Page 37 - Joseph B. Healy "The Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots"

casting a weight-forward fly line, versus attempting to cast a level line, for

example.) You need the proper butt section for the leader to turn over.”
Chico makes an argument for using lighter fly rods, when the
conditions allow, because that will reduce the weight of the fly line and
leader assembly hitting the water and therefore allow you to make more
delicate presentations. “Fish will feel the slap on the water of heavier
leaders and lines, so lighter is better, when conditions allow,” he says.
What does he use to connect leader sections? Hands down, the Blood

Knot. “I don’t like the Surgeon’s Knot because you have to overlap the
lines a lot, and if you don’t pull the lines evenly, the knot doesn’t set.”
Plus, he says, if you have to retie the leader, the Surgeon’s Knot uses a
lot of line and often you have to start again with fresh line, whereas you
can retie Blood Knots. Further, Chico feels a Blood Knot is stronger.

And the Blood Knot doesn’t create complications. “When it is set
properly and trimmed, it is the most aerodynamic knot, but more
importantly it doesn’t catch much grass when retrieved through the water.
But the Surgeon’s Knot, the tags go out at angles and pick up a huge
amount of grass. For these reasons, I use the Blood Knot, and I’ve
caught everything from bonefish to bass, to sailfish, to four or five marlin,
and about a million tarpon.”

Chico’s tip on using a Blood Knot: “You have to put more turns around
the lower strength or thinner line, than around the heavier or thicker line.”
He recommends using a six-turn-to-four-turn configuration. However, be
careful about the bulkiness of the extra turns. “You really need those
extra turns going from the leader to the tippet. I don’t need six-turns-to-
four turns going from the butt section to the next section, way up on the

leader. I need the extra strength down near the fly, from the leader to the
tippet, say from twenty-pound to the twelve-pound sections that I
advocate the six to four turns. It’s at the end of a leader, that’s the
weakest link—the connection from the tippet to the next piece up. Or, for
even more strength at this connection, you can tie an Improved Blood
Knot. That might be a little stronger.” He also mentions that you could use
a Bimini to form the tippet section and tie the double line of the Bimini to

the previous leader section, particularly for bigger fish such as tarpon.
Finally, Chico says regardless of the type of leader, he doesn’t want to
fight any fish too long because that imperils the fish’s chances of survival.
For the terminal knot used to tie on the fly, he almost always uses a loop