Learning the Basic Fly Fishing Knots
There are many different fly fishing knots you might use while you are out in the water. Some of the different knots include the Albright knot, Arbor knot, Blood knot, dropper loop, nail knot, and the improved clinch. There are different reasons you would use each of these knots.
Albright knots are employed in joining together your fly reel backing line and your fly line. Remember as you tie this knot to wind your loops neatly around the loop of the larger line to ensure that it will pass through your guides easily. Some fishermen will coat their Albright knots with rubber cement which will make it more secure as well as easier to pass through your guides.
The Arbor knot is used to attach your line to your reel (sometimes called an Arbor, hence the name). When tying these kinds of fly fishing knots, use a second overhand knot and wind your loop twice around your arbor before making the final hitch to secure it. You will increase friction this way, which is excellent for polished reels. This is one of the easiest fly fishing knots to learn and is one you will use very commonly.
The blood knot, another of the most important fly fishing knots, is used when you need to join two lines which are roughly equal in size. For instance, you would use this knot when joining sections of leader or tippet. There is more than one way to tie this knot, the best being to overlap the ends of the lines you are joining and twist them together about ten times. You can make a hole in the center of these twists and pass one end the opposite way through the hole. This knot, if tied correctly will be symmetrical in the middle. This is also an easy knot and will come in handy quite often.
Another of the basic fly fishing knots is the dropper loop. This knot can help you to prevent tangles in your line. You create a loop in the middle of your leader with this knot, which gives you another place to put a fly. You can make this loop my wrapping one line around the leader at the point of overlap. This loop should look symmetrical on both sides.
The nail knot is another one of the fly fishing knots you might need to use. This is most commonly used to tie two lines of different diameters together. You will thread the smaller line through the loops using a straw. It can also be thread using a nail or with a needle. This is a smooth and small knot which passes through the guides easily.
These are far from the only fly fishing knots which you will want to learn and use. You should learn as many different fly fishing knots as possible, each situation calls for a separate knot.
Most of the different fly fishing knots are very easy to learn to use and you will use them quite often. You should practice making these knots before you go fly fishing.
