What are your favorite fishing knots?

[graybeard]

I stumbled into this thread from Cowtown guy. The thread may be dated but the "blood Knot" isn't....

Knot tying made easy!

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...st-blood-knot/
A couple of ideas.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=287081

[HuyFishin]

Only 3 knots I tie.

Palomar knot
Improved clinch knot
Double UniKnot

[trigger7mm]

Only two knots I use...double uni knot, and a trilene knot.

[Dewey Cox]

Palomar, unless I can't get the loop around whatever I'm tying on, then its a trilene knot.

As far as general rope knot tying, I go by the advice I got in rigging class:
"If you can't tie knots, tie lots."

[57charlie]

These are a few of my go to knots:

Windsor knot
Half Windsor
Improved Clinch
Two Uni Join Knot

[CptnBlues63]

I favor a palomar knot myself as I like the double wrap on the hook/swivel/snap swivel.

Tips for tying the palomar:
- it helps to lubricate it before you pull tight. If I'm tying snell's, I just lick it but my bro uses a glass of water to dip in. If I'm tying one in the boat, I just dip it in the lake.
- pull the tag end (loose end) instead of your main line to do your final tightening on the knot. If you pull the main line too hard, it can stress it and then it'll break easier in use. I lost a few hooks and snells before I realized what the problem was.

[Pikeonafly]

Palomar knot for wire and to lure

Alberto knot for braid to fluorocarbon.

Surgeon knot for flyfishing leaders

Improved clinch knot as last resort or when I just don’t care too much losing stuff because this knot just never works with me.

[pikergolf]

Palomar knot for wire and to lure

Alberto knot for braid to fluorocarbon.

Surgeon knot for flyfishing leaders

Improved clinch knot as last resort or when I just don’t care too much losing stuff because this knot just never works with me.

Hate the surgeons knot, very weak, hate it.

[Pikeonafly]

Got a better suggestion? Something easy and fast and doesn’t require tools.

[pikergolf]

Got a better suggestion? Something easy and fast and doesn’t require tools.

Why yes, this was just updated in the fly fishing section. It involves a small very cheap tool though.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=287081

[SNAPFisher]

I stumbled into this thread from Cowtown guy. The thread may be dated but the "blood Knot" isn't....

Knot tying made easy!

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/fly-f...st-blood-knot/
A couple of ideas.

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=287081

Thanks for the link! I tie a lot of blood knots for my fly fishing lines or splicing two similar lines together. Great to see the video. I have some wooden skewers for shish kebab that I can take a toothpick sized cutting from for this. Got to try it!

[mlee]

Uni knot 90% of the time for everything....I'll even Snell hooks with a uni knot. For braid I always double wrap around the swivel or whatever I'm tying to....cant even remember the last time I've had a knot failure. Double uni for line to line. If I'm using light mono for perch or something I may use improved cinch.

[trigger7mm]

Got a better suggestion? Something easy and fast and doesn’t require tools.

Double uni knot.

[orvisman]

Clinch
Surgeons
Blood

[deschambault]

uni
double uni
trilene

[Smoky buck]

Granny knot :)

Uni

Double uni

Blood

Improved clinch

Wool knot(don’t know the proper name)

[Coiloil37]

Braid to mono it’s always a PR bobbin

Mono to wire will be an Albright

Wire to lure Hayward twist/barrel roll unless it’s knotable wire in which case I usually crimp it although there is knot I can use but I’ve got no idea what it’s called.

“Light” (<60lb) mono to lure is a uni and I pass through the lure eye twice as from my testing it increases the knot strength significantly.

Most mono is crimped

If something goes really weird and I have to tie braid to mono on the boat I’ll use an FG but it’ll be replaced when I get home with the PR bobbin.

Some rigs need a snelled hook so obviously I snell them.

[Mr Flyguy]

Granny knot :)

Uni

Double uni

Blood

Improved clinch

Wool knot(don’t know the proper name)

Love the Granny knot, so easy they even tie themselves!:sHa_shakeshout:

[EZM]

This is a loaded question .... so I will load up an answer .... My favorite knot is the one that works best for what I'm trying to tie to ....which also depends on thickness of line and what kind of line I'm using.

Palomar, Blood, Improved Clinch, Snell

[FlyTheory]

Non-slip loop knot, triple surgeons, perfection loop and a hangman’s clinch. Done it for years and rarely fails me

[Kings]

For terminal knots;
Palomar
Uni
Snell

Line to line;
Double Uni

Bobber stopper knot(like UNI knot)

Loops;
Perfection Loop

Always trim it closer and use superglue at the knots. Never had a failure on knots.

