Try as you might, you can't fish without knots. And just like a spelling test, you have no excuse to not do well. You can practice them until you fingers go numb.

Today I'm running through my favorite knots from fly to backing. There may very well be better knots out there, but these have served me well under varied scenarios in two decades of fly fishing.

But only start here. Head online and check out some diagrams and helpful animations to help put these knots into practice.

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