10 Fishing Knots Every Angler Needs (Step-by-Step 2026)

The Three Knots That Cover 90% of Your Fishing

Every fish you have ever lost to a 'snap-off' probably was not the line failing. It was the knot. Line breaks at the knot far more often than anywhere else, which is why learning to tie a handful of knots properly is the cheapest upgrade in fishing. Costs nothing, saves fish.

Here is the honest truth before we start: the palomar, the grinner, and the knotless knot cover about 90% of UK coarse fishing. Learn those three first and you can fish almost anywhere with confidence. The other seven in this guide are the specialists, the knots that sort out braid-to-fluorocarbon joins, loop rigs, spade-end hooks, and the situations where your everyday knot lets you down.

Two rules apply to every knot here. First, always wet the knot with saliva before pulling it tight; dry friction generates heat that weakens monofilament and fluorocarbon at the exact point you need strength. Second, tighten slowly and steadily, then test the knot with a firm pull before you cast. The bank is a terrible place to discover a bad knot. Practise at home with old line and a mug handle.

1. The Palomar Knot: The Strongest Simple Hook Knot

When to use it: tying hooks, swivels, and lures to mono, fluorocarbon, or braid. If you only learn one knot from this list, make it the palomar. It is quick, nearly impossible to tie badly, and retains around 95% of line strength, with some tests on braid putting it higher still.

To tie it: 1) double about 15cm of line and pass the loop through the hook eye; 2) tie a loose overhand knot with the doubled line, keeping the hook hanging in the middle; 3) pass the hook (or swivel) all the way through the loop; 4) wet the knot and pull both the standing line and tag end slowly until it seats neatly against the eye; 5) trim the tag to about 2mm.

The only real weakness is practical, not structural: you have to pass the whole hook or lure through the loop, which gets awkward with big lures or treble hooks. For standard hooks, swivels, and snap links it is unbeatable, and it is the knot that finally stops braid slipping.

2. The Improved Clinch Knot: The Everyday Classic

When to use it: hooks and swivels on mono and fluorocarbon, especially lighter lines. This is the knot most of us were taught first, and tied properly it still earns its place, retaining around 90-95% of line strength. It is faster than the palomar when you are tying small hooks with cold fingers.

To tie it: 1) thread the line through the hook eye and pull through about 15cm; 2) wrap the tag end around the standing line 5-7 times, working away from the hook; 3) pass the tag end back through the small loop next to the eye; 4) then pass it through the big loop you have just created; 5) wet, pull tight slowly, and trim.

Use 7 wraps on light line (under 6lb), 5 wraps on heavier mono. Skip the improved clinch on braid, where it has a reputation for slipping; that is palomar or grinner territory.

3. The Grinner (Uni) Knot: The All-Rounder

When to use it: hooks, swivels, leads, and (as a double grinner) joining two lines. The grinner, known internationally as the uni knot, is the Swiss Army knife of fishing knots and retains around 90-95% of line strength. Sea anglers love it because it ties easily in the dark and handles heavy mono well.

To tie it: 1) thread the line through the eye and double it back so the tag runs alongside the standing line; 2) form a loop by laying the tag end back over the doubled section; 3) wrap the tag end through the loop and around the doubled line 4-6 times; 4) wet and pull the tag end to snug the wraps, then slide the knot down to the eye; 5) trim.

Tie two grinners facing each other on overlapping lines and you have the double grinner, one of the most reliable line-to-line joins in fishing and a sensible alternative to the FG knot if you find the FG fiddly.

4. The Hair Rig (Knotless Knot): The Carp Catcher

When to use it: every hair rig you will ever tie. The knotless knot is how the bait gets presented off the back of the hook rather than on it, and it has caught more UK carp than every other rig combined. Because it whips down the shank rather than cinching at one point, it is strong too, retaining around 90% of line strength.

To tie it: 1) tie a small loop in the end of your hooklink and mount your boilie or pellet on it with a bait stop; 2) thread the other end of the hooklink through the back of the hook eye and set the hair length so the bait hangs roughly 1cm below the bend; 3) holding the hair in place along the shank, whip the hooklink down the shank 6-8 times in neat touching turns; 4) pass the end back through the eye from the front; 5) moisten and pull everything tight.

Hair length is the adjustment that matters: shorter for small pellets, longer for big boilies. The whipping angle also helps the hook flip and take hold in the carp's bottom lip, which is half the reason the rig works at all. If you want the full picture, our carp rigs explained guide covers what to do with the hair rig once you have tied it.

5. The FG Knot: Braid to Fluorocarbon, Done Properly

When to use it: joining braided mainline to a fluorocarbon or mono leader, mostly in lure fishing. The FG knot is the slimmest, strongest braid-to-leader join going, retaining around 90-95% of the braid's strength, and it sails through rod rings without that tell-tale clack you get from bulkier joins.

To tie it: 1) keep the braid under tension (hold it in your teeth or wrap it around a finger); 2) lay the leader against the braid and weave the braid over and under the leader in alternating wraps, around 15-20 in total, so the braid bites into the leader in a herringbone pattern; 3) lock the wraps with two or three half hitches of braid around both lines; 4) trim the leader tag close, then finish with a few more half hitches over the braid alone; 5) wet and bed everything down with a firm, steady pull.

The FG has a learning curve, no point pretending otherwise. Practise it at home five or six times before you trust it on the bank. The test is simple: pull hard on braid and leader; a properly seated FG visibly bites into the leader and will not slide.