[Vapor]

I use 3 knots for the most part, and if tied correctly, I can't say I have a memory where one of them has ever failed me. Of course there are several other good knots out there, but these three have been etched into my brain, were easy to learn, and suit the way I fish.

- Double Nail - 90% strength rating - For joining two lines.

- Palomar - 80% strength rating - Great all purpose knot for lures, hooks and terminal tackle.

- Rapala Knot - 95% strength rating - When I need a more relaxed knot on a lure with a loop.

[Zuludog]

Palomar us by far the one that I use the most.

Improved clinch too.

Surgeons loop too.

[Dielbo]

Knots are interesting to me and I've always played around with different ones for climbing, camping, and fishing. There's nothing like the possibility of death to focus your mind on getting the double-stopper knot right.

For fishing, material makes a difference to me: mono vs fluoro vs braid. Most of the time I'm fly-fishing so the knots are mono to mono or mono to fluoro.


Fly-line to leader: used to be the nail knot but now it's just loop to loop, with how good the factory loop is on modern fly-line. If I'm making the leader, I use a Perfection Loop.

Leader to tippet: started using tippet rings this year and the jury is still out on those. The positive is that it makes changing tippet easier and you don't lose any leader length. However, I'm not sure that it transfers energy in quite the same way, as sometimes my leader and fly don't land quite the way I like. Anyways, it's just a Uni knot to the tippet ring. Lately, with really small dries I've gone back to the Blood knot as my line/leader lay out nicer.

Tippet to fly: Uni knot. I've never had one unravel whereas I have had a clinch knot do so.

For euro-nymphing (super-slow mono leader) I always use Blood knots with super glue, mainly for the smoothness of the connection. Surgeons or Double Surgeons have a habit of getting caught on the guides and I find it a weaker knot too.

If I'm spin-fishing, I use the Uni knot for most things but will use a Palomar for a bare hook that I'm going to put bait on.

When you're tired and ****ed off (i.e. getting dark and your hands are cold and wet and trying to tie a Blood knot in the middle of a river) remember the next cast may hook you on to the fish of a lifetime and make your knots accordingly. So in a way, these knots are life and death too, lol.

[Dielbo]

Only two knots I use...double uni knot, and a trilene knot.

Where do you use the Trilene knot? I've never got in the habit of using it as a lot of the time I can barely thread my 5x tippet through a #20 hook once, let alone twice, lol.

[Dielbo]

Hate the surgeons knot, very weak, hate it.

It's also quite ugly and snags on rod guides. Also not a fan - great for surgery but not for fishing.

[58thecat]

funny many yeas of tying knots and figuring what worked best....now there is a bunch of names to them.....lot'a'knots….

[StringTheory]

Only 3 knots I tie.

Palomar knot
Improved clinch knot
Double UniKnot

Same, I'd throw in the odd Perfection Loop for the fly lines and instead of the improved clinch I usually tie a standard clinch with my forceps like this:

https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/video-pro-tip-use-hemostat-tie-clinch-knot

[Dark Wing]

Delete double post.

[Dark Wing]

I saw this knot on FB a few years ago and almost use it exclusively for tying loop knots on flies https://youtu.be/alnf3qn2Irs. It’s really simple and strong as well . I also like using Davey knots for the smaller flies. For spin gear the usual polamar and improved clinch knots work well.

[OL_JR]

Hate the surgeons knot, very weak, hate it.

It's also quite ugly and snags on rod guides. Also not a fan - great for surgery but not for fishing.

Weird I love a double surgeons for leader to tippet and haven't had any issue strength wise after switching from a blood knot.

Love the simplicity as many times I find myself throwing more tippet on in low light.

For regular fishing generally only tie a few knots

Uni-uni for braid to flouro/mono but switching over more to the Alberto. Trilene knot for flouro/mono to hook or a Palomar (drop shotting).

[BiteArray]

Like many others, my favorite knot hands down would be the Palomar Knot. It's easy to tie, suitable for both terminal tackle and the drop shot, and works well across different line types. It's even a top 10 knot in terms of knot strength, as per https://www.knotsforfishing.com/knot-strength-chart/

Uni-to-uni for leaders.

Improved clinch knot for teaching beginners.

[58thecat]

The least favorite is the dam one that happens when I use one of those bait casters......

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Improved clinch....All day long