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Fly Fishing Knots:
Before your next tournament, be sure you're familiar with the best fly fishing knots.

The Albright Knot is primarily used for joining monofilament lines of unequal diameters, such as your main line to a fluorocarbon leader or shock leader. It is not an easy knot to tie but a good tight Albright is small and won't catch on the rod guides during a cast.

Surgeon's Knot This is the knot surgeons use to put you back together so its a safe bet it is a good one. If you tie it good and tight it is an excellent knot for joining your main line to your shock leader. With practice you should be able to tie it in the dark. This works well for salmon fishing.

The Snell Knot provides a strong connection when fly fishing with bait and using a separate length of leader. You can only use this fishing knot with a leader. For more information on fishing tips, click here.

Fly tying Finishes: You're not alone, even the professional fly fishing guides have trouble with fly tying finishes. The secret: when you're done tying the fly and tie it off by your one personal preference place a thick piece of fishing line through the eye, then use your head cement even if you do cover up the eye, so you can pull the line out of the eye.

Having difficulty tying your fly to the tippet? The next time you're on the water with the light failing, the fish rising, and having trouble fly tying, try holding the fly up against a light single-colored background. A good candidate for this is the sky overhead. It is one of the last things to go dark if it is not a terribly cloudy day. Even if it is cloudy, you can usually find a cloud big enough to use as a solid color. Sometimes the solid glare from the low light on the water does the trick. Look around. It might be solid color leaf that does the trick. Using any of these backgrounds makes it much easier than trying to see and tie on a fly against the multi-colored, multi-edged background of streamside vegetation. This is not a cure-all, but it helps and it sure beats not fishing!

Recycled Flies: You can recycle flies, which have been chewed, or otherwise look a little ratty. A great fly fishing tip and money saver would be to razor blade off old material then just re-tie new flies. Daiichi hooks are the best since they never have to be resharpened. Now if I can just find a way to retrieve flies from trees without having to cut down the forest, and it makes fly tying a new art form.

Always Cast to a Target! When practicing your cast, don't just blindly cast into the air. Pick a target, use a small piece of yarn on the end of your leader, and try to get your yarn to land in the target each time you cast. The target can be the classic hula-hoop, a rock in the pond, a bucket in the yard, a hat, or just about anything. Use a tea-cup if you're really good like some fly fishing guides. This will help you develop the eye/hand coordination necessary to get your fly on target consistently. Another good exercise is to practice opening your loop up at various heights by casting at a tree. Try to tap your yarn on branches at the bottom, mid, and top of the tree. Mix it up. You'll be surprised at how little movement it takes to accomplish this and how quickly you will become proficient at it. If you let the cast fall to the ground, you'll also notice that casts to different heights result in different amounts of slack in the leader when it falls to the ground.

If You Wade Aggressively, Don't Be Stupid - Be Safe. Wading aggressively will usually get you into more and better fish simply because fewer people can get to these fish through the tough wading conditions. If you have decided to attempt to cross an area that looks like it may well knock you over despite your best wading efforts, look downstream and see where you will go when you fall. If there is some quiet water nearby that will allow you to swim out and you are confident in your ability to do so, cinch you're wading belt up tight and go for it. If there is no safe area, but waterfall or class IV rapids, then pass it by. Fishing maps: Sportsman's Connection is the Midwest's leading publisher of regional fishing maps and guidebooks. We offer high quality contour lake maps with detailed fishing information for over 3,000 lakes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. Click for digital fishing maps to use on your computer or paper fishing maps, check out these resources.

What Fly Fishing Reels work best for beginners?
Over the years Battenkill fly fishing reels have proven themselves to be the standard by which all other fly reels are compared. The Battenkill Large Arbor Reel combines the great attributes of traditional Battenkill fishing reels for saltwater or freshwater. They are dependable and rated highly for innovation, value and arbor design. Another recommended fly reel is the Clearwater fly reels, which are highly used. This is a single-action spring-and-pawl reel with a full-metal frame and easy spool rem. If you are having problems deciding which fly reel best suits you, contact us with your experience and use and we'll recommend a reel for you. For more information on fishing poles, reels and rods, learn to equip yourself right.