Knots / Tom's teaching style

I’m no knot expert, but I’ve settled on a few terminal knots that I’ve VERY much satisfied with and can tie properly 100% of the time (no duds). For daytime, I used to use the Pitzen with everything larger than 4X, but now I’ve found the San Diego knot is a bit easier to get right the first time and is just as strong. They’re very similar knots except the SD takes a pass through the loop at the eye where the Pitzen does not. If you can tie one, you can easily tie the other. They’re both really good, strong, and compact knots.

When I’m using very small flies and fine tippets (5X and down with #16 and smaller flies), I use the Davy Knot. It’s super easy to tie and makes no bulk at all at the eye of the hook. It’s amazing that it holds as well as it does, considering how simple it is. I don’t know the rated strength, but I’d guess it’s at least 90% when tied correctly. I also use it for adding a dropper to the bend or the eye of a hook. It’s NOT a good knot for larger diameter lines because for some reason it slips on larger tippets and heavier wire of the hook eye.

Night fishing is another story entirely. I thought I was using a Duncan Loop, but per the recent discussion, I’ve really been tying a UniKnot. It’s excellent for night fishing since I can tie it with my eyes closed. The only difficulty is getting the tippet threaded through the hook eye in the first place. Once I’ve accomplished that (usually holding both the hook and the tippet against my tongue for “feel”), the knot goes quick and easy and is quite reliable. I’ll usually break off at my tippet blood knot before the Uni fails. Of course, when that happens, I have to re-tippet. Hmmmm, maybe I should use a weaker terminal knot to ensure that I only lose the fly and not the tippet…

Regards -- TAM

PS, I’m with you on the self optimization. I’m no Hercules either, but I can usually git er done when I need to… Use the gifts that God gave you and don’t fret about the ones He didn’t…

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Troy: Can you give us a reference for the tying of these three knots ? (Pitzen knot, San Diego knot & the Davy knot )

Fishing Penn's Creek in Penn. during evening hatch time, we rigged our flies with mono loops passed through the hook eyes on the bench. Were able to thread a 8X tippet through the big loop and pull it through without actually having to see it. Conventional, "wisdom" held that if you turned on your penlight, you would scare the fish ..... so we tied a 7 times around clinch knot to the hook by feel in the near dark. Beat going back up into the woods to tie on a new fly !

For fishing in the salt, I often use the uni-knot loop when fastening the tippet to the fly when I don't want or need a shock tippet. Instead of a blood knot to fasten the tippet to the end of my tapered section, I like a stronger connection. Since a delicate presentation isn't usually needed, I use a double uni splice .... or, if in a hurry during a blitz, a 2X surgeons knot. With picky / spooky fish, I prefer to use a fluorocarbon tippet. I attach that to my nylon mono tapered section with a loop-to-loop connection using very small uni loops. That allows quick change. It also gets away from the problem of knots which don't work well when connecting leader materials of different composition.

The trick to get the fly to go through the small loop is to turn it back on the tippet and thread it through eye first.

One thing I've learned about knots over the years is that while some test better than others, the knot books don't tell you that some suffer from being what I call "tie dependent". One example is the Albright Special. Another is the Lefty Kreh Non-Slip Loop. Both are superb knots when tied flawlessly. When tied with less than perfect technique or pulled down incorrectly, they quickly become poor knots.

I've mentioned, previously, that the Bimini Twist knot, while touted as a, "100% knot" became the weakest knot in the leader system when tested after a long battle with a very large fish. A simple improvement in the technique of tying it (no actual change in the anatomy of the knot ..... just doing it differently) changed all that and returned it to being the strongest knot in the leader assembly even after a couple of hours of max stress.

Really good, practical knots are a bit more forgiving of less than perfect technique. Examples include the surgeon's knot, the Palomar knot, the Homer Rhode loop and the Uni- knots.

During my MCCI exam years ago, I was asked many questions on leader assembly, leader theory, and knots.

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Gordy & Al I purchased three different Tom White videos from Bob Marriott’s Fly fishing Store maybe eight or nine year ago. The Roll Cast is one of them. The other two were parts 1 & 2 of Successful Fly Fishing with Tom White. They show Tom at his best………smooth, funny, neat instructional technique, and that BIG smile we all miss so much.

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Rod... Your note put a lump in my throat ! Tom was a beautiful guy .......I hope he's up there able to read our notes.

Teaching and casting with Tom have given me some of the best memories of my life.

The most useful thing he ever taught me about teaching roll casting was to have the student make the, "back cast" dead loop setup and then convince him that: "Now when you make the forward stroke, remember..... you are not roll casting." The student would erase any concept of a wide-loop, "roll" of the rod tip which plagues so many, and make a perfect roll cast with the form and SLP of a well executed forward fly cast.

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