When the late JC introduced the Castwell knot in these hallowed pages, back in the day, there was much controversy over whether the knot itself was original or some kind of bend knot that had been around for ages. If I remember correctly, JC himself stated that there was no way he invented it, but he had never seen it written up before and knew no name for it.
Let me state clearly, that in my opinion, JC’s popularization of the knot makes the attachment of the Castwell name totally appropriate.
That said, this weekend, I came across a depiction of the knot in George Parker Holden’s book, Stream Craft, published in 1919. He refers to it as a simple jam knot - with the only difference being that the tag end of the line is tied in an overhand knot to prevent slippage.
I’m not familiar with silk lines or gut leaders so do not know if the overhand knot was necessary.
The “Castwell knot” is illustrated in a 1966, 36 page pamphlet that I have titled[i];
TO CAST A FLY[/i], a step-by-step guide for the modern angler by Scientific Anglers’ fly fishing specialists.
They simply call it the “line to leader knot”
The next step is to attach the butt of the leader to the end of the line. There are a number of ways of doing this, but for the time being we’ll stick to the simplest satisfactory knot, which is tied as follows…
I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade or on the memory of JC, but both JC and I were field testers for SA - back in the day - 1960’s and early 70’s. We handed out a boat load of those “To Cast A Fly” booklets at the various clinics that we conducted. He never claimed that he invented the knot, and I am certain that he got it from the booklet.
You got me curious enough to look at the article in the knots section of the main page. He claims to have used the knot when he was ten years old which would have pre-dated the Scientific anglers booklet. He does make it very clear that he did not invent the knot but could find no name for it.
I do NOT want to start any controversy at ALL. I do not tie the Castwell Knot as shown in Dudleys post. And I learned the knot in the FAOL knots section.
So am I tying it wrong ?
I have always used it and never had problems
Yea, it does look like a bowline. I remember learning how to tie a bowline with one hand in the Boy Scouts. You needed to know how to do that in case you fell off a cliff and someone threw you a rope. Never did fall off the cliff though!
Looks to me like they are two different knots. In the illustration dudley presented, the standing line goes through the loop of the leader. In the Castwell Knot, the standing line is outside the loop of the leader.
When I saw dudley’s illustration this morning, I knew it was different than the Castwell Knot as I tie it, but I had not had a cup of coffee yet so I decided to come back for another look later in the day.
The “knotting effect” may be similar, but the way the two are tied are distinctly different and strike me as two different knots.
