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Ask Evan: Should I use a loop knot?
Our partner at Angler Adventures doles out expert advice
Q: Should I use a loop knot?
Evan: Learning to tie good knots is one of the most important skills for any fisherman. It’s also important to learn which knots work best in certain situations— I’ll save that for a longer discussion. I just came back from visiting Soul Fly Lodge in the Bahamas and one topic that came up in discussion each day was which knot to use when tying the fly to the end of the leader.
Since I started seriously saltwater fishing, my go-to terminal knot has always been a non-slip mono loop — I find it easy to tie correctly in a moving boat, with cold fingers, or in the dark.
At Soul Fly, however, there was no fly-to-tippet knot consensus. Here are two of the different perspectives on my beloved loop knot that resonated most with me:
- Size of knot. While a loop knot is an easy knot to tie, it’s also easy to tie incorrectly. Even though one guide loved the loop knot and used it on every fly, he was careful to tie a super small loop. That adjustment meant there was no chance of the fly fouling around the loop. We found that a loop knot that I was happy with was much too big for his liking.
- For shrimp, but not crab. A couple of the guides expressed a preference for loop knots on shrimp flies, but when it came to tying crab flies, they wanted a direct connection to the fly like a clinch knot. The guides' focus was creating realistic action for each pattern. If a crab is moving, for example, it is either heading straight for the bottom or heading straight away from the predator. Neither of those escape actions leaves any room for side-to-side movement, so a loop knot may not be the right fit.
I had an awesome experience at Soul Fly and learned a lot from the guides. While I remain a steadfast loop knot guy, my perspective is more nuanced than before.
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