Knots

I'm off for a day of fishing tomorrow. Hopefully it will go well and I'll have something nice to report back. In the mean time...

I mentioned on one of my recent posts about the trouble I've been having with 12lb fluorocarbon busting on me when hooking large adult steelhead. To try and correct whatever has been the problem, I did a bunch of tests with Maxima Ultragreen, fluorocarbon, and a couple of no name mono brands. All of the 12lb varieties pretty much acted the same. They were strong on slow steady pulls, but bust equally with quick jerk tests.

I did however come to some conclusions. First and foremost. I will never use perfection loops again when going after big fish. They break very easily with a strong jerk. Secondly, a knot that I use for trout is not good enough for steelhead. And that would be the Davey knot. It is so easy to tie, and the strength is incredible with steady pulls. But jerk tests performed badly using both FC and mono.

With what I now know, I've retied every loop on all of my sinktips. Instead of perfection loops, I now have non-slip loop knots. I'll also now be tying all my flies on with the same.

The days I fish strictly for trout, I can probably go back to the easy to tie Davey knot. But for steelhead, it isn't worth the risk. The fish are so few and far between, it is not fun to lose one because I was unwilling to spend an extra 30 seconds tying a better performing knot on (again, the Davey knot is great with a steady pull, but break pretty easily with a decent jerk).