Knots and your preferences

[Silver Creek]

The weakest knot is the one that fails. And the weakest knot is the one tied using the thinnest weakest material. Therefore, the weakest connection is either the leader to tippet knot or the tippet to fly knot.

So if an overhand knot is weak relative to other knots BUT it is tied as an overhand loop to connect the leader butt to the fly line loop, it will be stronger than a better knot at the tippet to fly. The fact that an overhand knot has not failed in this situation does not mean it is a relatively strong knot! It just means that a relatively weak knot tied in strong material will not break before a relatively strong knot tied in weak material.

Secondly, the fact that a strong knot like a blood knot at the tippet to leader connection fails before another knot does not mean the blood knot is a bad knot . It means EITHER the knot was poorly tied or the blood knot was tied with the weakest material (the tippet) in the connection system. The same holds true for the tippet to fly knot. It is critical to use the best knot we can tie and tie them properly in these two connections. For that reason, I either use a blood knot or a double surgeons knot for the tippet to leader connection and I use the Orvis knot at the tippet to fly connection.

The reason for the Orvis knot at the tippet to fly vs the clinch knot is that the Orvis fly knot wastes the least amount of tippet material. I can tie it and have less than an inch of tippet end to cut off. A strong knot with little wasted material is a hard combination to beat. It saves me tippet material and that keeps my tippet from getting too short.

I know the illustration of the Orvis knot looks complex, BUT the knot can be tightened by pulling only on the standing (long) end of the tippet. If you you keep the tag end just short enough so you can still pull on it to set the knot, that is all the tippet that you will need to cut off.

I totally agree with John that the most important thing is that we tie the knot consistently well. It think a well tied "weaker" knot is stronger than a poorly tied "theoretically stronger" knot.