I had a comment/question asking about clarification and differentiation for the Belize Knot, Kime’s Clincher (Clifford’s Knot), and Lefty’s No-slip. 1. All of them are non-slip loop knots. 2. All of them start with an overhand knot  in the end of the tippet. 3. I particularly like the Belize Knot for finer tippets where a [...]

In the last post I described the non-slip knot that my old friend Harry Kime showed me many years ago. He called it the Casa Mar knot, but I changed the name to honor this pioneer of salt water fishing. I had a note from a reader that the knot is also called Clifford’s Knot, [...]

I had some comments about the Belize Knot that Jeff Parker showed me, and so I thought I’d go back and work through some similar knots that have been developed over the years. Harry Kime was one of the originals. Salt water flowed in his veins, and he never missed a chance to take is [...]

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. [...]

Trajan Weaver send me an email and noted, There is a scene (the final shot of an older man fishing, tying a fly on the end of his line) in “A River Runs Through It.” Would you show me, step by step, how he was tying on the fly? I would much appreciate it. The [...]

I think the Blood Knot was so named because most people sweat blood when trying to tie it. Actually this knot isn’t hard to learn, and it’s a great connection between pieces of mono. The Blood Knot is thinner in diameter than a Surgeon’s Knot and hangs up less in weeds. But if there’s more [...]

OK, so you really don’t like the regular Clinch and need to tie the Improved Clinch. But before you do, the question is why does there need to be an Improved Clinch? Well (1) for those that insist on pulling the short end of the tippet, the improved Clinch will work. (2) When the wire [...]

Sorry I’ve been out of the loop for a few days. I’ve been occupied with any number of items that have drained my time like a mechanic draining old motor oil–in fact, I’ve felt a bit like that old motor oil that’s being drained. But, here’s a knot that is so misused that it gets [...]

The Surgeon’s knot is one of the “must know” knots for the fly fisher, It is immensely useful; so useful that it is used on every trip and usually several times a day on every trip. See the page showing the detail for tying the Surgeon’s Knot  using the rope kits–which also see.

In several instances at the shows this year, I’ve mentioned the use of rope kits to help learn knots faster and easier. And every time, people have asked me where to get them or how to make them, etc. They’re easy to make, either singly or en masse. I’ve put up a page to show [...]