When to re-tie? R wind-knots bad?

Wade Rivers

Wade Rivers

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Reading some of the other threads I saw some opinions about when, how often, to re-tie the tippet and fly.

Full disclosure: I hate re-tieing! If my knot was good enough to land the fish, my next knot might be weaker. Sigh...

For a couple years now, I've had a big wind-knot up in the fat tapered section of my leader, so that's ok. Then this week I noticed a tight mess right around my tippet ring. Who knows how long the clusterf#*@ has been there? I landed some fat fish on it but finally did untangle and re-do it.

PS. trout, not steelies
 
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Im too lazy to change if i see a wind knot and i just hope it won't break, until i hook THE fish and of course the knot breaks and bye bye fish....:mad:
 
1. Don't retie unless the tippet gets too short to use.
2. Don't retie unless you lose the next fish to a bad knot.
If situation #2 occurs, go Zen and then move on to next fish. Losing fish to bad knots, poor retrieval, or breaking off due to low strength tippet is simply part of fly fishing and a good character lesson.
Laziness is its own reward!
 
DimeBrite said:
You must retie, no option.
Click to expand...
It's always an option! As a younger angler I always retied my tippet to fly knot after landing a steelhead, thinking that the knot may have weakened from playing a fish. Yeah, but what about all those heavy limbs and branches I snagged and yarded in but didn't re-tie? Somewhere along the way I caught more than a few steelhead, so I figured playing steelhead wasn't any harder on the terminal knot than yarding in snags. I guess I figured, what the heck, might as well see how many steelhead I can land without re-tying. Me being me, I never kept exact count but can report that it can be several. Or only one. Or somewhere in between. I guess I need to care more about landing the next fish to go back to re-tying after each one.
 
I got to the point where I retied probably more than I needed to, but that was 'cause I was black and blue from kicking myself ...
 
Wade Rivers said:
Reading some of the other threads I saw some opinions about when, how often, to re-tie the tippet and fly.

Full disclosure: I hate re-tieing! If my knot was good enough to land the fish, my next knot might be weaker. Sigh...

For a couple years now, I've had a big wind-knot up in the fat tapered section of my leader, so that's ok. Then this week I noticed a tight mess right around my tippet ring. Who knows how long the clusterf#*@ has been there? I landed some fat fish on it but finally did untangle and re-do it.

PS. trout, not steelies
Click to expand...
I grab the line on either side of the wind knot and give it a "pop" that shouldn't break the line normally. If it breaks, I re-tie.
 
Because I almost always use a nonslip loop and heavy tippet, it's been fairly easy to observe that it's not knots (hand-tied or wind-tied) that that cause the majority of breakoffs.
Probably 80% of the time the loop itself is severed, presumably by wear and tear from the hook eye. Another 10% appear to be from a badly tied knot that gives out on the first snag or fish encountered after re-tying!
If it's a good knot, it will usually hold until the loop breaks. A knot that has held up to a fish is a known quantity. A new knot is an added risk. (I.e. if it ain't broke, don't fix it.)

I just give it a good yank test once in a while like Zak does. Typically a breakoff comes when I've forgotten to check it for too long.

Why would you re-tie if everything holds up to stress testing?
 
A “wind knot” cuts leader strength in half. I check for wind knots after a bad cast, I then untie it before it gets pulled tight. If I have a tightened knot in my tippet it gets replaced. I will land multiple fish on the same non slip loop or double turle knot to my fly - if I am extremely lucky, or fishing for trout.
I would rather not leave a fly plus tippet in the mouth of a free swimming fish.
 
SculpinSwinger said:
A “wind knot” cuts leader strength in half. I check for wind knots after a bad cast, I then untie it before it gets pulled tight. If I have a tightened knot in my tippet it gets replaced. I will land multiple fish on the same non slip loop or double turle knot to my fly - if I am extremely lucky, or fishing for trout.
I would rather not leave a fly plus tippet in the mouth of a free swimming fish.
Click to expand...
So for me...after every cast? :rolleyes:
 
Couple things... First off, I'm mainly a trout angler. Most often it's small streams with 8"-12" fish using a tenkara rod. Occasionally I'll catch fish that might get to 20" in a lake or on a beach with a rod & reel but I'm usually not that concerned about losing fish.
Also even though I like to use "forceps" knot tying techniques, I have had a growing aversion to retying due to vision struggles. There is a good chance that will change now after cataract surgery.

More importantly I do not want to leave tippet in trees & brush that I have seen can snare birds or underwater where I can't tell what hazard it might present. Fully recovering tippet from a snag is more important to me than putting fish down to recover it, so I want to avoid breakage due to damaged tippet.

To avoid breakage I do a cursory quick visual wind knot, knot loop, and fingernail tippet abrasion checks after landing a fish, a sloppy pileup cast, or clearing a snag.
On the beach I also check for tippet abrasion (and hook damage) after every "so many" casts, picking up salad, and after losing or landing a fish.

If I find a wind knot in a fly leader taper section, I untie with a safety pin that I always keep attached to my forceps zingers. Then a visual and fingernail abrasion check; replace if nicked, crushed, or other damage.
Wind knot in tippet, retie, or replace if too short.
 
Trout, 3x and up I'll leave a wind knot while fishing, 4x down, fix. Sighter material doesn't hold up as well with wind knots, must be a slightly different blend? I'll fix a rough abraded leader as mentioned. I seem to loose or change flies before I worry about that connection wearing.
 
This is one of those "it depends."
1. Depends on the nominal # strength of the section the wind knot is in.
2. Depends on the size of fish I could catch in this place. Say I am using 3X and the biggest fish I suspect to catch is 3#. Then no probably not changing.
3. Depends on how many fish I have already fought on the particular leader and fly. And how big those fish have been. And this really applies to any leader, wind knots or not.
4. How is the fishing at the moment? During a hot bite then no I am not changing. I'll risk a break off.

Just a lot of variables that only experience will guide you as to when its time to change.
 
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