[BKE]

Hello all,
I'm finding what are going to be my go to/ everday knots and the criteria is: simple and dependable. At the present, 3 that I know I'm sticking with are the perfection loop, the surgeons knot and the Davey.

I really like the simplicity of all 3, but am wondering about trimming the Davey too close. I've always liked to trim all knots as close as possible but because the Davey is so minimal it worries me that too close might degrade the dependability.

Anyone out there with bad experiences that they think might have been related to this?

Thanks in advance.

[Frank Whiton]

Hi BKE,

You have picked three good knots. I have not used the Davy Knot but I am experimenting with it here in the office. I can understand your concern with trimming too close. I also was thinking it would not take much for it to come undone. I am trying this with the tag end. In the last picture where the arrow is by the tag end, I am wrapping it back around the main line and in through the little loop inside the big loop. I thought that if the tag end slipped in this case the knot won't come undone. Don't know yet if it will work. I will keep you posted. If you try it let me know if it works. I am going to do 10 test to see if it is as strong as the regular Davy Knot.

Frank

[MrEsox]

it is simple, if you are worried about trimming the tag too short because it might slip and come undone, DONT USE IT. Ya there are many many knots out there. My top is the good old clinch. it is easy and tends to hold up well. For smaller lines like 4lb and 2lb it dont work very well, or 20+ it also fails. So I switched to the improved or doulbe clinch. The extra tieing is still simple but adds a lock to the knot. This lock tends to keep anything from slipping. It is improtant to know a go to knot and keep on it. Over the years I have found the palmer knot to be the best but is hard to tie in a rush. Point is that if your knot needs a long tag end dont use it or try and tie it again. Often with the simple clinch knot doing it again will add a force on force that will act on each other and prevent one from slipping. As far as the actual tag that I leave goes, very little. One needs to keep a small amount to give the knot something to grab on to when pressure is applied. I keep about 1mm of a tag off. Trouble with a large tag can range from fouling the lure/fly to collecting garbage to giving somthing the fish can see or just looking unnatural.

[Fly2Fish]

Frank, I am going up to the San Juan/NM mid-July (13-19), so would appreciate any conclusions you draw on the Davy Knot by then. As you know, the very selective San Juan trout usually require 22-32x flies on 6-7X tippet to catch often-over 20" fat Rainbows & Browns. With that in mind, while my regular clinch knot rarely fails me, I intend to extensively try the Davy Knot this time. The fact that Davy Wooten invented (discovered?) this knot for use in fly-fishing tournaments where quick & secure fly changes is essential is quite a testimony to it. However, I don't find it widely displayed in online knot resources. It seems to amount to a Figure 8 knot from those online resources I have looked at, but that's not clear in the illustration you linked.

[BKE]

FLY2, google it under images and you'll see an illustration from another site, select that and you'll find a video demonstration of the knot. The image definately resembles a figure 8.

[catman]

The Davy Knot is all I use any more, fast and strong...

[Fly2Fish]

BKE, yes I did that earlier & looked at Itinerant Angler, which had a video which did look closely like a figure eight.

Catman, any particular limitations you see with the Davy Knot's use, such as tippet size, etc.?

Thanks both of you for your informative comments.

[catman]

Originally Posted by Fly2Fish

BKE, yes I did that earlier & looked at Itinerant Angler, which had a video which did look closely like a figure eight.

Catman, any particular limitations you see with the Davy Knot's use, such as tippet size, etc.?

Thanks both of you for your informative comments.

I used 7X today dry flying with Floro no problems with a 12' line total...

[catman]

Originally Posted by catman

I used 7X today dry flying with Floro no problems with a 12' line total...

I forgot to mention I don't use the Davy knot when using mono, I have found it to fail and slip, maybe it's just me, with that said I use a Orvis knot with mono.