Lost a nice fish!

I sent a couple of flies through the main run I was fishing this morning, rested it and then came back with a smaller chartreuse comet.  I swung it through a slick where I'd gotten a little bump earlier.  This fish was right where I'd expected him to be, I hooked up and brought him to hand - a little smallmouth.  After a few more casts, I snagged my fly on a log or rock or something on my cast setup.  I ended up breaking the hook off trying to get it out.

Needing a new fly, I switched to a black and blue version of this new "spey" type streamer pattern I've been working on.

Fly inspired by Feenstra's Blackcherry "Spey" and Jay Nicolas's "Winter Simplicity"

Up until today I hadn't seen any sign of summer fish yet this year, then out of no where, I hooked into a nice big bright fish.  She hit the fly hard and came out of the water...and then....my knot broke.  I've had a few non-slip mono loop knots break on me like this, mostly with carp.  I think I tend to get sloppy with them and don't make sure the mono is jammed up tight.  That first big tug pulls it tight and it snaps, either that or just didn't tie it right.  In any case, I think I'm going to be leaning heavily on the palomar knot this season...that's a little more difficult to mess up.