Jack's Knot

How to tie the Jack's Knot animated and illustrated. The Jack's Knot is attributed to fly fisherman Jack Miller of the Derby City Fly Fishing Club of Louisville Kentucky. It is said on their website that " Fly fisher extraordinaire and Derby City Fly Fishers member Jack Miller has invented probably the best and simplest terminal knot ever". Miller claims that it is a “100% knot,” which may be debatable but our tests have shown it to be quite reliable and it certainly is easier to tie than many terminal tackle knots.

 

Something else that is debatable is the claim that he invented the knot. This same knot is documented in the Ashley Book of Knots published in 1944*. In the ABOK it can be found as knot #1118, otherwise unnamed. Because the knot is in Ashley's section on Nooses, he attributes it to being an effective snare and thus its origins are likely prehistoric due to the fact that nooses are some of the first knots required by mankind for snaring animals for food.

 

Now, it may very well be that Mr. Miller was experimenting with various ways of tying a terminal fishing knot and is completey unaware that the same twists and turns of rope were made by someone hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago! Such are the perils of claiming to invent a new knot!

 

*Thank you to Mr. Royce Powell for the history of the knot.

Scroll to see Animated Jack's Knot below the illustration and tying instructions.

 

 

Jack's Knot Tying Instructions

• Run the line up through the hook eye and then double back parallel to the standing line with the tag end.
• Form a loop with the tag end above the doubled line and with the tag passing behind the double line and ending below.
• Wrapping back toward the hook (or fly) pass the tag end in front of and then behind the double lines.
• Now pass the tag end up through the loop originally created in step one.
• Moisten the lines and first draw the knot tight then slide it down to the hook eye and trim the tag end close to the knot.