Joseph B. Healy - The Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Most Important Knots for Fresh and Salt Water

Copyright 2017 by Joseph B. Healy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Tom Lau

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2121-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2122-7

Printed in China

Contents

Preface: Why Knots?

In the Skyhorse series of Pocket Guide to Knots books, we pose the question right from the get-go: Why knots? Today, we have all manner of fastener systems and glues by which anyone can affix one thing to another. Velcro, snaps, fasteners, buckles, super glue, epoxyall can do the job for us, right?

Not so much in fishing applications. We want to work with our hands and our minds when fishingwe want the tactile feel of being connected to a wild thing and the satisfaction of knowing that we created the connections by which were joined. Also, fishing is a craft of skill, and isnt it more fulfilling to develop the muscle memory that enables us to loop, twist, and thread lines together to form an unbreakable knot? Sure it is. Were really endeavoring to create unbreakable bonds, which is a philosophical or spiritual, or even metaphorical, truth. Part of fishingor equestrian or prepping skills, to mention two other subjects in the Skyhorse Pocket Knot seriesis being ready and able to join lines for specific purposes, anytime you want, either while preparing to fish away from the water at the boat dock or in your garage, or while youre waist-deep wading in a river, or sitting in a kayak or a canoe, or lounging on a shoreline. Heres another thought: We dont need any gizmos when weve got two hands and a brain and can learn the skills that call to mind the slogan be prepared. Being an angler means being prepared for any line fixes, at any time. Further, fishing is a challenge of experimentation and exploration and discovery. Knots bind us to that, too.

I think back on a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota, when I was driving with determination to get to Sioux Falls for an early flight the next morning after fishing in Yellowstone National Park and spending time in Montana and Wyoming. In the afternoon, I had to take a break from drivingand I needed to fish. I stopped at a well-worn parking area and slipped on my waders and fishing vest and assembled my 6-weight fly rod. No one was around, it was about two in the afternoon on an August day. I walked down to the stream, a meander leading into a pond. A beaten path encircled the pond, which probably attracted most of the fishing attention at that pullout. I followed the stream up, against its current, away from the pond. After fifty yards or so, I saw a long shadowbut it moved, undulating side to side. It was a massive trout. Perhaps this stream was stocked? I saw catch-and-release only/artificial flies only signs along the path. Special regulations, a signal this was special trout water. I watched the fish as it held in a deep pool, and it eased to the surface, gently eating something and leaving a dimple in the flat water. I looked closer into the water and saw cream-colored mayflies on the surface. A big fish meant serious food, so rather than try to match the hatch, I tied on a meaty grasshopper pattern. I was ampedlike buck fever for hunters, I had big-trout fever. With shaking hands, I hurried to tie on the hopper imitation. I cast upstream of the fish and mended the fly line slightly as the hopper drifted down toward the fish. I saw a slight shift in the fishs attitudemaybe it took a look at the fake hopper, but it wasnt convinced? I cast again, flipping a mend in the line to the right and then left, and steered the fly to the outskirts of the fishs vision. It did not hesitateit streaked sideways and swirled at the surface to engulf my Joes Hopper. I brought up my rod, tightening the line and bending the rod. I had a solid hookset for about twenty seconds. The fish swirled away toward a deadfall near the streambank and I flexed the rod to try and turn the fishs momentum. And my knot pulled free: My fly and the fish were gone. It was big fish, probably a cutthroat trout or a cut-bow hybrid. Of course, Ill never know what it was. I had a curlicue on the end of my tippet, the tell-tale sign that the knot pulled free. It was supposed to be an Improved Clinch Knot, but I had messed up something in my haste to tie it. After that, I methodically rededicated myself to tying dependable knots. Since that time, I havent had another Improved Clinch fail me, and that was about sixteen years ago. Ive caught striped bass, bluefish, tarpon, permit, snook, grouper, bonefish, sea trout, redfish, brown, brook, and rainbow trout, bass, pike, and panfishall without knot failures, at least not at the terminal knot where the tippet is tied to the fly. Why knots? Thats why. I learned the knots I needed, I practiced and improved, I committed the tying instructions to my muscle memory (to the point where I can tie most fishing knots at night in the dark), and I have many fine memories of great days catching wonderful fish. No snaps, fasteners, or glues necessary. A fisherman is only as good as his (or her) knots is a common truism. More accurately, fisherman will never land a fish if they dont master basic knots. You may hook or sting a fish, as in my anecdote above, but you wont achieve that satisfaction of landing and releasing or keeping the fish, whatever your preference. Knots are foundations of fishing, you need to learn them, just as you need to learn where to find fish in a stream or how to read the tides to know where fish might be in the ocean. We need knotsthey complete our connections.

Introduction

I fell in love with the idea and concept of fly fishing many years before I actually began to fly fish. I grew up on a lake in Central New York, jigging for walleyes, casting Hula-Poppers for bass, and ice-fishing. Before that, I dunked worms for trout in area rivers. But even as a child, I always wanted to fly fish.

For the curious conventional-tackle angler like younger me, fly fishing seemed more of a natural way to connect with the environment, it seemed more skilled than my jigging. Little did I know how good it would get, or where the craft would eventually take me. Ive caught tarpon in the Florida Keys, silver salmon in Alaska, permit in Mexico, bonefish in Belize, Atlantic salmon in Ireland. All on flies.

I dont particularly like writing the above words, especially because fly fishing has also given me humility. I thrive on the connections with other anglers, with being part of the environment, with the fish (of course), with the movement and physical mechanics of casting, and with the intellectual challenge of discerning what the fish are eating I truly love all that. I also feel gratified by the technical, endemic knowledge Ive acquired along the way, a big portion of which includes knot tying. As my friend Phil Monahan points out in this book, the most difficult knots canstrangelybe the most gratifying to tie. I dont include any truly impossible knots in this book. Phil is speaking of the Albright Knot (also known as the Albright Special)a knot Phil ties well. And when Phil gives me a chance to tie ithe volunteered to be my designated Albright tier for a number of years when we worked togetherI feel gratified by the having the skill to do it, too.