I have a hard time remembering how to tie knots. Can I use one of these instead?
Scott, thick fingers make for difficult knots for me. I've pretty much good to the Double Surgeon's knot for the leader/tippet connection. It's easy to tie, and because of that, I rarely screw it up. You can use it for line to line connection, or just to make a loop if needed.
Fly line to leader? I just get furled leaders that have loops at both ends. There are several good companies to buy them from, but I get mine from Robin's Custom Leaders.
Backing to fly line? I have one of those cheap pressed steel nail knot tools, and it works great. Cheap to buy, and rarely am I retying that knot anyway, so I can do it on my desk with plenty of light.
As far as actual tippets, with the water color we have here, I use none. George got me started using regular mono fishing line, and it works well. If you have gin clear water, then a real tippet may be needed, but I hate to pay for 10' of line when I don't really need it here.
