howsthebite · Knots · Palomar knot
How to tie the Palomar knot
Ties line to a hook, swivel or lure. The default choice for braid, and the one most bass anglers tie without looking.
Also called: Palomar
Why this knot
Few steps, hard to get wrong in the dark, and it holds braid better than most knots because the line doubles through the eye.
Tie it
Step 1 of 5
- 1 Double about 8 inches of line and pass the loop through the hook eye.
- 2 Tie a loose overhand knot with the doubled line, above the eye. Let the hook hang free.
- 3 Pass the open loop all the way over the hook, so it wraps the whole hook once.
- 4 Wet the line, then pull the standing line and tag end together, evenly, until the knot seats against the eye.
- 5 Check that the two strands lie parallel, not crossed. Trim the tag to about an eighth of an inch.
That's the knot. Wet it, seat it, and pull against it before you cast.
Getting it right
- Wet it before you seat it. Dry line heats up as it cinches and that heat is what weakens it.
- Pull both strands together, not one after the other, or the knot seats crooked.
- With very heavy braid, run the loop through the eye twice before the overhand.
What goes wrong
- Strands crossed instead of parallel. The knot looks fine and fails on the hookset.
- Cinching dry. This is the single most common way anglers weaken a good knot.
Knots that go with it
