I see lots of talk about the surgeons loop, but the perfection loop is seldom mentioned. Is it weak?
I don’t think that one is weaker. I use a perfection on the end of the amnesia (my 4"-6" butt section off the fly line itself) and the connecting end of my self tied leaders for connecting loop to loop. I use a surgeon’s loop to connect my fly to tippet. Perfection is a good straight line knot (which means your line won’t go off to one side because of the knot) And I like the surgeon for my flies cause it is easy for me to do with size 32 flies and when my hands are cold.
[This message has been edited by Fly Goddess (edited 12 February 2006).]
Anthony,
Check out JC’s weekly articles Archives…he did a recent one on the Figure 8 knot that I believe you’ll find very interesting in place of the perfection loop and surgeon’s loop…lol…And it’s alot easier to spell!!!
great thing about the perfection loop is once you get the hang of it you can control the size, making it as small as you want. that being said, i don’t feel it is a substantial enough knot to use in salt water
Ive been using the perfection knot for sw fishing for years, even on bucktails, etc. I’ve never had a breakoff at the knot.
My most used knot for attaching tippets and flies.
I read that the perfection loop only holds to 80% of the line’s breaking stregnth. I believe that.
Hey Timmy…come here often?
Anyway, Benjo, don’t believe everything you hear. Tim taught me the perfection loop about six years ago and I’ve caught some Biiiig LMB, et al, with narry a problem. And, I only use 4 and 6 lb. tippet!!! And, I tie the flies on with a Perfection Loop!!! That’s right, you pass the inside loop with the fly through the outside loop and voila!
Maybe the strength is in the tying…correctly.
Timmy, why don’t you post some of the Elk Creek pictures here?
Jim
When they rate the strenght of a loop knot, does that mean the percenatge at which it snaps or at which the the loop closes?
Jim, I have used it to tie flies on before. My main problem with that is that it requires a lot of tension and I don’t like pulling in three directions with a hook hanging around. It’s a good knot that’s easy to tie but it’s not as strong as other knots. For looping the butt of a leader to a welded loop in a fly line there is no better knot.
Anthony, it means that in theory, if you put a perfection loop in 10 pound leader, that knot will break at 8 pounds of pull.
I’m afraid that I have to disagree with Tim and Jim. In my experence the perfection does not have the strenght of the double surgeons loop.
When using a loop2loop connection I try not to use a perfection on the tippet (weakest) piece.
That does not mean I don’t use the perfection in other places. For me the perfection is very easy to tie and I can quickly tie one in the pitch dark.
Comes in handy sometimes.
Tim and Jim, you should try the non-slip mono loop for tying on your flies. Very, very strong, one of the best.
I never lost a little fish
yes, I’m free to say
It always was the biggest fish
I caught that got away
…Eugene Field
dudley;
We both used the the mono-loop until we tried the Perfection…guess this is another one of those posterior anatomy things…
Anthony…
As stated earlier the Perfection Loop is only a 80% knot.
If you want 100% go to the Lefty Kreh loop.
It is easy to tie and works well in loop to loop conections or to tie on flys. It is also easy to control the size of the loop.
See: [url=http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/lkknots/index1.html:da240]http://www.flyfisherman.com/skills/lkknots/index1.html[/url:da240]
Interesting! I must be doing something wrong. I habitually use the perfection loop at the tippet to leader connection. When I snag and have to break off, it never breaks at the knot. Always somewhere in the tippet length. Probably micro-abrasions or something.
Is this a case of the lab not mirroring real life?
Jim
Exactly!!
Always get my knot back; so I’m quite happy w/ the knot.
Whatever works for ya…