KeviR
Active member
One thing that does not get enough mention with learning knots is to practice at home enough that you can tie your preferred knots quickly and consistently. It's a lot easier tying knots at your bench with good light, warm hands and a cold beverage close by. If you can't tie a quick, consistent knot under these conditions, your chances of doing it well on the stream are zero. Tie the knot you plan to use over and over and break it each time to see how strong it is. (or isn't)
If you are trying to find the best knot for you, take a piece of tippet about a foot long and tie one end to a hook with one knot and the other end to another hook with a different knot. Then you can pull the two hooks to the breaking point and see which knot fails first. This needs to be repeated a bunch of times to see if the result is consistent. At least 10. Maybe a lot more if you are trying a knot for the first time. Until you get consistent results.
One final thing that I found with the clinch knot specifically is that it's strength is very different with different tippet diameters and hook sizes. Generally, with moderate tippets, 4x-5x in small-ish flies 14,16,18, the knot is pretty strong. But try a size 8 hook with 5X tippet and with a mild pull, the knoit slides right off and you get a nice little curlicue at the end. With 1x tippet and a size 8, it's not as bad, but still not great. The message is that MANY factors can influence the strength of the knot - tippet size, hook size, tippet brand, mono type (nylon/fluoro), wetting before tightening, how fast you pull tight, whether you pull the standing line only, or pull both the standing line and the tag end at the same time, and probably some others. The clinch knot is probably the worst knot in terms of this dependence IMHO. It's a good knot for specific cases, but terrible for others. If your particular rig stays within the boundaries where it works well, you might never notice these other cases. So when you're practicing, use your actual tippet brand and the whole range of hook sizes you want to use it with.
If you are trying to find the best knot for you, take a piece of tippet about a foot long and tie one end to a hook with one knot and the other end to another hook with a different knot. Then you can pull the two hooks to the breaking point and see which knot fails first. This needs to be repeated a bunch of times to see if the result is consistent. At least 10. Maybe a lot more if you are trying a knot for the first time. Until you get consistent results.
One final thing that I found with the clinch knot specifically is that it's strength is very different with different tippet diameters and hook sizes. Generally, with moderate tippets, 4x-5x in small-ish flies 14,16,18, the knot is pretty strong. But try a size 8 hook with 5X tippet and with a mild pull, the knoit slides right off and you get a nice little curlicue at the end. With 1x tippet and a size 8, it's not as bad, but still not great. The message is that MANY factors can influence the strength of the knot - tippet size, hook size, tippet brand, mono type (nylon/fluoro), wetting before tightening, how fast you pull tight, whether you pull the standing line only, or pull both the standing line and the tag end at the same time, and probably some others. The clinch knot is probably the worst knot in terms of this dependence IMHO. It's a good knot for specific cases, but terrible for others. If your particular rig stays within the boundaries where it works well, you might never notice these other cases. So when you're practicing, use your actual tippet brand and the whole range of hook sizes you want to use it with.
