5 Good Reasons to Tie Your Own Flies
There are a lot of excellent graphics and animations available that show the knot used to attach your tippet to your level line, but they typically don’t show you what you actually do with your hands and fingers. The Tenkara Knot was shown to me by Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA who learned it from Dr. Ishigaki. Daniel uses it not only to tie on his tippet, but also his fly. I only use this knot to attach the tippet and still use my tried-and-true clinch knot for the fly. I thought I’d do a quick video showing how I hold the line and tippet and position my hands because it’s one thing to see a graphical representation of a knot–it’s entirely another thing to try to figure out what to do with your fingers when you try to tie it.
Do you use the tenkara one knot for just the tippet or also the fly?
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Thank you for this video! For tying flies to my tippet, I use either a Trilene knot of a Duncan knot. The Duncan allows the fly to move in the loop. The Trilene is stronger than the Improved Clinch knot. I used the Improved Clinch knot for many years and lost many large fish.
Thanks, Jason! I remember someone – was it you? – trying to demonstrate how to tie this at the Tenkara Summit in 2017 and having no success whatsoever. This helps a lot!
I like it! Good job Jason. Not everyone makes it that easy to understand knots. I always struggle with the Davy or ORVIS knot with smaller tippet material so I use the clinch knot religiously.
Thank you Jason,
What is the advantage of this knot over the Davy knot? …I am comfortable tying the Davy to connect level line to tippet, but would switch if there is an advantage.
Any thoughts?
thank you for your helpful posts!
Hi Charlie, the only advantage I could think of is that maybe this knot is easier to remove? You just pull the tag end of the tippet and the loop opens up allowing you to slide the whole tippet off and replace easily. To me, this knot is just really fast and easy to tie and I already have the muscle memory for it so it’s familiar to me.
I always tie a surgeons knot in the line then make a surgeons loop and girth hitch the tippet to the level line, use a clinch knot for the fly, if its good enough for Oni. If you wet the surgeons loop knot and snug it down carefully it seems like a stronger knot than the Ishigaki knot, which is still a good knot I just prefer the other way now.
Jason, isn’t that the same way to start a perfection loop? Nice knot, but seems to waste a lot of tippet material. I use a tippet ring, and attach tippet with a Davy knot. Nice instruction, as usual. Gene
Hey Eugene,
Yes, that is the same way you start the Perfection Loop. I used a generous amount of tippet only for the demo. There’s nothing inherent in this particular knot that “wastes” tippet. s for tippet rings, I’ve experimented with them extensively and prefer this connection. It hasn’t failed me yet!
I also want to thank you, Jason, for making and posting the above video. I had viewed lots of illustrations on how to tie this knot but I was never able to do it quickly and easily. Your showing of the hand and finger placement in doing the separate steps made it quick and easy to learn, and caused me to ask, Why was it so hard before? Thanks Much Jason….Karl.
Wow, thanks Karl! That especially means a lot to me coming from you—someone who studies our craft as meticulously as you do. I really appreciate it!
This winter, when the weather has been bad, I have done a lot of knot testing. Done one knot against the other preferred knot, both tied in the same piece of mono, tied to the eye of the same hook, repeated a minimum of 5-times for each test secession. One of the surprising things that came up, at least it was surprising to me, was that the results are seldom consistent. Sometimes one knot broke, sometimes it was the other one. And you might be surprised by the number of times that the line broke before either knot failed. But if the break tests are repeated enough times, eventually a pattern of inconsistent consistency would emerge, with one knot eventually besting the other if enough trials were done.
There is a common, false, perception out there that “Improved” knots are stronger than the original knot counterparts are that the improved knot is based on. Examples: Clinch Knot – 89% line strength, Improved Clinch – 66%; Double Surgeon’s Loop Knot – 78%, Triple Surgeon’s Loop knot 66%; Davey Knot – 73%, Double Davie Knot 70%. All the quoted knot test percentages were conducted by line companies, testing their lines on their test machines with precise measuring equipment, which is far more accurate than you or I can do at home, by hand.
