Not- The Duber Knot.

A few years ago while working at the Orvis Store in Richmond Virginia I was approached by a gentleman from the Virginia Coastal Fly Anglers and asked if I would join his group for a meeting and speak to them about fly fishing for small mouth bass. Smallies are near and dear to me as I grew up fishing the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and eventually spent much of the first half of my guiding years chasing them with clients. What I found interesting about this request is that the VCFA is coastal, out of Virginia Beach and most of it’s members spend their time fishing for reds, stripers and blues in that area. “We would just like to hear about a different fish and fishery from a guest speaker” it was explained to me. So I agreed to make the trek from Richmond to VA beach (about a 2 hour drive) sometime later that spring.

Soon after that conversation I took on another position with the company and relocated to northern Virginia and opened the Orvis store in Woodbridge. It was not long after that move that I received a call asking “Hey can you come down and speak to the VCFA group next Thursday?” Of course I was in the throws of opening a new store and overwhelmed with staffing and new found commitments to the local clubs but the commitment was already made so I prepared to make the now 3 hour drive to speak to the group.

The seminar was well attended and more importantly the interest level was great in learning about smallies. I didn’t do a slide show or make any movies for this talk, rather I brought some flies, talked about gear and the best seasons and times to fish for bronzebacks. As with most seminars that I do regardless of specie I highlighted the knots that I like to use. Little did I know that the oh so simple loop knot that I tie would become the focus of the chat and generate the greatest interest from those in attendance.

So much for preparation.

I learned this version of the loop knot while working at a fly shop in south Florida. An elderly gentleman made his way to Stuart from Lake Okeechobee and while we didn’t talk about all that much, we did talk about knots and began to compare our favorites. “Why do you make so many wraps?” he asked while watching me tie the loop knot. “I dunno that’s just how I learned to tie the knot I explained”. His reaction was one of impatience as he took the fly and the piece of fluorocarbon from me and proceeded to demonstrate a knot that took a fraction of the time, was easier to make the loop small before cinching and seemed to hold better than any loop knot I had seen in the past.

The day after doing the presentation to the group in Virginia beach I received a call from the club president thanking me for coming and telling me that several of the members are excited to use the “new” loop knot and asked if it had a name. After telling him I had no idea what the name was (we couldn’t find that particular version in any books) he told me that they had affectionately labeled it thev‘Duber Knot’ and they posted a video on YouTube that documented the demonstration and named it the same.

Well the last thing I want to do is take credit for a knot that I had nothing to do with creating. So I apologize in advance to the gentleman that took the time to show this to me… But for those of you that aren’t able to come in to the store for a personal demo- check out this video and try the knot, it is one of the best that I know!