Knots - Uses and How to Tie Them
(First in a series)

by Michael Ralph

I love to tie knots. Many times in the dead of winter I will sit down and try to master a few knots. This will keep me occupied for hours dreaming of warmer days and green water. It truly excites me to slowly pull down a knot and watch it tighten. And then bet the farm it will perform with a lifetime fish.

To stay on track, I'm going to group the knots by type - "joining lines", "loops", and "terminal end". There are, of course, specialty knots, but I think we can generally place them in one of these three categories.

When we examine a knot we will look for strength, size, and ease of tying. The first topic will be joining lines. At the top of the list to know is the Albright Knot. It is used to join line of dissimilar diameter. This could be used on your trout rod to tie a 3' length of leader material to the business end of your line. Generally this should be twice the line strength of your running line. There are lots of advantages to this...leader material is tough and better adapted to take the abrasion of small teeth and flopping fish bodies. My favorite is 8 Ib Tritanium running line with 3' of 15 Ib fluorocarbon leader material. It might be cumbersome to tie at first, but I would rate it reasonably easy to tie with experience. As with anything practice makes perfect.  I can whip one of these up pretty fast. Learning to hold it while you tie it is the key. After a little practice you will find a method that works best for you.  It is a small knot and will go through your rod guides like greased butter. The strength is good for a quick-tie knot. If I was looking for a world record I would not use it...but for normal fishing conditions it is fine.  For Step-by-Step instructions and diagrams for the Albright Knot, go to http://www.killroys.com/knots/albright.htm.

Now on to my favorite for joining lines, the Nail Knot. The nail knot is an old time favorite of fly fisherman, but not the rest of the fishing crowd. I am stumped by that. Let's take a look at its qualities. It is very small, has excellent strength...usually close to 100%, and is not very hard to tie. The only trick to this knot is you have to have a tool to whip it up. The tool I use is a small brass tube available at a hobby shop with a diameter of .015 and cut to about an inch long. As a substitute for the tube a loop of monofilament can be used to pull the tag end through. Uses for this knot would be two opposing Nails if the line diameter are similar.  Making a shock leader with a simple overhand in the heavy line and an opposing Nail Knot in the running line is a good solution.  For Step-by-Step instructions for the Nail Knot, complete with diagrams, go to http://www.killroys.com/knots/nail.htm.

I am now using a Blob Knot from which the foundation is the Nail Knot. It is used for a shock leader. Here is how you do it. Burn the end of your shock material to a SMALL blob so there is a bump at the end. Now tie a nail knot at the end and snug it up tight. Done right it will not come off the end. The more you pull it the tighter it grips. This is an awesome combination, it is very small and does not catch trash in the water. I have had a break off with my surf rig putting this knot under tremendous strain and it did not fail.

I hope there is something here for everyone. So grab some line and practice. I am sure you will catch the knot bug.