[Fish_N_Fool]

If any of you watched Knot Wars on the N. American fishing club they rated the palomar as the best knot for all lines and I totally disagree. For one I find it the hardest to tie of all the majorly used knots and it is ez to get a bad know as it will burn the line and it you get the lines crossed in it, it will break at about half the line strength. The two knots I use the Most is The Trilene knot and one I came up with on my own that I call the Fish-N-Fool Knot It is like a uni knot but you go through the hook eye twice and wrap the line back through the loop at least 4 to 5 times. I was at a fishing show over the weekend they had a knot tester there. So I tied up my Fish-N-Fool knot and put it head to head against the guys palomar that was running the booth and mine won 3 out of 3 times, We used mono, braid, and a floro. All three times my knot did not fail . Where the palomar failed twice and the line broke in the middle once. That was with the mono. Here is a diagram of my knot





When tighting up this knot you MUST pull the tag end first and tighten the knot up on the line. Then slide the knot down to the hook.

So whats your favorite knot? Try Tieing this one to one end and your favorite knot to the other end and pull, see for yourself which ones better.

[Dean McClain]

This is an interesting subject, for sure. A properly-tied and wetted palomar is tough to beat with softer more stretchy lines of a diameter small enough to allow the knot to tie up very tight, with no gaps, and no allowable play or movement in a shock situation, such as a hard hookset on a big fish with a flipping stick. The line testing equipment used in the test, only tests one aspect of line and knot strength: Shock strength is completely removed from the equation with the slow, steady pull the typical line tester utilizes.

Quite a few years ago, Florida Sportsman magazine did shock testing various lines and knots, and arrived at some quite different results than that same old steady-pull tester gave, which bore out some expensive experiences I'd had while tournament fishing and field testing some of the early copolymer technology. I was breaking 25 and 30 pound line in sudden shock load situations, and never breaking 16 pound, both with a palomar. My temporary solution was to change line brands when going to the larger diameter stuff. I learned also that the old improved-clinch knot that never beat the palomar on the line testing machine, didn't break my heart on big fish when using big line, like the palomar would.

This is just one example that showed me that certain knots perform better with certain lines in particular real-world situations, while the dang line testing machine gave us no useful information at all: Worse, it just confused the issues.

By the same token, when the flourocarbons hit the market many fishermen broke a lot of lines because they were "burning" their old reliable palomar knots. If your knot with flouro doesn't tie completely friction free, don't think twice--immediately retie the knot until it slides together like butter!

Congrats fish'nfool on coming up with your good knot!

Dean

[SmokeyJ]

I have been using the San Diego Jam knot since halfway through last season and have really liked it.



I had a lot of trouble tying the palomar without getting the crossovers that ruin the knot strength, so I started using this one and like it alot. It is a little big, but it is very strong, especially if you double the line like you would with a palomar and then tie it. I don't use fluoro but I have heard this is a really good knot if you do.

[Crimson_Death216]

IMHO, the palomar is very very easy to tie. I've been using it for a long time and it has never broke on me once. I'm starting to use the grinner knot now though, theres a post on braided line knots a while back, (to read it search for grinner). Also, in my opinion as well, just because they didn't include your knot or some other knots didn't mean they got it wrong. They just concluded what the knots and line was telling them. You should send in your knot to them to go against the palomar, I sent in the grinner.

[jflures]

I'm a palomar guy. Its like any knot the more you use it the easier it becomes to tie

[Spike-A-Pike]

There was a very cool knot that philB introduced about a month or 2 back, the last time this subject came up... I think it was called a Grinner knot... something like that. I pulled out some old fishing line, both braided and mono, and the knot was surprisingly strong and according to the web reference philB, it caused little or no strength reduction.

[Palmetto Balsa]

Palomar-hands down. E-Z
Just run your line through the hook from the right to the left with the point toward you and it will stay out of the grove.

[LedHed]

Palomar and uni.

[The Dutchman]

Go to youtube and pull up Alton Jones' reverse clinch knot. This is the easist to tie with any line and about 100%. I switched to this knot from the palomar and had absolutely no problem.

[spnrbatr]

This is what I use as rule of thumb and it has never been a problem for me. Jigs and plastic worms (Texas Rig or Carolina Rig) palomar knot. Spinnerbaits and crankbaits Trilene knot. If it's not broke don't fix it.