Knots Blog- Murray’s Fly Shop- Edinburg, Virginia- Fly Fishing
Sitting in Dan Bailey’s fly shop one morning years ago with several guides, Chester Marion calmly said , “I lost a good one yesterday evening up at Carters Bridge when the leader broke”. We all moaned for him but actually paid little attention until he said, “the leader broke in the middle”. This caused us all to look up in shock because in those days we all used knotted tapered leaders. This resulted from a break at a leader knot where the leader was constructed. The cause was simple: whoever built that leader did not draw the knot down tightly when it was constructed. This shows us that when our knots break we do not draw them down tight enough when we tie them. Remember this when you are replacing your tippet and tying your fly on.