I took a weekend "night school" course with Kevin Longaard in North Vancouver about 15 years ago (wow has it been that long?). I really enjoyed the course. I still remember his comment when he taught the double surgeon's knot for adding tippet to your leader. He said that when you are out on the water fishing, you don't want to waste time tying a fancy blood knot. The D.S. knot is fast and dirty and gets your fly back into the water lickety split. That was very practical advice.
Kevin's course was about half fishing strategy and half fly casting.
He also cost me a lot of money over the years because he let me practice cast his Sage RPL+ rod on the grass. I now own four Sage fly rods!
I agree. Ive tried blood knots and just found that a surgeons works as well, in a lot less time. Also when my hands are frozen I dont bother tying a clinch for Fly>Tippet, and just use a palomar knot. Its quick, effective, and I still havent had one break off under normal circumstances.
I think I will be taking Ricks class. As he said, its quite intensive, and not all casting based. Now, to save the money for it! Thanks for posting though