Knot Fun  

I'll be the first person to soberly intone that tying good knots is one of fishings' most important skills. Carelessly-tied knots have lost me fish, and I admit I spend as much time tying (or picking out) knots in monofilament as I do fishing. But it's hard to believe that I once earned a Girl Scout Merit Badge for knots. Of course, back then Ihad nimble, sensitive young fingers and sharp young eyes. Now I findmyself squinting through, or sometimes under, bifocals, at calloused, arthritic fingers clumsily manipulating wisps of cobweb called "tippet". And doing so left-handed, which makes diagrams in books, written instructions, and even patient personal demonstrations, almost impossible to understand. I admit that, when I fish with a guide who automatically reaches to tie knots for me, I heave a silent mental sigh of relief. But I've managed to get by for over thirty years doing it 'the wrong way'. And as long as 95% of my knots end up neat and strong, and don't lose me fish, the actual contortions I go through to tie them scarcely matter.

When tying knots for proteges, I have two methods: Turning my back and hastily whipping together one of my quick and clumsy ten-thumb specials, then turning around and saying, OK, your fly is on. Now, see if you can cast it just this side of that current tongue. Or, if they absolutely insist on seeing the knot demonstrated so they can tie it, I grit my mental teeth (doesn't every angler or parent have those?) and slowly, carefully, right-handedly, demonstrate the 'right' way to tie that knot, accompanied by verbal instructions, then, just before the moment of truth, unravel the whole thing and say, OK, now you try it while it's fresh in your mind. Very rarely, I'll do that and follow it with, That's the right way. But my quick and dirty alternative method is...

Take the basic clinch knot. The right way, a mentally challenged gorilla could tie one in the dark. Through the hook eye, loop around a finger, five turns around the standing line, loop around another finger, grab the tag, follow the first finger through the first loop, follow the second finger through the second loop, tighten, and voila! Two tourniqueted fingers slowly turning purple, the hook point firmly buried in yet another finger, and a snarl of monofilament which, when the fingers are finally extracted, falls apart letting your fly drop into the water off of a permanently-kinked tippet. Obviously I am not as dexterous as a mentally challenged gorilla.

Unlike the clinch knot, I have never actually shed any blood from tying a Blood Knot. I have, however, sweated blood. Twist, twist, twist, twist, tag end between the strands; Twist, twist, twist, twist, then push and a little loop pops up to put the other tag through. Right. A little loop may pop up for some people, but in thirty years it's never happened for me. Instead, I end up squinting and poking, trying to find that spot where the loop was supposed to pop up, where the first tag end went through. It's a fifty-fifty chance I'll finally poke the second tag through in the wrong direction, pull, and have the knot come apart into two separate corkscrews. It's a lovely strong knot when it works, though, and I use it almost all the time now, after a brief period experimenting with the Improved Surgeon's Knot.

The Improved Surgeon's Knot takes advantage of the fact that, despite conventional wisdom, overhand knots do hold in monofilament. Just try and pick out the ones your leader acquires during casting, and you'll see. The fact that you pass the end through the loop twice is the "improved" part. However, left-handed, I found myself in the position of having to pass my entire rod and reel through the loop, or having the knot mysteriously disintegrate while tightening. At least, thank goodness, this didn't kink the tippet. But it happened so consistently, for an entire season I didn't succeed in tying this knot once. I went back to the blood knot, and only years later tried the Improved Surgeon's Knot again, with equally mysterious success. Success I don't trust, since I don't know what I do different when one works and when one doesn't. My solution is to just avoid them.

There's one fishing knot I've always been good at: The Nail Knot. Too bad it was made practically obsolete by loop-to-loop connections. Instead, you have to form those loops using something called a Perfection Loop Knot. I had a mental block about these until a student commented that the knot, just before the crucial last move and tightening, resembles a toilet seat. Now I have a mnemnonic chant which is just bizarre enough for me to remember: Form the lid. Loop around to form the seat. Cross it with a seat belt. Now do what men never do, and lift the seat. The result of this bit of nonsense is a perfect Perfection Loop. And I'd have to be pretty looped, myself, to demonstrate my Toilet Seat Knot to anybody.

One knot I've been trying to learn is a specialty knot for people who also attach their tippets by the loop-to-loop method. Seems kind of silly to me: You still have to tie a knot in your new tippet section before doing the loop-to-loop connection. My thinking is, just tie a blood knot in the first place, since you're going to have to tie a knot either way. But people want to do this, and when I'm in the position of helping them, so do I. This knot is called the King Sling. It's supposed to turn out much stronger and smaller than the Perfection Loop, so is ideal for fine tippets that would lose too much critical breaking strength if a Perfection Loop was used. Mine actually turn out about the shape and size of a hangnoose. This would be useful, I suppose, if we were intending to lasso the trout. Trying to tighten the loop to make it smaller results in either Purple Finger Syndrome or attempting to cast with one's hemostats knotted into the leader.

The strongest knot in any type of tippet material is the Snarl. Practically impossible to untie deliberately, you just know it's not going to unravel on its own. It also has incredible breaking strength, as I have found after patiently trying to pick one apart, then losing my temper and yanking at the loose ends furiously. Unfortunately, the only practical use for a Snarl is shortening a too-long tippet. So, despite its great strength, I'd advise you to avoid using Snarls.

There you have it: My favorite fishing knots. And, if you learned nothing else from this article, remember this: Good, careful knot-tying pays off. Use me as a bad example!

 --Rabbit Jensen--
Spring 2006 Issue