Using a Perfection Loop to Attach Your Fly

The Perfection Loop is one of the most popular knots in fly fishing. It’s widely used by anglers for loop-to-loop connections of fly lines and leaders, so much so that virtually every factory tapered leader comes with a pre-tied perfection loop in the butt. For whatever reason though, the love for the perfection loop stops there.

Personally, I find it to be way more useful for attaching flies than leaders. It’s low profile, quick, and strong, which makes it perfect as a loop connection for big streamers and heavy tippets. I’ve used it for tarpon, musky, alligator gar, and plenty of other species, and never had it fail even against some of the biggest fish. I’ve used it to tie on my musky flies the past three seasons, on both mono and knowable wire, and you best believe if I ever had a failure there I would stop using it pretty quickly!

Tying a fly on with the perfection loop is basically the same as tying a regular perfection loop, except you have a fly on your second loop that gets pulled through the primary loop when tying. I demonstrate how to use this loop knot in the above video, but I added a step by step guide below as well. 

I’m certainly not the best artist, but hopefully this gets the point across. If you need a better guide, this animation from Animated Knots is great— the important difference is just threading the tippet through the eye of the fly after forming the main loop (step 2). Also, remember to make the main loop large enough to fit your fly through!