Learning the Basic Fly Fishing Knots

by Jon Clouse

A lot of different fly fishing knots are available for your use while you’re out on a fishing trip. Some of the knots you can use are the Arbor knot, the Albright knot, the Blood knot, dropper loop, nail knot and improved clinch. Each of these knots have a different purpose.

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 one of the fly fishing knots used to attach the fishing line to the fishing reel, also known as the Arbor. When you tie this knot it is essential you use the second overhand knot. It is recommended you wind the loop two times around the arbor before you make the first half hitch. This will increase friction which works well on polished reels. This knot is easy to learn and very effective.

Another one of the fly fishing knots is the blood knot. This is used to join two lines that are similar in size, usually when joining sections of tippet or leader. This knot can be tied in a couple of different ways. The best method is to overlap the two ends and twist them together about ten times. You will then go to the center of the twists, create a hole, and pass the end the opposite way through the hole. This knot should be symmetrical in the middle. This knot is also easy to learn and a very effective way to join together two similar sizes of lines.

The dropper loop is another one of the fly fishing knots that allows you to avoid tangles. This creates a loop in the middle of your leader and provides an attachment point for you to put an additional fly. This loop can be made by wrapping around the overlap point as you hold it with your fingers. This loop should appear symmetrical on both sides of the loop.

The nail knot is one of the fly fishing knots you will likely find yourself using often. You generally use a nail knot to tie lines of two different sizes to one another. Thread the smaller of the two through the loops using a straw (or nail, or needle). This knot passes through guides with no trouble, being small and smooth.

Of course, these are only a small number of the fly fishing knots which you can use. You should learn many of these knots, since you will be using different knots for different purposes when you are fly fishing.

These fly fishing knots are easy to learn and will come in handy all the time – learn some of these fly fishing knots before you go fly fishing for the first time.

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