JimKennedy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2016
- Messages
- 323
Nail-less nail knot. Second place. A buddy of mine who knows a mess of salt water knots for sailfish, tuna and the like, taught my son to tie it when the boy was in single digits. I figured I should learn it and give up my nail knot tool. It has never failed me on salmon up to 30 pounds in a stiff current, or steelhead up to 15 pounds, also in a stiff current. I’ve never lost a big fish on a nail knot, but…
The Albright knot is even better. Number one in my estimation. It’s essentially a nail knot where the leader wraps around a small loop in the end of the line, doubling the strength of the nail knot.
Both nail and Albright are a pain in the a55 to tie, so I tie a foot long piece of 15 pound test to the line, and tie a tippet ring at the end of the foot long butt.
Pound test on fly line is generally 20 pounds, and thickness of 15 pound mono is an acceptable notch down from a trout fly line (or even a salmon line). The tippet ring allows you to swap out leaders.
I use the setup to swap among tight lining, dry fly, and standard wet fly, classic nymphs, and flat leader streamers.
I spool my different leader styles on tenkara “reels,” which are really just super convenient spools for short lengths of leader and tippet.
For almost everything else, all you need is a pitzen knot. It’s almost as simple as a clinch knot, but 10 times as strong. You need an animation or diagram to really learn it, but once you’ve got it, you’ll be able to tie it without looking.
Pitzen instructions: https://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/pitzen-knot
Pitzen gets a bad rap because it is also known as the 16/20 knot, so named because the boast is you can land a 20 pound salmon on a size 16 fly (or a 16 pound salmon on a size 20 fly line) if you use the knot.
Maybe that’s possible, but I dare say that the fighting skills of the angler will be the deciding factor in either case.
The knot doesn’t make up for inferior landing skills, but I can say from experience, the tippet will break before the knot pulls loose. I have never snapped off a fish with a pitzen knot and ended up with a pigtail because the knot was weak.
The Albright knot is even better. Number one in my estimation. It’s essentially a nail knot where the leader wraps around a small loop in the end of the line, doubling the strength of the nail knot.
Both nail and Albright are a pain in the a55 to tie, so I tie a foot long piece of 15 pound test to the line, and tie a tippet ring at the end of the foot long butt.
Pound test on fly line is generally 20 pounds, and thickness of 15 pound mono is an acceptable notch down from a trout fly line (or even a salmon line). The tippet ring allows you to swap out leaders.
I use the setup to swap among tight lining, dry fly, and standard wet fly, classic nymphs, and flat leader streamers.
I spool my different leader styles on tenkara “reels,” which are really just super convenient spools for short lengths of leader and tippet.
For almost everything else, all you need is a pitzen knot. It’s almost as simple as a clinch knot, but 10 times as strong. You need an animation or diagram to really learn it, but once you’ve got it, you’ll be able to tie it without looking.
Pitzen instructions: https://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/pitzen-knot
Pitzen gets a bad rap because it is also known as the 16/20 knot, so named because the boast is you can land a 20 pound salmon on a size 16 fly (or a 16 pound salmon on a size 20 fly line) if you use the knot.
Maybe that’s possible, but I dare say that the fighting skills of the angler will be the deciding factor in either case.
The knot doesn’t make up for inferior landing skills, but I can say from experience, the tippet will break before the knot pulls loose. I have never snapped off a fish with a pitzen knot and ended up with a pigtail because the knot was weak.
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