Switching flies

J

jdl2425

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Dec 21, 2011
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I was wondering how you guys untie a fly from your leader and put a new one on. Do you just cut the fly off or do you untie the knot and then tie a new fly on. I don't want to cut off snips of my leader off just to use different flies and I have trouble undoing the knot. Any help and advice would be appreciated, thanks.
 
You can undo your knot? Wow, I think everybody here will tell you they snip it off. It's part of fishing. Now, if I am nymphing and using more than one fly, the fly farthest up the leader is a pattern that I have a lot of confidence in. This will allow me to keep it on as long as possible. However, if you don't have a fly like that, learn to tie that fly off the tag end of the tippet material you tied onto your leader. I usually will tie on a prince nymph or stonefly there.
 
Snip the leader off as close to the knot as possible. Yes, you'll eventually use up the leader doing this, but you can restore the length by adding tippet.

Tippet is the "thin" end of the leader, and you can buy spools of it to match the tippet on the end of your leader.
 
Snip it off. Leader is cheap, plus knots weaken the leader.
 
Snip the line. God ... my eyes have enough problems tying the fly on now .. besides I don' think they make a magnifying glass big enough for me to try and undo a knot. :lol:
 
Heritage-Angler wrote:
Snip the leader off as close to the knot as possible. Yes, you'll eventually use up the leader doing this, but you can restore the length by adding tippet.

Tippet is the "thin" end of the leader, and you can buy spools of it to match the tippet on the end of your leader.

That's what you do.

I started adding this little step to my snipping the fly off procedure. I make 2 snips. The first snip is just a little bit back from the knot. (A little, like 1/16 inch.) Then I cut the knot off the fly.

The reason for doing this, rather than just snipping the knot, is to have straight tippet at the end to thread on a new fly, rather than that little curly end that makes it hard to thread the new fly on.

It helps a little bit when your eyes aren't so great and you're threading tippet through the eye of a small fly.
 
The knot unraveled is probably only a half inch or so. That's not worth saving...not to mention the curls in the line after a knot is pulled apart...would be hard to work with.
 
jdl - what everybody else said - snip it, add tippet as necessary.

What hasn't been mentioned is that if you are able to untie the knot, you're not doing it right. What knot are you using? I use the improved clinch knot:

Kn6sV.jpg


 
animated knots by grog. Google it. You will see every knot you ever wanted, for every purpose. You can watch slide shows, or videos of how to tie them.

For tying the fly on, I am currently using the Orvis knot, though my go to knot before that for most lures and even flies was the Trilene knot.

 
When you eventually take a foot or so of your leader off then tie on some "tippet". Use a blood knot and you're good to go. I think many newbies think about the same thing as you and just replace the whole leader rather than just adding tippet.

Keep asking questions!

Ryan
 
To be clear, when they say, "cut the leader" they are actually talking about cutting the tippet. You should never cut the leader. I could be wrong but perhaps the leader, along with the tippet is technically the entire leader. I don't know. But calling the tippet end the leader was confusing at first. You tie your fly to the tippet and that's what should be clipped when removing it.
 
I use regular, not improved, clinch knots, and I have to admit I often do untie them. Simply put the knot between fingernails, and slide up. It re-elongates the knot and pulls right out.

Of course, the end piece of mono is twisted up and needs to be snipped back anyway. I don't know why I do it.
 
pcray1231 wrote:
I use regular, not improved, clinch knots, and I have to admit I often do untie them. Simply put the knot between fingernails, and slide up. It re-elongates the knot and pulls right out.

Of course, the end piece of mono is twisted up and needs to be snipped back anyway. I don't know why I do it.

I don't know why I do a lot of the things I do either.... lol.

I was surprised to read this. I have a good friend who doesn't improve his clinch knots either. I found out about this one day at the Lack after he broke off two fish in a row... I busted his balls enough that he started tying the improved and had no further issues. Maybe it was just him. But I do see how one could undo a regular clinch knot... Passing the tag through the extra loop is what really locks it down.

I'm kind of anal with my knots - I make sure every twist is stacked up nicely when I cinch it down.
 
loose enough of my patients tying knots and couldn't fathom trying to untie it even if i could accomplish it.. snip it
 
ryguyfi wrote:
When you eventually take a foot or so of your leader off then tie on some "tippet". Use a blood knot and you're good to go. I think many newbies think about the same thing as you and just replace the whole leader rather than just adding tippet.

Ryan

That's a very good point. I remember starting out, and being confused about this too, and I've seen this with many beginners.

For those doing instruction of new flyfishers, what this points up is the importance of teaching newbies about this. About what tippet spools to carry, and a good knot to use for adding tippet, and how to rebuild the end of your leader so that it works, i.e. turns over your fly.

This is among the most important things to learn right away, but maybe it's overlooked somewhat in flyfishing instruction?
 
I was surprised to read this. I have a good friend who doesn't improve his clinch knots either.

I'm lazy with knots, mostly because I rarely have problems with them. The clinch knot works well for me. I give it a good pull to test before fishing, and it's usually ok. If not, I retie. And blood knots? For on-stream work I often just tie two clinch knots to each other. I'll tie true blood knots at home when building a leader, or on-stream when expecting to stress a knot (expecting big fish on light tackle). But most of the time I find the double clinch so much easier and quicker and effective enough to get the job done.

It's exceedingly rare that I break the line when I'm not attempting to break the line (snags, etc.).

That said, I've noticed on the rare occasions I use fluoro, my knots tend to slip more, and I often have to "improve" my clinch knots and use true blood knots to keep it from slipping.
 
I suspect the OP is using knotless, tapered leaders. If that's the case, then out of the package the leader is essentially one piece, just tapered down to whatever size tippet the package is marked as. So to a newbie it basically seems like you're cutting your leader as you remove the flies...you are in a way because it's all one continuous piece.

If that's the case, as the others have mentioned, once you've snipped off a foot or two of the fine "tippet" end, then just tie a new piece of tippet of the same diameter on, and tie your flies on to that...repeat until you've worked up into the thicker taper of the leader.

One other suggestion...you could go to a furled/braided leader with a loop style connection on the tippet end. You just tie new tippet onto the loop as you use it up. They're more expensive ($10 a piece or so), but I can often get an entire season out of one leader that way. You're only cutting/removing/replacing tippet using this system, the leader stays in tact the whole time.

Bottom line though...you gotta snip the flies off and take the curled/knotted piece of tippet with it. You need new, straight tippet to get a good new knot, and the tippet will be weaker than its advertised breaking strength if you retire with the curled/knotted section from the previous knot.
 
pcray1231 wrote:
I'm lazy with knots, mostly because I rarely have problems with them. The clinch knot works well for me.

Can't argue with that. Perfect example of YMMV.
 
Consider tippet rings, especially if you primarily nymph fish. Tie that on to the end of your leader then tie tippet to that. This way your leader stays in tact. You can do it with dry flies too but I really don't like it when using small dry flies. My two cents for the week.
 
Tippet rings are the way to go. I use them even when fishing small dry flys. The ring saves your leader and makes changing flys and tippet a snap.
 
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