From time to time - like last night - the FG knot still amazes me with how strong a connection it is

I know it’s the middle of March and the chances of catching a bass on the open coast around here are minimal at best, but everything about last night screamed why not give it a go. I liked the size of tide, the time of high water, the wind direction, the moon phase, the water clarity, plus the fact we’d had a bit of relative warmth on the rocks in the afternoon, indeed the only thing I didn’t really like about giving it a go last night was the middle of March bit. You’ll never know unless you go though…………..

I did get a couple of bumps on the Sandeel Pencil 125 (in Matte White, new colours of these now saltwater rigged lures in shops around the end of this month, all info and video to come), and whilst it was definitely fish I am not 100% sure it was bass with how gentle the enquiries were. There was something I wanted to try last night that revolves around rigging a Gravity Stick Pintail slightly differently and then working it along the bottom, and all felt good until I went and jammed my experiment up good and proper. The ground I was fishing is about as rough as you can get which in turn was partly why I wanted to see how this experiment might fish, but all went very solid indeed.

Now I don’t mind losing lures when I’m trying stuff out especially - to me it’s part and parcel of doing stuff like this. What I don’t particularly like though is having to retie a leader knot in the dark. It’s perfectly easy to do I might add, but I have to go back to my rucksack, dig my glasses out - older age eh? - and then tuck away with my headlamp to tie a new leader on via the FG knot of course because why on earth not always use what is the strongest connection between mainline and leader that I have ever come across? I would also add that if I pull for a break and something does eventually give, more often than not it’s actually the knot at the end of my leader which is tied to my lure clip which is a bit easier than the whole leader going.

So I tried a few tricks of the release trade last night but the lure rigged with it’s 6/0 weedless hook was jammed good and proper and it felt like rock not weed. I was fully prepared to pull for a break either at the leader knot or on the knot to the lure clip, so I clamped my hand over the spool on my reel and then nudged backwards until something gave - which it did, but my lure was still there, and instead of breaking off I had actually gone and bent the 6/0 weedless hook out just enough for it to presumably “spring” out of its snag, as per the photo above. I know how strong these Savage Gear 6/0 hooks are that we made for the Gravity Sticks, I have never had one fail on me, and I have pulled the hell out of my best bass on one, so yet again this incident from last night proves to me how strong the FG knot is if you tie it right with good braid and leader material - and yes, I do like the best possible chance I have at getting my gear back from a snag.

Now there is obviously no way even the biggest bass which we might ever hook would pull as hard on a straight line as I pulled for a break last night, so let’s not kid ourselves that we need the out and out strength of such a strong leader knot for the specific fish that a lot of us love to chase. It’s a bit different when you are chasing ridiculously big fish like tuna and GTs which can trash any weaknesses in your setup through sheer size and power and speed alone, indeed I bet there are plenty of you out there who have never used any other leader knot than say an Improved Albright or Uni to Uni and haven’t lost any bass due to their leader knots snapping. Lines do break of course which to me is usually down to some kind of abrasion based damage, so let’s acknowledge that bass are awesome but they don’t really tend to snap leader knots through their sheer power or size unless you happen to tie bad knots - what, me, a bloke tying bad knots and admitting to it? Never!

My argument for using the FG knot is always going to be why not. Why on earth not use the best connection between my mainline and my leader that I know of when I know how to tie it so why would I use a different knot which I know isn’t as strong? As I said, it’s not about the relative size or power of our bass, rather it’s me wanting to get everything out of the often pretty expensive braid I have spooled up with because again, why on earth not? I personally see no point in spending good money on a modern braid and then using a leader knot which simply isn’t getting everything out of it.

Anyway, once again I find myself blogging about a fishing knot which I wholeheartedly accept is not going to set the world ablaze. Apologies, but I got to thinking about it and that to be honest is how most of these blog posts happen - I get to thinking about something and it helps my head if I write it down like this. On my spinning reel last night I was fishing (blanking) with the braid I trust above all others, the awesome and amazingly long-lasting Sufix 131. Nope, it’s not remotely cheap, but with how long this stuff feels 100% good for I would argue that in fact it’s become almost pretty good value. I tend to use the 150m spools of 20lb/0.165mm/PE#1, but I will perfectly happy drop down to the PE#0.8 or up to the PE#1.2 or 1.5, indeed this year I am going to load a spinning reel up with the Sufix PE#2 and use it on the really shallow rough ground marks. My leader last night was the 0.405mm/25.5lbs Seaguar Ace Hard fluorocarbon, tied to a Breakaway Mini Link lure clip, and bearing in mind that it was my first time properly fishing with this Seaguar Ace Hard stuff, that first pull for a break which didn’t actually break but the hook bent out has given me a jolt of confidence in the whole setup. Roll on the bass being there………………

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