Belize Knot
Nancy and I spent a four day weekend on the shores of lake Michigan, and it got me to thinking of an upcoming trip to Ontario to fish for Lake Trout and, of course, the fall salmon and brown season. In turn that got me to thinking about fishing the flies on a loop knot. This last summer, I learned a new loop knot that I really like. It’s the Belize Knot, shown to me by Jeff Parker (“Parker”) who guides for No-See-Um Lodge in Alaska. He called it that because a guide (named Fabian) in Belize showed him the knot. What I really like about it is that it can be made as small as one needs. So small, in fact, that Parker was using it to tie on fry imitations (size 16 hook) when he showed it to me. In addition, when the knot is finished, the tag end points rearward, and when it’s clipped, doesn’t pick up weeds as the fly is retrieved.
Begin the Belize Knot with a standard overhand knot.
Run the tag end through the eye of the fly.
Make 3 to 5 turns around the tippet with the tag end.
Run the tag end back down through the overhand knot.
Pull the knot tight. Unlike a Clinch Knot, you can pull on both ends of this knot. Make the overhand knot very small and keep the wraps close, then pull both ends and the knot will be very small. Clip the tag end.
Looks like a Lefty’s Non-slip loop knot in which the initial feeding back of the tippet through the overhand knot is skipped. Lefty claims a near 100 percent knot. How does the Belize knot test?
Superficially it does look like a clinch knot above an overhand knot, but it’s more like the Clincher knot that Harry Kime showed me many years ago. It had only one turn above the overhand knot. His knot is still used by many salt water anglers. It doesn’t work all that well with fine tippets, but the Belize Knot does. I haven’t tested the knot on any equipment to determine its exact strength, but it certainly is strong.