Old knots

[Roadkill]

For most of my fishing I have for over 20 years used the Duncan loop (Uni knot). I learned it from a friend who learned it commercial fishing for halibut in Alaska.
http://www.netknots.com/html/uni_knot.html

I haven't used the old standard Clinch or Improved Clinch Knot since then.

[letumgo]

Lance - Great post & very interesting discussion so far. I have not used the knot you asked about. My favorite knot is a Duncan Loop knot.

The following text was copied from one of my older posts discussing knots:

I am especially fond of using a Duncan Loop knot (open loop enables the fly to move around freely making the fly more lively/lifelike). I use a Duncan Loop knot almost every time I tye on a fly. The Duncan loop knot will seat (slip) on the line, so you have to be careful when tightening up the loop. I usually tighten in a few inched up the line and then snug the knot in place with my thumb nail. Then carefully grip the knot between your thumb and fore finger and slide the knot down the line to where you want it. I then pinch the fly in one hand and the knot in the other (with the knot still between 1/4" to 1/2" open) and pull tightly in opposite directions. Be careful not to pull the fly without holding onto the knot itself. If you pull the fly and the main line, the knot will slip down to the eye of the hook.

Some people find the knot slippage, with the Duncan Loop Knot, to be an issue. The knot can become seated against the eye of the hook after a fish or a snag has pulled against the fly. The smaller the line size, the more this seems to be an issue. In most cases, I can grip the knot with my thumb nail and finger and pull it back up the line after catching a fish. I generally fish with 6 lb to 10 lb fluorocarbon tippet. The fluorocarbon material may behave a bit differently than mono, in terms of knot slippage.

There are a couple other things I like about the Duncan Loop Knot:

I use the knot slippage to my advantage when going after large fish with lighter tippets. I think the knot slippage helps take up some of the initial shock when a large fish hits a fly. I do quite a bit of steelhead fishing on 6 lb tippet, with good results, using a Duncan Loop Knot. It may be my imagination, but it is one of the reasons I like the knot.

The tag end (the part trimmed off after tying) of the Duncan knot tends to be very small (around 1/4" to 1/2") once you get the hang of tying it. That minimizes the amount that gets trimmed off the tipped each time you need to retye a fly onto the line.

I found a YouTube video illustrating the Duncan Loop knot (see link below):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U_dNFTTX1w

Here is another link containing a simple animation of what they are calling a Uni-Knot, plus some additional background info:
http://www.animatedknots.com/uniknot/in ... dknots.com

The past few years I have been using tiny metal rings to join my leader to my tippet material. It makes it really easy to tye on a new piece of tippet material (standard clinch knot at the ring end) and Duncan loop knot on the other end (fly end). I've found my leaders last much longer, since I don't keep clipping away more and more leader as I tye on new tippet. I used to use a blood knot for this joint, but it shortens the leader each time new tippet is tyed on.

[chase creek]

I've been using the improved clinch knot for years. Seems to work well, and it's simple (Even I can do it!). My sight and manual dexterity are certainly not what they used to be, but I can handle this one.
I've been a Boy Scout leader for many years, and can tie a mean Turk's Head, but those complex knots using fine tippets just escape me. Frustration should not be part of fly fishing.

[Smuggler]

Nothing wrong with the Duncan loop, I use that pretty frequently as well. I firmly believe that the action that knot creates with your fly(s) induces strikes.

I've had a couple of days that I can remember quite vividly just by changing to that knot and giving the flies a twitch once or twice during the drift completely changed the day from crappy to fantastic. Great knot.

[flyfishwithme]

I use the blood knot every outing pretty much, great knot. I've never seen a figure 8 knot used like that as a little dropper though, that's awesome.. might have to try that. But yea, blood knots and Davy Wotton's knot are the two I use. I've heard the wotton knot is weak but, I've caught some pretty big fish on it and got out of pretty hellacious snags as well, I'll stick with it.

I use the Davy knot also and I had some very big fish on fine tippets. I do 'knot' (pun) believe that it is a weak knot.
I was interested in some of the dropper attachment knots. I have used all of these and regularly use the one on the bottom of the 3rd column.

[Ruard]

I sometimes use the last not on the third row to make a dropper on my leader.


greeting

[Jerry G]

I'm a fairly new convert to the Davy knot as the improved clinch knot has served me well for a number of season's. Often fishing smaller flies I thought the Davy knot was worth a try. After a couple failures I found snugging the knot a bit tighter than perhaps what I did at first seemed to help. The other thing I do now on each tie is to leave a bit more tag than I would with the improved clinch. There are times I still struggle getting that tag end through for the second loop but I'm still enjoyong the small knot that is accomplished with this method.

Regards, Jerry

[Donald Nicolson]

I use the Grinner Knot for my flies, also known as the Uni Knot or the Duncan Loop.

[fflutterffly]

I use the uni know almost exclusively not only for tying on flies, joining, but also for my indicators that I want to adjust. I don't tighten it down 100% which allows it to be moved up and down the line. The Uni seems to be perfect for those mornings when the temperatures are well below 30 and my hands are shaking. Instead of a blood knot I like this knot as well.

[Smuggler]

Just wanted to share my experience with the Davy knot last weekend.

As I was walking the bank I noticed sulphers starting to emerge and soon after fish were rising.. so, naturally I tired on a sulpher softie and got into some nice fish. In the process of doing that I must of hit the same low hanging branch 10 times, never lost that fly, never broke the knot on any of the fish that proceeded the hellacious snagging. And when I say hellacious snagging, I mean I was really wrapped up haha.

Plain and simple the knot takes 2 seconds to tie and it could probably hold a brick. Now granted generally the trout I go after are anywhere from fingerlings to 20, 23 inches. I would def switch to a uni-knot or something else for lake run browns or big guys out west.