There seems to be conflicting views on whether droppers are best tied on the 'up' end or the 'down' end of the 4 turn water knot. The argument seems to be that tying on the end going up the line helps stop the dropper twisting around the main line. Tying on the 'down' end is supposed to give a straighter pull when a fish takes and be less prone to snapping.

Any thoughts guys?
Or any better alternatives to the 4 turn water knot?

Regards

Nidd

The down end of the leader.

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ABK

Yup, agreed.

Down end for me to,if its the up end is it not more likely to break?

no argument, down is the way to go.

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I keep seeing this asked also. If I get chance this week I'm going to run some tests on a mechanical tester to determine the exact strength difference between the up and down tag. It's generally assumed that the down is stronger though - I'll post my results.

The dropper should be the downward facing tail,so that when you have a fish the strain is put on the main line and not the dropper if that makes sense

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yep, agree with the downward facing end of line.

I've seen some people suggest popping in a half hitch at the end to make your dropper stand out at 90 degrees and help stop dropper twist - wouldn't recommend it myself but I have seen this said in TF magazine a few times.

Downwards every time. Conventional wisdom is that a fish pulling on an upward dropper would pull out of the knot. I also think that the flies might not sit properly if on an upward dropper. I also use a 3-turn water knot which serves me fine. As for the droppers twisting around the leader, depending on the type of water you fish, you may want to shorten your droppers - I fish rivers and use droppers of about 4 inches. You can reduce twist considerably by taking your dropper and tying a simple one-turn overhand knot over the leader which will leave the dropper hanging at 90 degrees to the leader - there's an argument that this additional knot could weaken the set-up but I have no problems with it.

That's what I was taught, and that's the way I've always done it, BUT, my regular fishin buddy/boat partner always does it t'other way, mono or fluoro, he suffers far fewer fankles than me, AND I can't remember the last time he was broken I keep telling myself I'll try it one day, then I get a mental image of 3 wee Brownies disappearing up the loch with a fly each and trailing nylon.................

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