Connect The FG Knot Mono Or Fluorocarbon With Braided Main Line

Without question the FG knot is by far the best knot to connect your braided main line with a monofilament or fluorocarbon leader. Both lines are virtually fused together! The load capacity is almost 100% but unfortunately the knot is not easy to tie the first few times. Therefore I will show you here, how you can do this at first sight complicated knot simply by yourself. If you have tied it yourself a few times, it will be very easy to do.

The knot casts through rod rings without any problems and I can crank my leader into the rod rings and fish with long leaders. Only with some rods with microguides this is often a bit difficult. With normal rod rings, however, it slides through the rings with virtually no loss of casting distance!

Table of Contents Best useSo you knot the FG knotTying InstructionsAssembly with FG knotTips for a good FG knotThat’s why I only use the FG knot

Best use

This knot is especially good for connecting thick leaders with a relatively thin braided main line. For example, pike-proof hard mono or FC material. I first heard about this knot when I was GT fishing and when I was sea fishing for big predators. The only alternative to the FG knot are really difficult to tie knots for the Big Game, where sometimes two people are needed.

How to tie the FG knot

In this video you can see how to tie the FG knot very easily by yourself. But soon I will also make a video in German. The variant shown here is slightly different from how I make the knot.

Tying instructions

Knotted here again in pictures of me. It is important that all lines are permanently under tension, which can be achieved quite easily as follows:

The rod is placed on the ground with the main line threaded through it, so that the tip of the rod bends slightly
The short end of the main line is clamped between the teeth and held in place
The long end of the leader is held firmly in the left hand
The short end of the leader is held with the tying hand (right hand)

The second part of the instructions was made with real fishing lines, because the knot with the thick lines cannot be tied.

Step 1:First of all, the leader (white) is placed over the main line. Step 2: Then the leader is put once around the main line and back again. Step 3: the twist and each further one is pulled to the point of origin where we have laid the leader over our main line. Step 4: Now it goes to the other side. Always underneath and away upwards. Step 5: This is repeated 8-12 times. Here in detail on real fishing lines. Each turn has to be pulled slowly into the middle and everything has to be kept under light tension permanently. This is how it should look like: everything nicely packed. At the end a loop of the short end of the main line is put around the main line and the leader end. The other hand fixes the knot. Similar to a normal hand knot, the short end of the main line is now pulled through the loop from behind. Now this knot is simply tightened. Afterwards everything is moistened and the long end of the leader and the long end of the main line is pulled. Now a loop of the short end of the main line is put around the long end of the main line again and the short end is threaded through several times (3-5 times). Now pull everything tight. And ready! Now you can cut the short end of the leader to 0,5cm and burn it with the lighter.

Assembly with FG Knot

This is how your finished assembly for spin fishing with an FG knot can look like.

Tips for a good FG knot

All windings have to be pulled together first – the most important for the knot (I can’t stress this often enough)
At the end the knot should be at least 0,5 to 1 cm long, then you have made enough turns even with thin main lines
Pull the knot really tight what your lines give
Test your knot at the end of course

That’s why I only use the FG knot

By the way, in the meantime I completely renounce knotless connectors and knot all leaders for spin fishing with the FG knot. The advantages are simply less material costs, because I only need my leader material. So I even save some money and I have made the experience that knotless connectors don’t even hold as good as promised. Furthermore, clamping sleeves and knotless connectors make noise and vibrations in the water. Predatory fish, such as pike, know this too well and take off. This frightening effect of conventional leaders is therefore also avoided. To connect my hanger or swivel with such thick lines the Palomar knot >> is used.

I even like to use the FG knot for trout fishing with relatively thin braided and thin leaders.