Fishermen seem to always be looking for that magic 100% knot strength knot, and there are a couple of them out there – the Palomar and Trilene Knots, with the Orvis-Tippet-To-Fly-Knot hanging in there pretty close as well. But do we really want 100% knot strength at the fly? I say NO, we don’t. Why? Because if the tippet to fly knot is stronger than the line to tippet knot is, we will have to be re-placing the fly and the tippet every time we have a line break, regardless if the cause of the break is a fish, a snag or a tree. The line to fly chain is no stronger than its weakest link, so put that weak link at the fly for the most efficient fishing technique you can utilize.
Popular less than 100% fly to tippet knot strength knots: Clinch Knot – 89%, No-Slip-Mono-Loop-Knot – 80%, Eugene-Bend 76%, Davie-Knot – 73%, DBL-Davie-Knot – 70%, Ishigaki-One-Knot – 69%, Improved-Clinch and UNI-Jam-Knots – 66%.
Loop-to-loop connections are 100% knot strength connections. But here the limiting factors are the pound test of the two different diameter of lines being joined, and the knots used to tie the respective loops with. Loop knot strength tests: Perfection Loop – 95%, No-Slip-Mono-Loop – 80%, DBL Surgeon’s Loop – 78%, Horner Rhodes Loop Knot – 76%, Triple Surgeon’s Loop Knot – 66%. The loop knot I now favor for my fishing is the Figure – 8 Loop Knot, but I was unable to find any test data on it. But rock climbers stake their lives on the Figure – 8 knot every time that they climb. Subjectively, I would say it falls in below the Perfection Loop but above the Double Surgeon’s Loop in strength – which should be more than adequate. I hope this is helpful and informative for all those who choose to read it…..Karl.
Hi Karl, as usual, your comments are more informative and insightful than my original post. That’s an interesting point about preferring the knot at the fly to break before the knot between the tippet and the line. I never thought about that. I really don’t care about losing the tippet. I care more about losing the fly, but if you’re going to lose the fly anyway, why lose both, tight?
I’ve been using the clinch knot or the Trilene knot most of my entire fishing life and they have served me just fine. I’d like to use the Palomar knot; however, the hook eyes I use aren’t typically big enough to easily insert a doubled-over line. I suppose if you were fishing a fly tied on an eyeless hook and a silk cord loop, it would work just fine though.
Hi Jason, it was certainly not my intention to ever up-stage you. I just felt that after doing all the work I have done, it would be a little selfish to keep it all to myself, so thought your blog was a great place to get the word out there. And you are right, if you are going to loose the fly anyway, there is no point in loosing the fly and the tippet as well. The Davey Knot came into its own in competitive fly fishing events because it is so quick and easy to tie, and weak enough to ensure that only the fly will be lost. Those guys do not want to have to fool around with tippet spools and extra knot tying as they have a time limit imposed on their fishing results, so everything is streamlined and set up for no wasted motion with them.
On the small hook eye problem of using the Palomar Knot, these might be a problem solver for you:
https://www.avidmax.com/c-f-design-cf-604-s-fly-threader-red-dot-4-ultra-midge-short-threaders/ ….Karl.
My belief was, that once you all saw the fly-threader-tool, the light would come on and you would auto-matically know what to do with the tool. But that may not be the case for all of us, so here is how to use the tool in tying a Palomar Knot: Stick the point of the wire loop through the eye of the hook down to its grip. As this is done the wire will compress and open again, leaving an opening at the tip end of the tool. Form a 6 to 8″long loop of tippet material and insert the tip of the tippet loop into the open tip end of the tool. Now, pull the tippet through the hook eye and remove the tool. Tie an overhand knot around the standing line with the tippet loop and then pass the fly through the tippet loop. Pull on the standing line while holding the hook to tighten the loop down to form the Palomar Knot. In doing so, the loop will have a tendency to want to tighten around the hook shank, which we do not want to let happen. Be sure the loop draws down tightly on the standing line out in front of the hook’s eye, and you are all done after cutting the tag end away. The one con this knot has is that it is an extravagant consumer of tippet material, especially if you will be making a number of fly changes.
