suggested improvement for the double uni knot

[GreyNurse]

Hi raiders,

I've just finished having a go at tying my first FG knot to join braid to leader. It was most successful as I had the video tutorial running at the time. 15 minutes later, I tried again from memory and stuffed it up. I know where I went wrong, but only because I reran the tutorial. However, I won't have that luxury when I'm out fishing and I need to tie a new knot.

My "go to" knot is the double uni. The only real problem with that knot is, that after a while the braid lays down and exposes the tag end of the leader, which faces the the hook and so starts to bang against the guides and affect the cast, not to mention the durability of the guides. Then an idea struck me. The FG employs a couple of half hitches of the tag end of the braid over the leader's tag end to "smooth" it out, so to speak, So I tried the same on the double uni and came up with the same result; a nice smooth surface of braid covering the tag end of the leader. OK, so the uni knot is a fraction thicker, but it should pass through the runners smoothly. Time will tell. I'll let you know how things turn out.

In the meantime, if any other raiders have tried something similar, can you let me know the results? I'm sure the information will be of interest to all of us. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing the FG knot, but will probably mostly tie them in the comfort of my man cave.

[Guest]

Interesting....what size braid and leader are you using this for ?

[krause]

It might work, though the half hitches in the FG knot are to lock the finger wrap in place, but I suppose the second set around the braid could be seen as helping Smith out the gradient. Im not site how much it will help though, keep us posted!

[GreyNurse]

Interesting....what size braid and leader are you using this for ?

Anything from 6 to 20lb leader, 6 to 10lb braid. I like to fish a little on the heavy side since losing a couple of big 'uns on light leader. If I'm bait fishing, I'll tie on an appropriate trace for whatever I'm targeting.

[Cargo05]

Interesting. Although I find the double uni knot easy to tie I have also recently switched to the FG knot because of potential guide damage. Like Nursie I find the FG knot more difficult to tie, and took a while to get the hang of it. However I have found the FG knot is a lot smoother through the guides for casting lures so I am going to continue using it even with the occasional stuff up.

[Guest]

Try the 5 turn surgeon loop for up to 20lb leader and it works great on 4 to 10lb leader.

I use a bobbin for the GT knot and its really easy for leaders over 12 lb

[Fab1]

I just tied the improved Albright,double uni knot,slim beauty,and double locked half blood knot to see if there's much difference in knot thickness/length and direction of tags and from what I can tell there's very little difference.

I presume that they all will catch on rod guides given that the knots thicken the main line by at least the thickness of the line again creating drag against the guides as the knot slides up and over the guides.

I even tried putting heat shrink over the knots which made then more aerodynamic but brought about a new problem of being less slippery than the line which in guessing would slow the cast down considerably.

I do not use braid or lures for that matter but if I did I would probably just use the double uni knot with extra raps as its a good strong knot and simple to tie.

Cheers.

[GreyNurse]

Well, I took two rods with me yesterday. One had the FG tied and the other had the "improved" double uni. I've gotta say the FG was sensational/ I tossed a squid jig around for an hour and never felt the knot pass through the guides. On close inspection afterwards, there was no obvious wear and tear to the knot either.

The double uni was used to bait fish and, while not cast as often, I was pleasantly surprised by the better feel of the knot through the guides.Again, there was no "fuzzy end to the braid used to wrap over the leader. indicating little wear.

I'll tie FG's at home for a while, but it's nice to know that my version of the double uni knot can be tied while "on the job".

[quochuy]

The FG knot is an awesome one but so much of a pain to make out there. For braid to leader I prefer the Improved Albright knot that although is bigger than the FG it is much smaller than the double UNI.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[darrylgulp]

I agree with swordfisherman. The 5 turn surgeons for light line.

I use to use the albright when I lived in abu dhabi... but we were using heavier braid and leader

[Witha]

Few of my rods have finicky guides, you might remember me losing a few lures when we went yakking due to a uni getting caught. So learnt to tie the fg and I can do it pretty darn quick now. Never any guide issues, and you rarely lose leader on a snag bust off which is a great asset. I still tie double unis if I'm in a mad rush on the kayak but a slim beauty is almost as easy to tie man.

Interesting about the wrapping, might have to see how it goes