Fishing knots are where the line is weakest, and the right knot depends less on the fish than on the line. A knot bends the line around a tight radius and loads the outside strand first; braid, made of polyethylene so slick it barely grips itself, slips out of knots that hold fine in nylon. So the question is never “what is the best knot” but “what is the best knot for this line and this job”, and that is how this section is organized: one page per knot with a numbered tying procedure and the strength numbers that exist, and this table to send you to the right one.
Braid is polyethylene so slick it barely grips itself, so the question is never “what is the best knot” but “what is the best knot for this line and this job”.
Start here
Five knots cover almost everything. Learn them in this order.
- Palomar knot — line to hook, lure or swivel; the strongest simple knot on mono, fluorocarbon and braid.
- Uni knot — the all-rounder: hook knot, line to line as the double uni, snell, sliding loop; the best general braid knot.
- FG knot — braid to a fluorocarbon or mono leader; strongest and slimmest connection in every published test.
- Improved clinch knot — the classic mono knot, fast and strong on nylon; never on braid.
- Best fishing knots — the strength tests side by side, ranked by job.
Which knot for which line and job
| Job | Mono or fluorocarbon | Braid | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line to hook, lure, swivel | Palomar; improved clinch or Trilene when the lure will not pass through a loop | Palomar or uni (uni broke at 20.2 lb against 18.4 lb for the Palomar on 10 lb braid) | Doubled line through the eye shares the load; braid needs the wraps |
| Lure with a free swing (jerkbait, topwater, jig) | Non-slip loop knot or Rapala loop | Same, with more turns | A fixed loop lets the lure move |
| Braid to leader | — | FG (strongest, slimmest); Alberto (fast); double uni (easiest) | FG held at least 17 lb where the Alberto averaged 11.4 lb on 10 lb braid to 30 lb fluoro |
| Line to line, similar diameter | Blood knot; surgeon’s when speed matters | Double uni | Blood is slimmer; surgeon’s is faster and tolerates unequal lines |
| Line to line, unequal diameter | Surgeon’s | Alberto | Surgeon’s held 13–15 lb, double uni 7–12 lb, Albright 6–8 lb on 10 lb to 30 lb mono |
| Bait hook, circle hook, flipping hook | Snell | Snell | The pull runs along the shank; circle hooks set themselves |
| Line to the spool | Arbor knot | Arbor over a few turns of mono or a strip of tape | Bare braid spins on the spool |
| Wire or fly-line backing | Albright | — | The Albright’s remaining job |
The figures are Salt Strong’s machine and hand tests, cited on each knot page; they are single tests by one tester, not a laboratory standard, and the best fishing knots page lays them all out.
The four rules every knot shares
- Wet it before you seat it. A dry knot pulled tight heats the line; heat glazes fluorocarbon and scuffs the coating on braid, and the knot breaks below its number.
- Seat it slowly and fully. One steady pull on the standing line until the wraps stop moving. A knot that seats under the weight of a fish seats in the wrong shape.
- Trim to 1/8 in (3 mm), not flush. Every knot slips a fraction as it settles; a tag cut flush pulls through.
- Retie after a big fish, a snag or a hundred casts. The first inch above the knot takes every bit of abrasion; cut it off and tie again.
How the knot pages are built
Each knot page gives the origin of the knot (the Palomar came from a Scout leader in Pomona in 1971; the uni was published as the gallows knot in 1944 and renamed by a Miami newspaperman in 1970), a numbered procedure with the number of turns for the line test you are using, the strength tests that exist, the lines it suits and the lines it does not, and the mistakes that cost strength. The gear section covers the lines themselves: the line hub explains why braid, mono and fluorocarbon behave so differently in a knot, and the braided line page covers the leader and backing rules that the FG and arbor knots exist for.