly line to the backing or to attach a leader to a line. This knot works well for tying together monofilament of different diameters. If you don’t have a nail handy, use a substitute such as a thin tube.

1. Hold the nail along the fly line and backing between your thumb and forefinger.

2. Lay a loop of line along the nail and, with the free end, wind the monofilament around the nail, loop, and leader about six times. Pull on both sides of the line to tighten, making a smooth knot.

3. Hold the “coils” carefully between your thumb and forefinger, remove the nail, and tighten the knot all the way.

BACKING KNOT
Use a backing knot to attach the backing to the spool.

Read 11 comments about “How to tie basic fly-fishing knots”

Comment page:   [2] 1 »

1. 11 - tightlines says:
   August 12th, 2008 at 8:46 am

   This is a good digram of the nail knot ,,,but when tying leader to fly line take a needle or dubbing needle works best and make a hole in the center of your fly line and go in about an 1/4 inch deep and back out the side and then tye the nail knot on the line ,use a dab of head cement to seal and this will give you a straight runoff from your fly line to the leader.

2. 10 - linx says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 2:52 am

   you can get a fly rod at walmart for 20 bucks

3. 9 - yoshicomand says:
   March 24th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

   thanks for the help, i really needed some basic knowledge before i went out to catch a big peacock bass

4. 8 - man says:
   March 4th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

   how loung should your leader be

5. 7 - man says:
   March 4th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

   do you need tippet?

6. 6 - hlkjg says:
   February 28th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

   where can I git a cheap fly rod

7. 5 - Joe Cool says:
   February 17th, 2008 at 1:26 am

   Thanks this really helps me out; I had forgotten all the necessary knots and was worried about having a hard time finding them, but not any more.

8. 4 - paintballer 22 says:
   November 18th, 2007 at 7:09 pm

   Thanks I could never tie a knot!But I always flyfish

9. 3 - little eagle says:
   October 15th, 2007 at 7:18 pm

   lovely!

10. 2 - den leader says:
    October 8th, 2007 at 3:11 pm

    nice but I’d like to see annimated how to tie knots to down load so I can teach it to my den

Comment page:   [2] 1 »

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