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Teaching knots, material suggestions?

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I'm going to be teaching common knots for flyfishing to small groups of people at an upcoming event. I've done this in the the past but have not come up with a material to use for demonstration that is easy to see and to manipulate. Ideally I would like to be able to give some to 3 or 4 people and have them tie along. Have any of you come up with a solution or have suggestions?

Thanks,

Mike.

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Mike, you could try macrame cord. Comes in all kinds of colors so it would be easy to see. Cheaper than rope too.

 

I bought a couple of rolls many years ago for the same purpose when I was selling flies at shows. Someone would always ask about tying knots. I used chartreuse & pink, which had great contrast & the ladies always liked those colors! laugh.png

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For small groups, pieces of old fly line work pretty well.

 

For larger groups, I've used contrasting colors of braided rope, but it doesn't slide together they way mono does. You can show how to bend the line, but you struggle to show the tightening process that produces the knot.

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I would second the fly line. Easy to see in small groups, and slides up on the knot better than braided line or rope.

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If it is a larger group and some people are more than say 20 feet away, contrasting colors of paracord works well.

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Large diameter soft nylon rope. It slides easily over itself. Sometimes, it's hard to actually tie a usable knot because it tends to slip out. But it's easy to tie complicated knots, tighten them and undo them again.

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If it is a larger group and some people are more than say 20 feet away, contrasting colors of paracord works well.

 

 

Bingo!

 

It is easily handled even by folks with dexterity problems that could fumble with thinner materials and the knots come apart very easily.

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Back when I was giving seminars I had 3 of these hooks made. I tied knots with 1/2" soft braid nylon. It was easy to follow the demonstation from 50 feet or more.

People in the audience were furnished with 12/0 Mustad 3407 hooks and a 3' length of parachute cord with burnt ends. Of course, the points were cut off the hooks we furnished to participants. Amazing how many people who pocketed their hooks and line rather than returning them. I've lost 20 out of 100 more than once. !2/) hooks are expensive but not nearly as expensive as these 50/0 stainless hooks. Somebody swiped one of them too.

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Back when I was giving seminars I had 3 of these hooks made. I tied knots with 1/2" soft braid nylon. It was easy to follow the demonstation from 50 feet or more.

People in the audience were furnished with 12/0 Mustad 3407 hooks and a 3' length of parachute cord with burnt ends. Of course, the points were cut off the hooks we furnished to participants. Amazing how many people who pocketed their hooks and line rather than returning them. I've lost 20 out of 100 more than once. !2/) hooks are expensive but not nearly as expensive as these 50/0 stainless hooks. Somebody swiped one of them too.

I've been looking for hooks that size !!! I plan on tying some flies for BIG bluegill and those will work perfectly !!!

When is your next seminar using those ???

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I haven't had a call for a seminar iin several years. Of course I don't advertise anymore. One of my favorite things to teach in my seminars was wire rigging and how to make all sort of things with wire. I wound up putting these seminars in a book called "The Book of Fishing Secrets, Saltwater Edition." Right now I am working on a Fly Fishing E-book and a Bass Fishing E-book as well as getting a novel ready for publication.

 

If anyone is interested, I'll post a tip or two from these books. Unfortunately, I don't know where to post the tip.

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