|
In the early days of my fishing career, attaching a hook at the end of my
line usually involved a series of overhand knots to the point that the
well-developed knuckle of monofilament would not slip under any
circumstances. Fishing for small bluegill and catfish didn’t require
a stealthy connection or the full strength of my 10 lb. test line. After
getting more involved in the passion of saltwater fishing in the early
1980s and reading everything that came my way (Charlie Davis’ “Hook Up!”
and Chuck Garrison’s “Offshore Fishing”) I learned how to tie my first real
knot: The improved clinch knot.
For years it was my “go-to” terminal connection for everything from
mackerel to albacore…and it worked well! It is quick, easy to
tie and very rarely did I have a fish come unbuttoned, only to pull
in the pig tail curly-q end of the line that was the obvious sign of a knot
failure. I believe the improved clinch is still a viable knot, if
tied correctly. However, after having countless numbers of fellow anglers
trying to convince me that THEIR knot is the best thing going, I decided to
do a little informal test. The goal: To determine for my own
satisfaction which knot, if any, I should switch to!
The test involved using samples of Soft Steel Ultra 22.7 lb. test
monofilament line, with one end tied to a plain circle ring and the other
on the spool. The ring (with the knot) was then attached to a
hand-held luggage scale and the approximate reading noted when the line
broke. Hey, I already stated this was an informal test!
The three
main contenders in this competition are the Double Improved Clinch Knot,
Palomar, and the San Diego Jam Knot.
I performed 5
“pull tests” to determine the breaking strength of each sample of line,
hoping each would break at the knot to give me an idea of the breaking
strength of just the knot and not necessarily the line. On one
attempt on each knot (20% of the time) the line broke at a point away from
the knot. The rest of the time the line broke at the knot, in theory,
the weakest point.
The final results made it pretty clear to me that I should tie…..
THE
PALOMAR KNOT
During my testing, the Palomar broke at an average of 83% of the rated line
strength with one pull actually exceeding the rated line strength. It
was a consistent performer.
The double improved clinch knot actually came in second with an average
breaking point of 79% of the line’s rating. I didn’t try the
traditional improved clinch because of plenty of previous tests that all
showed the double variant outperforms the original.
Coming in a very close third place was the San Diego knot, averaging 77% of
the rated breaking strength of the line used.
Of
course, your mileage may vary and this test was not done on one of those
highly accurate knot testing machines you see at the outdoors shows.
However, what it demonstrated to ME was that I found a knot that performed
better for ME, one that I consistently tied, is fairly easy to tie and
works well for most applications. For large jigs I will probably
still use the double improved clinch mainly because the whole jig, including
treble hook, would have to pass through a small loop in the line. The
double improved clinch is quicker and easier in that case.
For mono to flouro
connection I have had excellent results with the Seaguar knot. Again,
easy to tie consistently and it works well. For dropper loop fishing,
a variation of the Seaguar knot has become my rig of choice instead of the
traditional dropper loop knot, which can fail when you need it the
most. I had a perfectly tied dropper loop fail on a large Guadalupe
yellowtail…all I got back was a clean break right at the knot!
|
