The Non Slip Loop Knot

Being in the shop I get a lot of questions about the best way to tie on a steelhead fly. There are a lot of ways to do it and everyone has an opinion about it.

For my general purpose steelhead fly I use the non slip loop knot, also know as lefty’s loop knot. This has served me well for more than 20 years. I like this particular knot because it lets the fly swing free, it’s not restrictive like a standard clinch knot, and it has a high break strength.

In all actuality I use this knot for pretty much all of my steelhead fishing. I use it for small summer hair wing flies, tube flies, and flies tied on shanks.

There are a few things that help to tie this knot well and keep the loop small.

1. I like to use a long tag so it’s easy to tie
2. When I make my initial overhand knot I like to draw it down and make it pretty small from the get go
3. After I pass the tag end through the eye of the hook and through the overhand knot I draw everything down so it’s as small as possible. This helps keep the finished knot as small as possible.
4. After I wrap the tag end around the standing end and back through the over as knot, I start drawing the tag end down pulling g out all the slack. If I pull that slack out from the tag it will keep the knot small.

If you haven’t tried the non slip loop knot yet you should. It works great, it’s very strong, and let’s the fly swing freely.