Today we're going to be running you through three knots to tie your terminal tackle or your lures on. The first one being the blood knot, second one being the uni knot, and the third being the loop knot. Again, these knots are great just to tie 95% of your tackle onto your mainline or your leader.

So, first off, we'll start with the blood knot. I'm going to be using some 50 pound today just so it's a bit easy to see and just a big worm hook. Perfect. So let's start off with the blood knot here now. So we've got our mainline and we've got our hook with the eye there. So we're going to take that and go through the eye of the hook. I generally come through from the bottom, but with this knot, it doesn't really matter whether you go through the top or the bottom, and then we're going to pinch around the eye of the hook there with a couple of inches of tag coming out there.

We're going to pinch there because later on in the knot, you're going to see that there's actually going to be a hole left there. And then we're going to have to go back through that with the tag end. So it just makes it a little bit easier when there's a bit more of a hole there. So we're going to take your tag end with our mainline, we're going to wrap our tag end around our mainline there with large lines you can, I generally do this about eight times, but because this is a little bit heavier, we've got around about four or five times.

Cool. So as you can see there, guys, we've got our tag end here and we've got our mainline here and there's that the loop that I was saying earlier. So because we've pinched that we've left a little bit more slack there, and then it's just a little bit easier to pull your tag through. So as you can see, we've wrapped around the mainline there, and we've got a spiral of line there. So next we're going to take our tag end and we're going to push that through that loop at the eye of the hook, and we're going to just hold it there, then we're going to slowly pull down.

So as you can see, that's all slowly starting to weave on itself and bind in. So we don't want to bind this up too much just yet because you will get bind burn, and that's not what we want. So we're going to take it down so it looks like it's all good. And then we're going to just give it a little bit of lubrication. Lubrication is very key with knots because if you have any type of knot burn or line burn, that will make your line break and we definitely don't want that. So we want to make sure that we give it a proper lubrication.

Perfect. So, that's lubricated up. So we're going to just slowly pull that down now, as you can see, it's all binding in on itself. So once we get to about there, we're going to give it a good pull on the mainline. So you can see that it's all bind down and we're just going to give it a good pull on the tag end here.

Perfect. So that cinched the knot down really well, as you can see there, it's really nice sitting. Everything's looking really good. Now we're going to just chop that tag end off. We're going to leave a couple of mil there, these knots generally don't have any movement, but it doesn't hurt to leave just a little bit of a tag end there just in case. So there we go there a nice blood knot done.

So next off we're going to do the uni knot. This one's much similar to the blood knot, but it's just done a little bit different. So this is knot's generally good for heavy applications. Whether that be for popping or stick baiting, jigging, you can use this for very heavy lines, can still be used for the lighter lines, but this is a great heavy line or a big fish knot. So again, we're going to have the mainline and we've got our hook. So we're going to run the tag end or the main line up through the eye of the hook. Again, pulling out a couple of inches. We've got a mainline and a tag end.

So next off, we're going to just take the tag end and put a loop. And then we're actually going to put this, put this loop here, so we've got the loop coming out of the eye of the hook and then it comes around and we're just going to pull that main line up. So the top of the loop is in line with the mainline like that. So the loop goes underneath the mainline, just like that there. Then we've got a tag in here from the loop coming around and we're going to take this tag end and run it through this hole. So that's going to be around the top of our loop and the mainline. We're going to do that about three or four times.

Perfect there. So again, the lighter the line, you might want to go around six to seven times just to make sure, but with this heavier line, three to four is perfect. So we're going to slowly pull that down there. So again, we've pulled that down, that started to weave in on itself really nicely. Before there's any type of pressure applied we want to make sure we lubricate that up. So as you can see, we've got quite a bit of line here, but that's okay. This will all pull in. So we're just going to lubricate that up.

Perfect. Then we're just going to slowly pull that mainline. And as you can see, that's pulling in, and then it's going to come up to the hook there really nicely. And then we want to equally pull the tag end and the mainline at the same time. So everything gets pulled down nice and evenly. Perfect. And there we go there. So then we're going to give one last good pull to make sure that the knots fully cinched down on the mainline. Perfect. And one last pull on the tag end. Perfect. And then we have there a nice uni knot. So again, we're just going to chop the target end off just leaving a couple of mil. Again, it doesn't hurt to have a little bit of a tag end there, it doesn't get in the way of anything. So there we go there. There's a uni knot all done.

And last but not least, we're going to be doing the loop knot. The loop knot is perfect for using for lures or soft plastic baits. It just adds a whole lot more movement to your bite and a lot more action, which is really good because we're always looking for just that little bit more action out of your lures. So again, we've got the mainline and their hook and we're actually going to just make a granny knot into our mainline, just like that there. Leaving a couple of inches from the granny knot, making sure not to cinch down that granny knot because we actually need to go back through that with the line.

So we've got our granny knot in our line there. Then we're just going to grab on our hook or bait, then we're going to take the tag end up through the eye of that hook, pulling the tag end through so it's just before the granny knot as you can see there. Okay. Then we're going to grab our tag end and then we're going to push that through the granny knot. So as you can see, we've got our knot there and then it's through the eye of the hook, just like that. Okay.

And then next up we're just going to take the tag end and actually wrap around to the mainline just like the blood knot, we're going to do this about three to four times. Perfect. And again, with lighter lines, you can go a little bit more if need be. It'll just end up winding down a bit better, but with this bigger line, again, it's a bit tougher to pull down. So there we go there, we've got our wraps around our mainline, then we're going to take the tag end and actually go back through that granny knot that we created at the start.

Perfect. So there we go there, everything's starting to bind down. You can see we've done the spirals back through the granny and we're going to slowly pull it down, but not too tight because again, we need to lubricate because that is a very big, key part in knots. So we'll lubricate this up now. Perfect. And then we're just going to slowly pull that down. So we're going to just take the tag end and the mainline and then we're going to pull that.

So when you pull this knot, you want to make sure that you're pulling the tag into the mainline in line with each other. You don't have a tag end coming out and then the mainline going in 90 degrees because you're actually pulling the knot, you're pulling each other apart like that, bringing the knot in. So as you can see there, essentially it's like a blood knot that is then stopped up against a granny knot. So as you can see there, we've got our loop and a free action on our hook with the knot front.

So again, we've got a tag end, we're just going to chop that down a couple of mils, there's no problems with having a little bit extra tag end again, because it's not getting in the way of anything. So as you can see there, we've got great movement if we went to throw a soft plastic spring bait on this. You'd find it to have great action. So hopefully these three knots can help you next time you're out on the water and it gets you a couple more bites and keeps a few more fish on.  

Meet Braden Schuch
Daiwa Digital and Creative Coordinator

The newest member to join Daiwa Australia's Marketing Team, Braden is as comfortable in front of the camera and on the edit desk as he his flipping jigs amongst the trees for bass.