Guides / Knots
Knots
The connections everything else depends on, with what the published strength tests actually show and how each one fails.
Knots
8 pagesPalomar knot
The one terminal knot to learn first. It is fast, it works on every line type, and its only real failure mode is a tying mistake you can see before you cast.
Alberto knot
The standard braid-to-fluorocarbon connection for spinning rods. Slim enough to run through the guides, strong enough for the leader to be the weak point, and tieable on a kayak seat.
Uni and double uni
One wrap-and-tuck that ties a hook, leaves a loop, snells a shank, fills a spool and joins two lines. It is not the strongest knot at any single job, and it is the only knot you can learn once and use for everything.
Non-slip loop
A fixed loop at the fly or lure instead of a knot cinched tight on the eye, so the thing on the end swims the way it was built to. It is the knot the streamer page depends on, and it tests as strong as anything else in light line.
Improved clinch
A staple fly-to-tippet knot, and the right one on small flies and dry flies. It is good in light mono and fluorocarbon when it is tied with care, and the tests show what happens when it is not.
Double surgeon's
The fastest way to add tippet to a leader: a double overhand knot tied with both lines together. It is easy to tie with cold hands, it is bulkier than a blood knot, and the tests do not make it the strongest join.
Blood knot
The classic knot for joining two sections of line of nearly the same diameter. It is neat and it is strong when the sections match, and it is the wrong knot as soon as they do not.
Loop-to-loop
The no-knot-tying way to put a leader on a looped fly line and take it off again. The only thing that goes wrong is the interlock, and you can see it before you cast.
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