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New Fly Guy – The Davy Knot

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The Davy Knot (created by Dave Wotton) is amazingly simple to tie.  Follow this link to the instructions.

It is much easier to tie than a clinch or improved clinch I normally tie using my forceps.

Now…. the website with the instructions claims that the knot retains almost 100% of breaking strength based on the fact that it is used in competitive flyfishing.

The “2012 Tippet Shootout” article by Lee Wulff did applied testing and discovered that, in general, the Davy Knot is not as good as the other common options.  The best tippet to fly knot was the “San Diego Jam,” but it is more complex to tie.  As I looked at the results, the difference in breaking strength was more pronounced on heavy tippet.

For example, TroutHunter Floro 2X had a raw breaking strength of 10.45 lbs.  The San Diego would break at 7.38 and the Davy failed at 6.28.  But, when you drop to 6X, the raw breaking level was 3.83 and the San Diego failed at 2.75 and the Davy at 2.46.  Not sure I would be able to tell the difference between a break at 2.75 and 2.46.

The bottom line is that the Davy is very simple and quick.  Unless you are using heavy duty line and going after hogs, you don’t really gain that much using the more complex knot.

Beyond the knot issue, this was a great article on tippet strength.  You should read it – the tippet to tippet connection strength loss is staggering with the joint reducing the breaking strength by over 50%… so who cares about the tippet to fly! Makes you think twice about building your own leaders.

In fact, you should switch to a furled leader – they last forever and you can avoid a lot of tippet to tippet connections.  I love the furled leaders created by John Quigley – low cost, robust… top gear!

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Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore

Disclaimer and Warning:  The contents of this site reflect the opinion of the author and you, the reader, must exercise care in the use and interpretation of this information.  Fishing is a dangerous sport.  You can slip and fall on rocks and sustain severe injury.  You can drown.  You can get hooks caught in your skin, face, eyes or other sensitive places.  All sorts of bad things can happen to you when to go into the woods to visit the places documented here.  Forests, streams and lakes are wild areas and any number of bad things can happen.  You must make your own judgment in terms of acceptable behavior and risk and not rely on anything posted here.  I disclaim all liability and responsibility for any actions you take as a result of reading the articles on this site.  If you do not agree with this, you should not read anything posted on this site.

Disclaimer and Warning:  The contents of this site reflect the opinion of the author and you, the reader, must exercise care in the use and interpretation of this information.  Fishing is a dangerous sport.  You can slip and fall on rocks and sustain severe injury.  You can drown.  You can get hooks caught in your skin, face, eyes or other sensitive places.  All sorts of bad things can happen to you when to go into the woods to visit the places documented here.  Forests, streams and lakes are wild areas and any number of bad things can happen.  You must make your own judgment in terms of acceptable behavior and risk and not rely on anything posted here.  I disclaim all liability and responsibility for any actions you take as a result of reading the articles on this site.  If you do not agree with this, you should not read anything posted on this site.

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