6. The Figure-of-Eight Loop: Loops Without Drama

When to use it: making loops for loop-to-loop connections, attaching hooklengths, feeders, and method rigs. The figure-of-eight is the loop knot UK match and feeder anglers reach for by default, because it is fast, neat, and retains around 80-85% of line strength, which is plenty for a connection that is not under direct hook load.

To tie it: 1) double over the last 10-15cm of line to form a loop; 2) twist the doubled line back over itself to make a closed loop, then take the end of the loop around the doubled standing line one full turn, so the shape looks like a figure of eight; 3) pass the end of the loop back through the first eye of the eight; 4) wet, then pull the loop and standing line in opposite directions to seat it; 5) trim the tag.

Loop-to-loop is the quickest way to change hooklengths on the bank: pass one loop through the other, then pass the hook through the first loop and draw them together so they seat in a square 'handshake', not a strangling girth hitch, which costs you strength.

7. The Snell Knot: Power Along the Shank

When to use it: spade-end hooks, and any time you want the pull of the line aligned dead straight with the hook shank. Because the snell whips around the shank rather than relying on the eye, it is one of the strongest connections in fishing, retaining around 95% of line strength or better, and it gives a better hooking angle on bigger baits.

To tie it: 1) thread the line through the hook eye from the front and lay a long tag end along the shank (with a spade-end hook, simply lay the line along the shank); 2) form a loop hanging below the hook; 3) wrap the loop around the shank and the line 5-8 times, working up the shank in neat turns; 4) hold the wraps and pull the standing line slowly until the whole thing cinches down; 5) trim.

UK anglers mostly meet snelling through whisker-thin spade-end hooks to nylon, where it is the only option, but it is worth knowing on eyed hooks too. The knotless knot above is, in effect, a snell with a hair coming out the back.

8. The Albright Knot: Joining Unequal Lines

When to use it: joining two lines of clearly different diameters, classic cases being braid to a thick mono shock leader, or backing to a fly line. Where the double grinner and blood knot want similar diameters, the Albright thrives on mismatch and retains around 80-90% of line strength when tied carefully.

To tie it: 1) double over the end of the thicker line to form a loop; 2) pass about 25cm of the thinner line through the loop; 3) wrap the thinner line back over itself and both strands of the loop, 8-10 neat touching turns working towards the loop's end; 4) pass the tag end back out through the loop the same side it entered; 5) wet, pull both lines slowly so the wraps snug down without riding over the end of the loop, and trim.

The single biggest Albright failure is letting the wraps slip over the nose of the loop as you tighten. Keep your finger on the coils as you draw it down, and give it a serious two-handed test pull before it goes anywhere near a fish.

9. The Surgeon's Knot: The Fast Line Join

When to use it: joining two lines of similar diameter quickly, attaching tippet to a fly leader, or building a paternoster link. The surgeon's knot (a double or triple overhand tied with both lines together) is the join you can manage with numb hands in failing light, and it retains around 90% of line strength, more in its triple form.

To tie it: 1) lay the two lines alongside each other, overlapping by about 15cm and pointing in opposite directions; 2) treating both lines as one, tie a simple overhand knot, pulling the whole leader or hooklength through the loop; 3) pass everything through the loop a second time (and a third for the triple surgeon's); 4) wet, then pull all four ends evenly so the knot seats in one neat bundle; 5) trim both tags.

It is bulkier than a blood knot and sits slightly off-axis, so it is not the join for repeated casting through small rings, but for speed and reliability mid-session it has no equal. Pulling all four ends evenly is the difference between 90% strength and a knot that fails on the strike.

10. The Arbor Knot: Start at the Spool

When to use it: attaching line to your reel spool, every time you spool up. Nobody talks about the arbor knot because no fish should ever test it, but tie it badly and your whole spool of line can rotate uselessly when you wind, or worse, depart with a big fish on the one day you get spooled.

To tie it: 1) pass the line around the spool arbor; 2) tie an overhand knot with the tag end around the standing line; 3) tie a second overhand knot in the tag end itself, a couple of centimetres from the first, this acts as a stopper; 4) wet, then pull the standing line so the first knot slides down and jams against the spool with the stopper knot snugging in behind it; 5) trim close.

Strength retention is almost irrelevant here, the knot just needs to grip the arbor. One tip for braid: put a few wraps of mono backing or a strip of tape on the spool first, otherwise the whole lot can slip on the smooth metal no matter how good your knot is.

Which Knot for Which Situation

Hook or lure to mono or fluorocarbon: palomar first, improved clinch when the palomar's loop is impractical. Hook or lure to braid: palomar or grinner, never the improved clinch. Hair rigs for carp: knotless knot, no debate. Spade-end hooks: snell.

Braid mainline to fluorocarbon leader: FG knot if you have practised it, double grinner if you have not. Two lines of similar diameter: surgeon's knot for speed, blood knot for neatness. Two lines of very different diameters, like a shock leader: Albright. Loops for hooklengths and feeders: figure-of-eight. Line to reel: arbor.

If that still feels like a lot, go back to the start: palomar, grinner, knotless knot. Tie each one twenty times at home until your hands know it without your eyes, then add the FG when you start lure fishing with braid. That is the whole game.

Practice at Home, Log the Results on the Bank

A knot you can tie in the kitchen is not the same as a knot you can tie in horizontal rain with a swim full of feeding fish. Repetition is the only shortcut: spare line, a mug handle, ten minutes an evening for a week, and every knot in this guide becomes automatic.

Then go and use them. GilledIt logs every catch, species, weight, venue, rig, and conditions, so when the FG knot lands you a new lure-caught PB, there is a record of it. Download free on iOS and Android, and log the catch your knots land.