Fishing – The First Step – Knots
Fishing is by far and away one of the simplest recreational pursuits you can get involved in. Essentially to become a fisher all you need is a hook and a piece of fishing line. However just having these two items alone will get you most of the way to being a fisher, but not all of the way!
The essential item required for any fishing is something that can only be learnt, you cannot buy them in a packet and you cannot download them. There are more than you can possibly imagine and everyone has their own opinion on which one is best.
We are course talking about fishing knots!
When starting out many people will think that any old knot will do, a couple of granny knots might join the hook to the line however, if any decent fish is caught or pressure put on the hook and line it will not stay connected and your prize could be lost in the blink of an eye.
The trick with fishing knots is to have a strong knot that retains the strength of the fishing line you are using. This is usually achieved by avoiding the line bedding in and cutting on itself. The best example of this is a basic overhand knot. Putting this knot in a monofilament fishing line will reduce breaking strain by over half. These knots should always be removed if they are seen in your line.
To start off with there are a few easy knots to learn. The one I would recommend you learn is the Uni Knot, uni is short for universal, and this knot literally does everything you need in fishing applications. So is well worth its title as the Universal knot.
Some other basic knots that are easier to learn but not as strong are the half blood knot and the locked half blood knot. If you are in a rush to get on the water, give these ones a go and come back later to learn the Uni Knot.
Whichever knot you choose to use in your future fishing adventures, you will need to practice it. Practice, practice, practice. There is no use trying to learn how to tie knots while you are out fishing so grab some line and practice your knot over and over on some line every day over about a week. This way when you come to tying a knot while out fishing you will hopefully not even have to think about it.
The most basic fishing rig possible, will use one knot, most basic bait fishing rigs will have three. So without knots there will be no fishing. So accept the challenge of tying good fishing knots and practice, practice, practice!
