Knots

Introduction

https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/fishing-knots/ is a good page. It's odd, but I notice that all knot books and almost all plant identification books I've ever come across are pitifully bad and written by people with zero imagination or intellectual capacity. They are mere collectors, sans brains.

The three-turn surgeon's knot works for me as a bend for tying together 10lb monofilament fishing line. https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/surgeons-knot/ has a good video. The problem is that this only works if one of the lines is short, because you have to put the whole line through the loop. See https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/surgeons-knot/.

A second useful knot is to tie a line to a metal circle, like tying to a fishhook or a lure. The Palomar knot is the classic for this. See https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/strongest-palomar-knot/ with its video and discussion. Double up your line, putting spit on it so it sticks together, since the biggest probelm is to have the two lines that are supopsed to be close together flopping around separately. Get teh loop to be as small as possible- twisting and spit may help here too--- so you can stick it through the metal circle. Stick it through, and tie an ordinary, basic, overhand knot, the most simple of knots, but don't tighten it yet, because we want to have a tag-end loop sticking out. This already connects the line to the metal circle, but it is a very weak knot and will slip away instantly if you tighten it up and pull on it. So add the secret ingredient: push the metal circle and its fishhook or lure through the tag end. THEN, tighten it.

Another useful knot to tie a line to a metal circle is a Loop Knot, which won't tighten all the way. The reason this can be good is that then the metal circle can flop around the loop, instead of being tied tightly and not being able to move much, and for fishing it may be good to have your lure able to flop around in a variety of ways so it looks more like natural food to the fish. See https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/non-slip-loop-knot/.

• NetKnots.com on the Alpine Coil, for storing rope. The Quickie Coil might be better, though.

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Bends

The Sheet Bend

To tie two ropes together. Very likea square knot, which is dangerously slipping, so be careful that you tie a sheet bend correctly.

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The Alpine Bend

This is a fun one.

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Fishing Knots

The Improved Clinch Knot

For tying a hook to a line.

Thread end of line through eye of hook. Double back making 5 or more turns around standing line.

Bring end of line back through the first loop formed behind the eye then through the big loop.

Wet knot and pull on tag end to tighten down the coils.

So thread it through the eye, make 5 or so turns on the standing line, then come back through the first of your turns and through the big loop formed when you came back to near the eye.

The Surgeon's Knot

NetKnots.com says:

This knot ranks as one of the best and easiest to tie knots for joining lines of equal or unequal diameters. In low light conditions or with cold hands or when time is of the essence (during a hot bite and you need to get back in the water quickly), join your lines with the Surgeon's instead of the more cumbersome to tie Blood Knot, Double Uni or J Knot. It can also be used to join lines of different materials. It is simply two overhand knots with the entire leader pulled through the knot each time. When properly tied, the Surgeon’s Knot approaches 100-percent line strength. It must be tightened by pulling on all four strands to properly seat the knot.

You just overlap the two lines facing each other, and then tie an overhand knot, passing the lines through the loop three times if you want it very secure.

The [https://www.animatedknots.com/blood-knot blood knot looks similar, but is much harder to tie.

The Double Uni Knot

Another knot to connect two fishing lines. This one is is fun. You lay the two lines next two each other, and have each one do 4 turns around the other and tie back, and then pull on both ends and the two knots slide towards each other and jam against each other. See NetKnots on how to tie it.

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Hitches

The Pipe Hitch

The Pipe Hitch is for tying a rope to a vertical pole when you want to pull up or down have it hold.

Use: This is another knot that is called the "pipe hitch". Form a bight in the rope. Wind the doubled rope the vertical pole four or five times. Put the standing end (which is doubled) through the end of the bight.

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The Tautline Hitch

A useful and fun knot.

Trucker's Hitch

The Trucker's Hitch at NetKnots.com is nicely described.

Use the Trucker’s Hitch to cinch down a load. This combination of knots allows a line to be pulled verytight. Probably the most useful hitch there is, the Trucker’s Hitch allows a line to be pulled tight as a guitar string and secured. It is used by truckers to secure heavy loads in place and works equally well tying canoes and other objects to the tops of cars. Once the line is pull to the desired tension using the pulley effect of the loop in the middle of the line, the knot is secured with a couple half hitches around one or both lines.

Tie one end of the rope to one part of your car. Then make a slipknot in the middle to make a loop taht can be tightened later. Then loop the running end around another part of your car to connect it using the knot, and put the running end through your slipknot loop. Pull on the running end to make it as tight as you want, and finish it off with a stopper knot or tie it around the part of the rope coming down to the second tie-point. This might be a substitute for the tautline hitch.

Blake's Hitch

Blake's Hitch is a 1994 arborist's knot for climbing up a rope or vertical pipe. It is very simple, and unlike the Prusik knot, doesn't need to be tied using loops. you can make the loops afterwards, separately.

It is really just four turns around the pole going up, then take the running end back down and up through the first turn. Once it's through, tighten and add a stopper knot. 

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Constrictor Knot

Jamming, but very tight.

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Prusik Loops

For climbing a rope using two other rope loops for footholds.

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Loops

The easiest loop is just to take  a bight, a doubling back of your rope, and tie an overhand knot in it.  Or you can tie a figure 8 in the bight. 

The Bowline Loop

A classic knot, easy to tie, nonjamming.

Hangman's Knot

Dangerous but useful.

Stopper Knots

The Stevedore Knot

This is non-jamming. Wind a couple loops, and then thread back into the bight that's formed to tighten. 

The Oysterman's Stopper

This is quite a thick one. Tie a slip knot, and then thread the running end through the noose and tighten it up. See what NetKnots says:

This version, the Ashley Stopper knot, also known as the Oysterman's stopper, is a knot developed by Clifford Ashley around 1910. It makes a well-balanced trefoil-faced stopper at the end of the rope, giving greater resistance to pulling through an opening than other common stoppers. Essentially, the knot is a common Overhand noose, but with the end of the rope passing through the noose eye, which closes upon it.

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