Apr 29 2008
Knot Again!
Regardless of how much experience one might have fly fishing, there are those few problems that everyone faces at one time or another. One of the most common, and unfortunate predicaments that occur when fly fishing, is wind knots, or ‘birds nests’ as they are commonly referred to.
These pesky entanglements can result from numerous occurrences, from dropping a line over itself, to having a gust of wind redirect the line into itself, causing it to become so tightly woven together that not even an eagle scout could untie it. What tends to make these knots so particularly irritating is that fact that tippet material, the transparent line on the end of the leader, is extraordinarily thin. Furthermore, this line has a layer of PVC coating that make the tipper very smooth, allowing the knots that it forms to become very tight, very quickly. When dealing with the problem of wind knots, there are two key things to keep in mind: never pull the line, and never ignore the problem.
I have witnessed numerous fishermen, who, when they receive a knot in there line, and the line has already hit the water, they try to ignore the knot, hoping that it will somehow untangle itself before the next cast. Although this is a common practice, it is completely useless, and will, almost always, result in an even larger mess that if the fisherman stopped what he was doing, and carefully untangled the line.
Secondly, many fishermen, when they finally do retrieve their line, with the intent of unknotting it, they typically go about it wrong. Most people, when they are given the task to remove a knot from their tippet, will immediately pull both ends of the line. Although there may be rare cases in which this may be productive, the majority of the time, it will only tighten the knots, and make them even harder to remove.
Furthermore, many fishermen will fight with a knot, and then when it they think they have completely removed it, they will find that all that is left is a small overhand knot somewhere along the tippet. If you talk to them, a majority of fishermen will say that they would prefer to simply leave that small knot there, and not have to worry about it, than take the extra few minutes to fully restore their line back to its original condition. What is dangerous about this is that contrary to common belief, those small knots do make a huge difference when fishing. Not only do they cause minor disturbances to the line when casting, which may result in more knots, but they actually make the line visible in the water due to the fact that they disrupt the flow of water down the line, as well as making that small part of the line translucent. Overall, leaving those small knots in your tippet can drastically affect how productive your day of fishing will be.
So, when faced with the difficult task of knot removal, there are a few simple steps to take that will save you a lot of headache, stress, and money. First, don’t avoid a knot. Always take the time to properly remove knots from your line, and never expect the knots to magically untangle themselves. Secondly, when untangling a knot, do not pull on the lines; instead, allowing the line to form large loops. This will make the problem more apparent, and will allow you to better deal with it. Thirdly, do not leave small knots on your line. As I stated above, no matter how small the knot may be, it can very drastically affect your fishing.
So remember, when you are dealing with a knot, save yourself all the stress and swearing, and work through the problem logically.
