Everyday dry fly
The classic 60/20/20 proportion: a long stiff butt, a short steep taper and a tippet of about two feet. Turns over flies from size 12 to 18 in a light breeze.
Field notes
Leaders & knots
Everything between the fly line and the fly: how thick, how long, and how to join it. 6 leader formulas, a tippet table and 7 knots. Learn two knots well before you learn seven badly.
Tippet by the X
Subtract the X from eleven for thousandths of an inch. Divide the hook size by three for the X.
| Size | Diameter | Inches | Hook sizes | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0X | 0.28 mm | .011 | 2–6 | Large streamers, heavy water |
| 1X | 0.25 mm | .010 | 4–8 | Streamers, big stonefly nymphs |
| 2X | 0.23 mm | .009 | 6–10 | Woolly Buggers, coloured water |
| 3X | 0.20 mm | .008 | 8–12 | Mayfly, hoppers, falling spates |
| 4X | 0.18 mm | .007 | 12–14 | General wet fly and nymph work |
| 5X | 0.15 mm | .006 | 14–18 | The everyday dry fly tippet |
| 6X | 0.13 mm | .005 | 18–22 | Small dries, clear low water |
| 7X | 0.10 mm | .004 | 20–26 | Midges; play fish with a soft hand |
Leader formulas
Hand-tied with blood knots. Lengths in centimetres, diameters in millimetres, butt first.
Low, clear water
Extra length keeps the fly line well away from the fish, and the long tippet lands in loose curves that delay drag. Hard to turn over into wind; shorten the tippet if it piles.
Small stream
Short enough to cast with only a rod length of line outside the tip ring, and stout enough to steer a fish away from roots. Swap the last section for 0.15 mm with small flies.
Nymph leader with sighter
The 0.25 mm section is the sighter: two-tone coloured nylon, greased so it floats or held just clear of the water. Join the tippet to it with a tippet ring or a triple surgeon’s knot, and adjust tippet length to about one and a half times the depth.
Wet fly team
Leave the tag end of the last knot 10–12 cm long as a dropper for a second fly, where the rules of the water allow more than one. For a single fly simply fish the point.
Streamer
Short and strong to turn over a weighted fly and to bring a good fish in quickly. Finish with a non-slip loop so the fly can swing freely.
Read each bar from left to right: the upper figure is the length of the section in centimetres, the lower its diameter in millimetres.
Four rules for every knot
Most “bad knots” are good knots tied dry and in a hurry.
- Wet it. Moisten the knot with saliva or river water before drawing it tight. Dry nylon heats and weakens as it slides against itself.
- Draw it up slowly. A steady pull lets the turns bed down side by side. A jerk crosses them over one another, and a crossed turn cuts.
- Test it. Give every knot one firm pull before you fish. Better it fails in your hands than in a fish.
- Take the trimmings home. Nylon lasts for centuries and tangles birds. Tags and old leaders go in a pocket, never on the bank.
The knots
The standing line is drawn dark, the working end in terracotta, a second line in green.
Improved clinch knot
The knot most anglers learn first, and good enough to last a lifetime if it is seated properly. In very fine tippet with tiny flies the Davy knot is neater.
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1. Pass 12–15 cm of tippet through the hook eye and bring the tag end back alongside the standing line.
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2. Wind the tag five times around the standing line (seven turns for 6X and finer, four for 3X). Bring it back and pass it through the small loop next to the eye.
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3. Now tuck the tag through the large loop you have just made. Wet the knot, then pull the standing line steadily until the coils close up against the eye. Trim the tag to 2 mm.
Davy knot
Tiny, quick and uses almost no tippet, so a leader lasts through many changes of fly. Devised by the Welsh angler Davy Wotton. It must be drawn tight carefully or it can slip.
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1. Thread 8–10 cm of tippet through the eye.
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2. Take the tag across in front of the standing line and back up behind it, making a simple loop in front of the eye, as if beginning an overhand knot.
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3. Bring the tag round once more and through the same loop, so that it lies trapped against the hook eye. Wet it, hold the tag, and pull the standing line until the knot seats. Trim close.
Non-slip loop
A fixed loop lets a fly swing and sink freely where a tight knot would hold it stiffly. Popularised by Lefty Kreh, and one of the strongest fly knots there is.
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1. Tie a loose overhand knot in the tippet about 10 cm from the end. Pass the tag through the hook eye and back through the overhand knot, entering on the same side it left.
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2. Slide the overhand knot down to set the size of the loop, about 5 mm across. Wind the tag around the standing line: five turns for 4X–5X, four turns for 2X–3X.
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3. Pass the tag back through the overhand knot the same way it came out. Wet, then pull the tag gently to gather the turns, and the standing line firmly to lock them.
Triple surgeon’s knot
The easiest reliable join, and it can be tied with cold fingers in bad light. Slightly bulkier than a blood knot. The downward-pointing tag makes a good dropper.
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1. Lay the end of the leader and the new tippet side by side, overlapping by about 15 cm.
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2. Treating the two strands as one, form a loop and pass the leader tag and the whole length of the new tippet through it three times.
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3. Wet the knot. Hold all four strands, two in each hand, and pull evenly so the turns close together. Trim both tags, or leave the one pointing toward the fly as a dropper.
Blood knot
Slim, straight and symmetrical, so it passes cleanly through the rod rings. It works best when the two diameters differ by no more than about 0.05 mm, which is why leader formulas step down gradually.
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1. Cross the two ends to make an X with about 12 cm of overlap, and pinch the crossing.
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2. Wind one tag five times around the other line and bring it back through the gap at the crossing. Wind the second tag five times the other way and pass it through the same gap in the opposite direction.
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3. Wet the knot and pull the two standing lines apart slowly. The turns gather into two neat barrels. Trim the tags close.
Surgeon’s loop
Simply an overhand knot tied twice in a doubled line. It is not quite as slim as a perfection loop, but it is far harder to tie wrongly and every bit as strong.
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1. Double back the last 15 cm of the leader butt to make a long bight.
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2. Tie an overhand knot with the doubled line, then pass the end of the bight through the knot a second time.
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3. Wet it. Hold the loop in one hand, and the standing line and tag together in the other, and pull tight. Aim for a loop about 2 cm long, and trim the tag.
Loop-to-loop
Not strictly a knot: two loops joined so that they lock like a reef knot. Done properly it is strong and slides through the rings. Done wrongly it forms a girth hitch that cuts into itself.
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1. Hold the loop on the end of the fly line in one hand and the leader’s loop in the other.
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2. Pass the leader loop over the fly-line loop. Then feed the far end of the leader, fly end first, through the fly-line loop.
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3. Pull the whole leader through and draw the two loops together. They should seat as a square, flat “handshake”. If one loop strangles the other, undo it and start again.