i was out fishing and had to tie a line to leader knot . after several unsuccessful attempts my patience was shot and then i remembered . the castwell knot . i was very sceptical about this knot but my arthritic fingers were just not getting the job done so i went for it . fished all day 5 catches and 5 releases later the knot held like a vise . hats off to you j. c. thank you for making it simple.
wirebender;
we must all remember that JC is the Grand Poo Bah!! The all knowing, all seeing leader of this rag tag pack of lost flyfishers!! May He Poo Bah forever!! Or at least reguraly!!
I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here!
Cactus AKA “Lucky Dog (Pirate Name)”
Jack what do you mean calling us a Rag tag pack of lost flyfishers !! the very nerve of you to call us a …umm…errr…just a minute … heck now that I think about it you are right on the money . Your Right about JC too.
Someone once said ( of course NOT to me, “Your eloquence is surpassed ONLY by the BS it conveys”. And the recipient of this praise said “thank you”.
Mark
I’d rather be in Wyoming!
Wirebender I too have probs with my hands and fingers…that Castwell knot is sure ez on ol’ arthritic fingers…add cold to these same fingers…yahooee…now try to tie a nail knot…lol…
mojo likes simple
I had the opposite day today. I hooked a 20" Brown. It jumped, it ran, it jumped again. As I was bringing it closer the tippet seperated from the leader. It was the fist fish on this new piece of 6x fluro. Oh so close and yet sooo far. Then I set up again and two casts later my loop at the end of my fly line came off with leader, tippet and fly. It was one of those chineese finger ones and I never lost one of those before. Frustrating to say the least. I left the water about 10 minutes early and went to work. Not enough time to bother tying on a new leader, tippet, fly etc. And all the while that big brown was laughing at me.
jed
James,
One thing you get used to on FF boards when you have the temerity to propose something like this, is that someone is bound to jump in to put the record straight with “What, that old… (fly, technique, knot, etc). Hah! I’ve been using that since I was in diapers.”
Well, in this case, while maybe not quite THAT early in my angling career, it was the first knot to leader connection I learned from my dad, who learned it from his dad. Old Jack Wyatt was from Yorkshire in the north of England, and that’s the way he learned to joined the fly line to a leader loop, undoubtedly from his daddy.
It’s a well known variation on the simple sheet bend that the old trout and salmon boys used for silk line to gut. I’ve seen it in an old book of knots, and if I can find the book I’ll post the old name for the knot. I think Chaytor referred to it as a “half-hitch” in Letters to a Salmon Fisher’s Sons, although we know that knot differently.
Your legacy to the angling world will stand on its other considerable accomplishments.
[This message has been edited by Wyatt (edited 07 November 2005).]
Dang! Now ya gone and made me want to search that knot up on here!
Shoot! Searched Castwell’s knot and 339 Click-ons came up!
Try Flyfishing Basics on the menu, then KNOTS
LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL
Simple knot but strong-JC I think less friction in forming the knot allows the knot superior strength.Should be close to 100%.
Mike
JC and wirebender
At sea it would be called a sheet bend, a knot for fastening a line to a loop or an eyelet. (a sheet in sailing parlance is the line…a sail is a sail).
Inland, I’ll bet it is known as “Castwell’s knot” more than a sheet bend. The name seems to be taking hold, JC. And very ery useful too.
I like the nail knot or something similar but if you are going to be changing leaders a lot then Castwell’s knot IMHO is an excellent choice.
Ol’ Bill
1932
Looks quick and easy but I prefer loop to loop. As long as the line loop is smooth. I also prefer lines that have factory loops. A 12 or 15 ft leader might get stuck on the tip top with a knot
Oh no. Not this topic again!
When people start questioning this knot, our demure moderator disappears and the Castwell Knotzi takes his place.
I kid because I love ya, JC.
James,
I’ve studied it closely now, andI see what you’re getting at. Whereas the ‘true’ sheet bend bites on the standing part, this knot bites against the tag end. Is there an advantage to tying it this way over the ordinary sheet bend?
Out of interest, old A.H Chaytor did call his knot the ‘half-hitch’ (Letters to a Salmon Fisher’s Sons 1910), although it’s a pretty straight forward sheet bend. He used it for attaching the gut cast to the line, and the gut to loop-eyed salmon flies. As with the standard sheet bend the simple half-hitch bites against the tag-end and the leader runs straight through the loop. As an improvement on the half-hitch he then tucks the tag-end back through the turn around the loop (on a loop eyed salmon hook) to complete the figure eight, to make a reef knot.
Eric Taverner (Trout Fishing From All Angles, Lonsdale Library, 1946) also describes the sheet-bend as the standard way to tie the line to a leader loop, but he advises tying an overhand ‘stopper’ knot in the end of the fly line to ensure the line doesn’t slip. (I never had the fly line slip using it without the stopper knot in the end, and I doubt those old silk lines ever would). Like Chaytor, his knot also has the leader going through the loop, the tag-end sticks out sideways to the loop.
[This message has been edited by Wyatt (edited 08 November 2005).]
I have used this knot or bend since I first learned of it here and that’s been a few years, and never has it failed. Thanks JC
You can’t catch fish with your fly in the air!
By Jove, Castwell, you’re right! I tied them both the sheet (beckett) bend way and the Castwell way thinking that one may be just the mirror image of the other but they’re not!
See, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Son of a gun…whod a thunk it?
Bill
I seem to recall from seamanship class in Newport that this is called the “bowline on a bight” (by bo’suns and such). Whatever, it works great.