Knots; Needle Knot

The needle knot is my go to knot for attaching my leader to fly line on my trout setups. This is a very strong connection and most importantly a very smooth connection that slides through your fly rod guides without catching. I like this knot over a loop to loop or the nail knot because I have never had this knot hang up on a guide. I fish a lot of long leaders(11-13') on my trout rods, when landing fish I normally have to reel the flyline/leader connection several feet into the rod guides. When using light tippet(5x/6x) if the fish makes a last minute run and the flyline/leader connect hangs on a guide the fish will likely break you off. May not be a big deal if it wasn't a big fish, but if it was... This video does a really good job describing this knot.