Quick question, what kind of knot does everyone use for their dry flies? The reason I'm asking is I was fishing over the weekend and I was using 4lb (0.2mm) stren for my leader, it's all I had. A few fish followed and stopped short of taking the fly, I put it down to the fly (size 16) being too restricted due to the heavy leader tied with a blood knot. So I suppose I'm asking two questions, is the blood knot more restrictive than other knots and what would be a good knot for a size 16 fly, this is the hook below.
http://www.orvis.com/store/productch...&feature_id=17
Drag may also have been an issue as I did catch some fish plus I'm new to river dry fly fishing.

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Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

..........

I don't know whether it's less restrictive, but I've taken to using a Davy knot most of the time - dead easy to tie, even with cold fingers.

i use a cheap 4lb .18 mm mono at the moment, make my own singapore leaders from the tippet material, then attach the fly with a uni knot

I have tried various low diameter co polymer blends, the worst is berkely trilene sensation.

I use plenty of fullers on the tippet then mucilin red on the leader.
fly fishing is sooo much more interesting when the water is moving

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The Grinner knot is the best knot for attaching the hook.

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

I would say the blood knot or tucked blood is a good knot myself and not had a problem with it.the grinner is also a very good knot to use as richardW said.I prefer flurocarbon for all my fishing these days and find it better than other materials on the market.All this I must add is personal preference and as you see up and down the country,anglers tend to use certain things which is common to what anglers are using around that area,like riverage,stren something which if you go to another area noone will use and they may all be using drennan or something else.
At the end of the day its worth trying some alternatives which may suit you better and it is down to choice and use.
If your fly is creating alot of drag,try doing some slack line casts to avoid drag.other than putting mends into the line on your forward cast wiggle the tip a little and you will get some slack into your line which will help to cause less of a drag on the fly.There is other slack line casts and they are nothing fancy and easy to learn and will help you enjoy your fishing a bit more.

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Kevin

I think a 4lb tippet (mono) is over the top for a 16 dry . Personally I use 3.2lb copolymer for all my river fishing dropping down to 2lb if I go to 18s or 20s. The 4lb you are using is imo to heavy, only time I would use that on rivers would be when using a big fly say a dry sedge or mayfly and trying to get it turn over into a breeze...

( Personally I think Rio Powerflex is the dogs )