Tips on Getting Wind Knots out of Fly Line?

[Letort]

I have a #4 fly line with two wind knots (I found myself tossing a weighted wooly bugger on my dry fly rig - obviously poorly).

Any tips to get them out?

 

[tomitrout]

dubbing needle, a magnifier and patience.

 

[dryflyguy]

Yeah - lots of patience and good magnifiers for sure.

Wind knots in the leader or tippet or easier to fix - just cut!

 

[ryansheehan]

Not wind knots, they're casting errors :-D. On the river I just grab a fly and work it out that way. If its really tight I cut and tie more tippet.

Edit: Holy crap, just saw it's in the fly line! Thats a new one to me, good luck.

 

[1fish]

I've never had a wind knot in my fly line. In my leader, yes, but never in my fly line.

I was turning some ground over the other day to plant some things. I came across a small inch and a half long red worm, that had tied itself in a fairly tight overhand knot. I've never seen that before either. I actually got it untied, but I don't know if I helped it or hurt it.

 

[Letort]

I skipped the magnifying glass. That's what I need.

 

[JackM]

Pinch the line about a few millimeters on either side of the knot and force the two ends toward one another. This may relieve some pressure and allow you to get under the wrap easier.

 

[jrcll]

even if you get the knot out, if it is in the leader, I`d still be concerned about a weak spot, cut your losses, cut the leader and retie, triple surgeons loop and your done in a min or two

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

Allow your backcast to straighten out a bit more and use a more even acceleration on your front cast.

 

[FarmerDave]

Letort, I never had a wind knot in the actual fly line, but if I did, here is how I would handle it.

If I decided to ask for help on a public forum, I'd claim I created the knots on purpose. Did it while demonstrating to someone else on what causes them. Second one was to prove the first wasn't a fluke.

Either that, or I would blame it on a fishing buddy who I let try out my outfit.

;-)

I don't know of any tricks, but if you are going to use some kind of needle, wetting the knot to reduce the friction might help you undo it. I might even consider using some kind of non-petroleum lubricant to help release the knot.

 

[Letort]

Thanks for all the replies.

Two needles and a magnifying glass did the trick.

Now, to work on my casting.

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

Just take your time and find just the slightest slower rhythm coming forward. The knots are caused by over-acceleration on the front cast in most cases. Either that, or by not allowing the back cast enough time to get right.

 

[bigslackwater]

I'm thinking he meant in the leader. In the leader, I simply cut it and put a blood knot in. Building my own taper leaders, it's not a big deal. If the wind knot is in the right spot, I leave it and use it as a stopper for my split shot. I recently read something from Lefty Kreh that he purposely put a knot in the line under his split shot, claiming that it doesn't affect the line strength. I'm sure that's a debate for another discussion!

 

[SurfCowboyXX]

bigslackwater--I have often done the same thing when nymphing, especially when using 5x or better. I've never had a break-off because of it, but there's a first time for everything.

 

[Letort]

Just to clarify, I had two knots into the FLY line - a very supple 4 wt, which I ended up tossing cone head wooly buggers with.

Wind knots in the leader, I just cut and blood knot on a new tippet.

 

[Blackhackle]

You should remove all wind knots as they do weaken the leader. Probably okay with playing and landing smaller fish, but unfortunately the wind knot could fail if you tie into a larger fish. Been there, done that. Check my whole leader every hour or so to avoid having that happen.

 

[Swattie87]

Ever since I switched to braided/furled leaders, I don't bother getting them out. The braided section is so much stronger than the tippet there's no way the braided part will break at a wind knot before the tippet does anyway. If a braided leader gets really mucked up with them, I'll demote it to my Brookie leader.

If I get a knot in the tippet section on bigger water, I can just cut it off and put a new piece on if I think it may be an issue on a bigger fish. On a Brookie stream, the likelihood of a Brookie, or even the odd small stream Brown breaking the 4x I use, even with a wind knot, is low.

FWIW - When nymphing, which I don't do much of, I'll deliberately put knots in my tippet to hold the split shot still, as mentioned above. I've never had the tippet fail at the split shot knot when doing this...It still breaks at the fly most often, or once in a while, at the tippet to braided section connection.

 

[PENZZZ]

Forgive me if I’m taking this discussion too far off course. But my proficiency in creating wind knots diminished significantly this season. Did I suddenly become a better caster? No, I fished most of this season with fiberglass fly rods built on modern fiberglass blanks. The slower action of these rods allows me to be much more relaxed when casting. I feel the line loading the rod better. A slow acceleration of the rod creates nice loops with less effort than with graphite rods. Result: relaxed casting and nearly no wind knots.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I will get the lazy cast knots every once in awhile. Like after the 200th cast or so.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I've been know to use a hook to pop the knot out.