Hi Karl,
Thanks for the update! I don’t think I’d want to use a tool to tie my fly on and will just stick with my clinch knot. I can live with an 89% break strength for the reason you said–it’s better to have just the fly break off than both the fly and tippet. Plus, I already have the muscle memory for it. I can tie it without even looking.
I used to tie the Trilene knot, but it’s more of a pain to thread it through the hook eye twice and even though it may be stronger in a scientific test, I didn’t notice any difference empirically and though I am a firm believer in science, I trust my empirical evidence more.
A lot of T-anglers have taken to using the Japanese Jam Knot System for their Tippet-To-Line Connections, and an attractive and streamlined appearing system it certainly is. Here in the West, we have traditionally used the Loop-To-Loop method for leader to line and tippet to leader attachments, which looks to be about twice as bulky and cumbersome compared to the Japanese Jam Knot System.
The Jam Knot is the weaker of the two systems though, whether the jam knot being used is a simple overhand, a double-overhand or a figure-8 knot, for a couple of reasons: #1. Tying what ever knot you prefer to use creates a Pinch-Point between the wraps of the knot and the standing line. And #2. all the knots used to attach the tippet to the line connection are Pinch-Knots in one form or another. A pinch knot is any knot that pinches the line it is tied with or the line it is tied to, causing compression and friction that weakens the line, which the Loop-To-Loop connection does not do to the same extent.
If you watch the line company tying tutorials for the Loop-To-Loop Connection, they all show the “Right and Wrong” ways of making the connection. The wrong way is using the Girth-Hitch as opposed to using the Handshake Square Loop Connection. The Girth-Hitch is considered to be wrong way because it is not as strong a connection as the Handshake Knot method is.
The one thing that the 100% knot strength Trylene and Palmor Knots have in common is that there are Two runs of line going through the hook’s eye in each knot, and with the Girth-Hitch Knot, while still being a Pinch Knot, the two runs of line also spreads the stress out over the two lines as well, making it a stronger connection than the other Pinch Knots are, like the Davey Knot, the One-Knot and the Slip-Noose Knots are that are commonly used for tippet to line connections.
I prefer to use a long loop (at least 4 inches long or longer) knot for the tippet to line connection – ONI-style – as the double thickness of line in the loop adds stiffness and weight that makes a transition section between the much thicker and stiffer Tenkara level FC lines and the much thinner and softer Tippet materials, which educes hinging in the wind and with wind resistant fly patterns. I also believe this Transition Section enhances casting accuracy, and we all know that ONI-San’s casting accuracy is as good as casting accuracy ever gets. Of course the Perfect Loop could be used here as well but the Double Surgeon’s and Figure-8 Loops are just so much easier to tie the long loops with than the Perfection Loop is.
Of course what ever juncture systems, knots and loops you choose to use is 100% purely up to you, and I am sure most anglers will continue to keep using what has worked well for them in the past. I an putting this out there as food for thought and to encourage you to test these things for yourself to see if you can’t come up with something better. Hint for testing: I started testing with 10 Lb. test nylon mono, which was exhausting and a little dangerous. Moving down to 4 Lb. test gave much more noticable differences in knot performance with a lot less effort. Good luck in your testing and fishing….Karl.
Here is Oni’s Video on how he ties his style of Tenkara knots:
http://www.oni-tenkara.com/english/tool/linemusubikata.html
And here is a little different video showing the figure-8 and related knots for accomplishing the same things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3oAA9uklIg
More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Tippet Materials and Knots:
https://www.yellowstoneangler.com/gear-review/tippet-shootout-seaguar-grandmax-trouthunter-orvis-mirage-riopowerflex-pline-dairiki-varivas-sa-climax-maxima-froghair-stoft-umpqua
I love your blog!
What is the common name of this knot?
Is it a double slip knot?
Thanks! <
I think I should have wrote “doubled slip knot”.
The knot is made with either one or two loops/turns.
https://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/slip-knot
Hi Martin, some refer to it as the “tenkara one knot”. Others simply call it a “slip knot”. I don’t know if it has an official name.