Due to an unfortunate medical condition that causes numb fingers, I now find myself spending way too long tying flies on tippet, wasting a lot of precious water time on the process. It has occurred to me that I might solve this by tying the flies on a length of tippet in advance and putting a loop knot in the other end. Then I could put flies on my leader with a simple loop-to-loop connection.
Any ideas on this:
What is the best loop knot to use for this purpose?
How long should that tippet line be with loop and fly?
What is the best way to store and carry these flies pre-tied on tippet?
The Prefection Loop is an easy and strong knot for tippet to leader connection. Reportedly, a lot of people use it in a knotless system regardless of age. If you make them small and clean enough the “hinge” effect seems to be minimized. (OK, maybe not any age but, I find it works pretty well.)
I’m limited in the number of knots I know but the ‘Perfection Loop’, as Bill suggested, is a strong small knot that won’t interfere too much. As far as length, I’d say 5-6 inches but that’s just an arbitrary guess. For storage you can use a fly wallet or any container that allows you to keep the fly + tippet straight.
Oh, you may want to consider placing one of those tiny stainless steel rings at the end of your leader where the tippet will be attached instead of a loop at that point. Attach tippet the same as you would a loop-to-loop but you’ll have less bulk. Just a thought. Good luck.
I started doing this for 18 -22 trico’s. Just used the entire tippet and used a perfection loop to loop handshake on to the leader. Hinging is not a problem with handshakes if you don’t make the loop any bigger than enough to get a fly through. I used a hair curler - you know, the big round ones that look like a mesh covered spring with a bottle brush stuck into them. Use tooth picks to anchor the loop and wind around and hook the fly in the mesh. I then started winding the tippet exactly the way you store them in a tippet wallet. Wind around all 4 fingers and loop the loop end through 3 times and put it in the leader wallet. When you take them out with the pre tied on fly, be sure to unloop exactly three times and douse the fly with some silicone (gink I think) and blow on it to get the flats out from storage.
When I started night fishing for browns, I moved the handshake up the leader to about .010 on the leader. That way I could fish drys till after sunset and switch to .010 level for the #2 muddler we use at night. The handshake and pretied stuff was much easier than tying under a light with a thousand bugs flying in your eyes and nose.
I tried pre-tying my flies to tippets, then connecting my tippets and leaders with a loop-to-loop connections, but I found I had an almost impossible time disconnecting the loops. Maybe there’s a better way.
If you can get the tippet through the eye of the hook, here is a simple way you can tie a clinch knot. I think it will work for you.
If you have trouble getting the flies through the hook eye, Orvis sells a “Threader Fly Box” that you can use to preload your flies onto the “threader”. Then use the method below to tie on the flies.
We have a couple of customers who pre tie their flies on to tippet sections with a loop in the end.
For a loop knot I prefer the non-slip mono loop knot. This knot is stronger than the perfection loop. It is described in many of Lefty Kreh’s books as well as other books and many places on line.
I was thinking about the knot Silver Creek posted and started wondering if using forceps would make it even easier. I Googled it and, sure enough, somebody else had already thought about it. Here’s the video. I’m hoping that it can keep me fishing a few more years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PzIH3EXQUU
A few years ago I started using the Perfection Loop in most leaders for virtually all connections. It acted much stronger and tougher than I thought it could possibly be. Then I started using it for salmon leaders and really stressing them. After a couple years all I can say is they are amazing! A 25 salmon day is nothing of note and the Perfection Loop takes the abuse as well as any knot I have used and it is much faster to tie.
An I have always considered myself a “knot guy” and have played with lots and lots of knots…
There is also a nifty little device that has a magnet in a groove, you place the eye of the hook in the groove and run your line down a channel and it runs your line through the eye.
Here is a simple idea with foam. Take a square of 1/2" or so foam cut to 2"x4" and stick round-headed hatpins in the end. You can then put the loop of tippet or wind unlooped tippet around the pinhead and wrap the tippet around the foam and then hook the fly into the foam. If you put hatpins on each end you can easily carry 6-8 pretied fly-tippets. This works really well for droppers.
