I just watched WFN, “The New Fly Fisher”,which featured Joe Humphreys on Penn. limestone creeks/rivers.
He was explaining his nymph leaders, using a .017" butt section and his specific casting technique.
He also showed placing a small lead shot on his tippet, after tying an overhead knot in it. This is to keep the shot from sliding down.
Wouldn’t the overhead knot weaken the tippet?
I was very impressed with all the info that he offered on the show.
I just ordered his hard copy book, “Trout Tactics” for my F.F. library.
I don’t know if it’s the knot or putting the shot on too tight. I know that if I don’t tighten the shot it goes flying into space never to be seen again.
Yes, if he did what you describe. However if the leader is sufficiently heavy, not sure it would matter, depending on the target species/size. For me, a more reasonable solution is to just have a tippet section there and put the shot above the knot. Joe has been at it for quite some time though, so I imagine he’s happy enough with his solution, and it works.
I almost never use shot anymore, favoring the tungsten putty instead. However, when I do use shot, I do something a little different to prevent it from slipping without weakening it by putting a knot in the tippet. I lay the tippet in the open groove of the shot, then loop it under the shot and back through the groove again, then close it. That doubling over prevents the shot from going anywhere, but when I take the shot off, there’s no knot to worry about.
Try a free running tungsten bead…you can “peg” it if you want, but you likely won’t.
This is what I do also.
An overhand knot or wind knot is the worst knot to have in the leader. It cut’s through itself and weakens the section it is in.
"Overhand (Figure G-2). This is the simple knot that most people tie everyday as the first half of tying their shoes. It can also be used to temporarily whip the end of a rope. This knot should replace the half-hitch as a finishing knot for other knots. This knot alone will reduce the strength of a straight rope by 55 percent."
http://danger.mongabay.com/survival/afm/g.html
This is a quote from an Orvis Blog that is no longer on-line:
“Typically, an overhand knot, the most destructive knot you can tie in tippet material because it has the most extreme bend, weakens nylon by about 50% of its rated strength by weakens Mirage only 25% or less.”
I have seen people do it with the overhand knot around the middle of the split shot before it was lightly closed. That way the knot can not close on itself and weaken the leader. I use a tungsten bead head fly as my weight, so i don’t use split shot. Years and years ago i use to twist lead wire (how ever many turns i needed ) above my tippet knot on my leader and it worked fine.