How to Attach a Fly Line Loop to the Backing

Big fish can strip your fly line down to the backing and with some fish, the backing will run through the guides of your fly rod. For this reason, you need to tie your fly line to the backing line with a slim knot that will easily pass through the guides of your fly rod. If the knot is too large, it will hang in the guides causing the line to break at its weakest link or worse, cause your fly rod to break at a guide.

Things You'll Need

  • Fly line
  • Backing line attached to fly reel
  • Line clipper
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Straighten out the fly line and pull 24 inches of backing line from your fly reel.

    • 2

      Lay 4 inches of fly line next to 4 inches of backing line, with the ends of the lines facing away from one another.

    • 3

      Loop the backing line toward the end of the fly line and back down toward the fly line. Keep the loop open about 1 inch.

    • 4

      Wrap the end of the backing line around the fly line and the backing line lying next to the fly line five to six times, while keeping the wraps inside of the loop you created in the previous step.

    • 5

      Pull on the end of the backing line and the end of the fly line to tighten the constriction knot. Make sure the tightened knot rests against the bottom of the fly line loop.

    • 6

      Clip the excess backing line extending beyond the back of the constriction knot and the loop from the end of the fly line with the line clipper. Leaving the fly line loop will make the knot too large to fit through the guides of your fly rod.