Uni Knot | Surgeon's Knot | Speed Nail Knot

If someone handed you a new leader, a piece of tippet, and a fly and asked you to nail-knot the leader, blood-knot the tippet, and securely tie on the fly, could you do it quickly and confidently? If you're like most fly fishers, the answer would probably be a sheepish "no." That's partly because fly-fishing guides and instructors like me have done a great job of complicating and even mystifying knots by heralding the latest "best" knot and jamming yet another set of instructions into fly fishers' brains. Yes, some knots are better than others when well tied. But can you remember all those complicated instructions for all those great knots?

The best knot for you is any good knot that you can tie quickly and strongly. So wouldn't it be great if you could tie all three connections with the same motion and if that motion were based on the first and simplest knot you learned as a child--the overhand knot? It turns out that by using the uni knot and its twin, the surgeon's knot, you can do just that. Though the uni knot is not as strong as many other knots, it is stronger than the improved clinch, and its simplicity may make up for what it lacks in strength. The strongest knots, tied poorly, have breaking strengths far below this simple knot. In this article, we will walk through these connections step-by-step. We'll use the uni knot to tie on the leader and the fly and the surgeon's to add tippet.

Knot Tying Warm-Up
@$:For practice, you'll need

some 2-foot lengths of monofilament and backing, 2-foot lengths of old fly line, a hook, and some nippers. We'll call the end that you manipulate the tag end and the end that stands around doing nothing the standing end. Tie your knots by manipulating the tag end with your dominant hand.

The easiest way to make overhand knots with multiple turns of the tag end is to use the middle finger of your dominant hand to hold open the loop and use the middle finger of your other hand to push the tag end through the loop (see figure 1). Capture the tag with the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand after it has come through the loop (figure 2).

First, take some backing, make an overhand knot in the middle of it and tighten it. Now repeat the process on a different piece, but pass the tag end around and through the loop twice before tightening it. This is a double overhand knot. Repeat the process on yet another piece, passing the tag end through four times and tightening. By going through the loop four times, you'll have the foundation of the uni knot for tying a leader to your fly line. Try it. Repeat yet again on a different piece, passing the tag end through five times. This is the foundation of the uni knot for tying on a fly.

The uni knot, which we'll use to tie on a leader and a fly, is a multiple overhand knot in the tag end, tied around another piece of material such as a fly line. To practice, take some backing, make the loop, and place a piece of fly line at the point where the overlapped backing forms the loop. Place a length of fly line where the backing overlaps itself. Now do exactly what you did earlier, but wrap the tag over the fly line and through the loop four times (figure 3). To tighten the knot, hold both the fly line and the standing end of the backing in the crook of your left middle finger. Gently pull the tag away from your left hand. As you do so, use your left thumb and forefinger to push the wraps toward the tag end, which you are pulling on with your right thumb and forefinger. (If you just pull on the tag without pushing the wraps toward it, the wraps will dig into the vinyl coating of the fly line and get stuck, resulting in a unreliable knot.) Repeat this a few times in the backing. I know--practicing knots sounds like little more than brain death, so make it fun. My favorite knot-tying companions are Bob and Ray, the old-time radio comedy greats, on the CD player. I can almost hear them making a skit about the absurdity of a solitary guy practicing fishing knots at his kitchen table.

Connecting Fly to Tippet (Uni Knot) Now we'll tie on a fly with the uni knot and practice with tippet material. Run the tag end up or down through the eye (it doesn't matter which) and oppose the two ends so they are lying side-by-side. Make the loop in the tag end as above by overlapping two portions of the tag. Now instead of placing a piece of fly line at the overlap, lay the overlapped loop against the opposing portion of the tippet as in figure 4. At this point, do exactly what you did earlier: Wrap the tag end over both pieces of material and through the loop multiple times. For tippets as thin as 4X, use five wraps. For 5X and thinner, use six wraps. Lubricate the wraps and pull the tag end up along the tippet. This will pull the wraps away from the fly. Use your thumbnail to further compact the knot by scrunching it away from the fly. When the wraps are fairly tight, slide the knot back down toward the fly and do your final tightening. As you can see, this is a slip knot, allowing you to leave a little loop open to allow the fly maximum action. But for maximum break strength, close the loop completely.