knot help

HI, I have had this problem for this entire year of fly fishing, I may have had it other yhears but did not notice...whenever I tie tippet materials together, with the double surgeons know of course, and I break the line from a snag, the tippet breaks at the surgeions knot and not the fly, which is really frusterating because I am constantly wasting time replacing both flies and tippet material when I should just be replacing flies.

any help would be awesome
Ian

PS it breaks and leaves the surgeons knot attached to the heavier tippet in the leader

[sperzonkers2]

Ian, It seems you may be getting to much friction when you are tighting your Knot. If you are not, lubricate the knot before tighting and draw it tight slowly. The surgeons knot is good for line diameters close in size. You do not say what size tippet you are using. I try to keep the diameters close in size such as 4x to 5x or 5x to 6x etc. I also use a version of the surgeons knot that I saw from orvis. Instead of just making the over hand loop and running the lines through, make an over hand loop and before bringing the ends through bring them under the standing line(coming from the top of the leader), then bring the ends through the loop twice.
I have not had this version fail.

[Jed]

The problem is that the knot at the fly is stronger than the knot at the tippet to leader connection. I suggest finding a tippet to leader know that has a higher strength. A triple surgeons knot may help. Look on line for better a knot with more strength at that joint.

jed