Knot selector
Which knot to tie for the connection you are making, in the line you are actually using — filtered from the catalogue's own material records, with the reason for every result and every refusal shown.
What are you tying?
3 knots suit, and they are not ranked
They are deliberately not ordered by strength. Published retention figures are measured on different line, by different tyers, wet or dry, under steady or shock loading — see why knot strength tables disagree. Choose on the failure mode and on which you can tie reliably in the cold.
Palomar knot
- The record gives its purpose as "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
How it fails: The Palomar fails when it is drawn up untidily — if the loop crosses over itself as it is pulled down, the knot seats crooked and one strand takes the whole load instead of two. That is visible on inspection: a correctly seated Palomar is a compact, symmetrical knot sitting square against the eye, and a crooked one is obvious. It also fails if the loop was not passed fully over the lure, leaving it trapped on a hook point.
Tying it
- Double about 15 cm of line back on itself to form a bight, and pass that bight through the hook eye.
- Tie a loose overhand knot in the doubled line, leaving the bight free and the hook hanging in the middle of the resulting loop. Do not tighten it.
- Pass the free bight down over the entire hook or lure, so it passes the point and the bend.
- Wet the knot thoroughly.
- Draw it up by pulling the standing line and the tag end together, easing the knot down so it seats neatly against the eye rather than tightening in a tangle.
- Check the knot has seated square against the eye, then trim the tag end close.
Finishing — the part everybody skips
- Wet the knot before tightening — friction heat from drawing a dry knot damages line permanently.
- Draw it up steadily and evenly rather than with a snap, so the turns bed down together.
- Trim the tag close but not flush; leaving one or two millimetres allows for a small amount of slip without the knot failing.
The drawing: Verified — every stage checked against a canonical reference. The written steps above remain the instruction; the drawing has been checked stage by stage against a named canonical reference.
Improved clinch knot
- The record gives its purpose as "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
How it fails: The improved clinch fails by the turns pulling through one another, which happens for two reasons. In slippery lines — braid especially, and heavy stiff fluorocarbon to a lesser extent — the turns will not bed into each other and the knot slides. And in any line, too few turns for the diameter, or turns that crossed over each other as the knot was drawn up, leaves a knot that holds until it does not. A failed clinch typically leaves a curly pigtail on the tag end, which is a reliable diagnostic that the knot slipped rather than the line breaking.
Tying it
- Pass the tag end through the hook or swivel eye, leaving about 15 cm.
- Twist the tag end around the standing line five or six times — fewer for heavy line, more for fine.
- Pass the tag end back through the small loop that sits immediately beside the eye.
- Then pass the tag end through the large loop you have just created. This tuck is the 'improved' part, and omitting it is why plain clinch knots slip.
- Wet the knot thoroughly.
- Draw it up smoothly by pulling the standing line, letting the turns roll down and seat neatly against the eye.
- Check the turns lie in a tidy spiral without crossing, then trim the tag end.
Finishing — the part everybody skips
- Wet it before drawing up; a dry clinch in fine line is measurably weaker.
- Use more turns in fine line and fewer in heavy — five or six is a reasonable general answer, four in very heavy mono.
- Draw up slowly and watch the turns roll down; if they cross, cut it off and start again.
The drawing: Verified — every stage checked against a canonical reference. The written steps above remain the instruction; the drawing has been checked stage by stage against a named canonical reference.
Uni knot
- The record gives its purpose as "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
How it fails: The uni fails through too few turns for the line, which lets the barrel slip rather than lock, and through wraps that crossed over each other as the barrel was formed, which concentrates the load on one turn. In braid specifically, using the monofilament turn count is the commonest mistake — braid needs more. A slipped uni, like a slipped clinch, leaves a curled tag end.
Tying it
- Pass the tag end through the eye and double it back alongside the standing line, leaving about 20 cm.
- Lay the tag end back over both strands to form a loop beside them.
- Pass the tag end through that loop and around both strands, five or six times for monofilament and six to eight for braid.
- Wet the knot thoroughly before closing it.
- Pull the tag end gently to close the wraps into a barrel, keeping them neat and not overlapping.
- Then pull the standing line to slide the finished barrel down against the eye — or stop it short if you want a loop.
- Trim the tag end close.
Finishing — the part everybody skips
- Close the barrel with the TAG end first, and only then slide it home with the standing line — doing it in the other order produces a mess.
- Wet it before closing; the friction of a barrel closing dry is significant.
- Use six to eight turns in braid, five or six in monofilament, four or five in very heavy line.
The drawing: Verified — every stage checked against a canonical reference. The written steps above remain the instruction; the drawing has been checked stage by stage against a named canonical reference.
What was set aside, and why
Every knot the catalogue holds is listed here with the reason it did not survive the question, so that a result you disagree with can be checked rather than taken on trust.
Double overhand loop
- Its purpose is "Forming a loop", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Blood knot
- Its purpose is "Joining two lines", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Loop-to-loop connection
- Its purpose is "Joining two lines", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Double surgeon's knot
- Its purpose is "Joining two lines", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Albright knot
- Its purpose is "Joining two lines", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Non-slip loop knot
- Its purpose is "Forming a loop", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Dropper loop
- Its purpose is "Creating a dropper", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Arbor knot
- Its purpose is "Line to reel spool", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Nail knot
- Its purpose is "Joining two lines", not "Line to hook or lure".
- Recorded as holding in monofilament.
Haywire twist
- The record gives its purpose as "Line to hook or lure".
- The record lists monofilament under "avoid in" — a stated incompatibility rather than a preference.
How this decides, and what it refuses
- It filters; it does not recommend. Every result comes from two fields on the knot record — the connection it is for, and the materials it is recorded as holding in — and the sentence behind each decision is printed beside it. Nothing in this tool knows anything the knot pages do not.
- It publishes no strength figures and no ranking. Retention percentages found online contradict each other because the tests behind them differ in almost every variable that matters, and an interface that ordered results “97%, 95%, 91%” would assert a precision that testing does not support. See why knot strength tables disagree.
- A material absent from a knot’s record is treated as unknown, not as fine. FishingHQ does not assume a knot holds in a line nobody has recorded it holding in — so an empty result means FishingHQ cannot answer, rather than that no knot exists.
- It does not teach the tying. The written steps are shown with every result because they are the instruction. Every knot drawing on this site has now been checked stage by stage against a named canonical reference, and the state of each is printed beside it rather than assumed — including where a drawing was found to be wrong and redrawn, which is kept on the record rather than hidden.
- Knowing one knot properly beats knowing six badly. Where several results suit, the deciding question is usually which one you can tie correctly with cold wet hands in poor light — see wetting, seating and tag ends.