Hemostat Quick Clinch Knot | Hemostat Blood Knot

When your fingers grow numb from the cold or your eyes are tired, it's sometimes hard to tie on a fly or join two pieces of tippet. Arthritis and poor eyesight can also make knot-tying difficult even on warm days. This is where surgical clamps—called hemostats or forceps-—come in handy. Most fly fishers carry them. They work great for flattening barbs and removing tiny and sometimes stubborn flies from the maws of our latest catch. But they are also valuable as knot-tying tools when cold or inept fingers won't cut it. The following excerpt from fly-fishing expert Bernard "Lefty" Kreh's new book Fishing Knots (Stackpole 2007) demonstrates two strong knots using hemostats for your tippet-to-tippet and tippet-to-fly connections.

Hemostat Quick Clinch
One of the most frustrating things about trout fishing is trying to quickly tie on a tiny fly when your eyesight or the light is failing. The Hemostat Quick Clinch is not as strong as some other knots. But one of my friends, Dr. Mark Lamos, uses this knot successfully and lands some very large trout with it. Unlike the clinch or improved clinch, you waste very little material tying this knot. [If movie fails to load, use this link: http://www.flyfisherman.com/videos/hemostatquickclinch.wmv The Editor.]

Step 1: Insert the tippet through the hook eye and form a loop. If you have trouble doing this, purchase a hook threader made by C&F Design, which is available from many fly shops. It's like the old-fashioned needle threader, and it works well.

Step 2: Pinch the tag and main line and hold them firmly. Insert the hemostat in the loop and make five turns around both lines with the tool.

Step 3: While continuing to pinch the lines, grasp the end of the tippet with the hemostat and lock the tool. Pull the tag end through the loop. If you grasp only the end of the tag, you will use very little of the tippet to make the knot.

Step 4: Hold on to the standing line and pull on the fly to tighten. Clip the tag end.