How to Tie a Fisherman’s Knot Step by Step

The fisherman’s knot, as its name suggests, is for anglers to use when fishing. Anglers are encouraged to learn how to tie a fisherman’s knot as it’s useful when you have to attach two lines together.

Although fisherman knot tying is for connecting strands of any diameter, it’s most effective on twines, ropes, and strings. Learning how to tie a knot on a hook is also essential as it’s one of the widely used knots for fishing that secures fishing lines to hooks and lures.

You’ll be glad to know that learning this is easy as it’s one of the simpler knots to make. Keep on reading as we’ve created a fisherman’s knot guide that will teach you the right way to make a fisherman’s knot!

Fisherman’s Knot Guide

To prepare yourself for anything, we suggest you learn how to tie a fisherman’s knot on a hook before you head out onto the water.

Step 1: Take the end of a rope and tie an overhand knot. Make sure it’s loose. When you’re pulling the knot, don’t make it too tight like you would with the regular overhand knots. You can make an overhand knot by forming a loose loop and then passing the rope’s free end through the loop.

Step 2: Using the other rope you want to connect, pass its free end through the loop that you’ve just created with your overhand knot. Take the second rope’s free end and then repeat the previous step. This time, tie the overhand knot over the first rope. Your first rope should be passing through the loop that’s created by your second knot.

Step 3: Tighten the knots slowly. Pull the ends of the ropes in the opposite direction with the same force so the two knots are touching. When you tie a fisherman’s knot for fishing, it’s likely that you’ll use fishing lines. If so, wet the lines with your saliva so the overhand knots are smooth as you pull them tight.

You can trim the excess lengths of strands. Like most types of fishing knots, the fisherman’s knot isn’t designed to be undone or untied. Discard the knot by cutting it when you’re done.

From the steps above, learning how to tie the knot is easy. In fact, it’s one of the quickest knots you can tie as it’s basically two overhand knots that are pulled together.

However, you need to ensure you keep the two loops loose until you’ve formed the fisherman’s knot. As soon as you’ve created the knot, pull the ends simultaneously to tighten.

Best Uses of the Fisherman’s Knot

The primary use for this knot is joining two lines together for fishing. Although the knot will work for connecting lines of varying diameters or thickness, it’s best to connect lines of similar size.

Within the angling community, the knot sometimes gets a bad reputation. This is due to its simplicity. It’s also not entirely resistant to slips compared to other fishing knots, most especially if you’ll be using monofilament lines to make a fisherman’s knot.

There are most definitely more effective fishing knots that you can learn, but they are more complex. Still, they can provide an increased holding strength if you join two fishing lines together.

That said, there are also those who appreciate the ease of tying and simplicity of the fisherman’s knot. It can be formed even when the conditions aren’t suitable. If your hands are cold or wet, you can still tie a fisherman’s knot. It’s so easy that most consider it their go-to fishing knot for most situations.

Do you need more holding strength? If so, then make the overhand knots with extra turns. This way, you can create a variation of the fisherman’s knot, commonly referred to as the double fisherman’s knot.

There’s also a triple fisherman’s knot, which is created just by adding more loops to each strand’s free end before you pull the knot tight. The double and the triple fisherman’s knots are used for fishing that need more holding strength onto the line.

Other Fishing Knots You Should Learn

There are hundreds of thousands of knots that you can learn for fishing. Fortunately, you only have to learn how to tie a few.

The ones that are most essential for you to know apart from the fisherman’s knot are as follows:

Blood Knot

The blood knot is an easy and popular knot to use if you want to tie two fishing lines together. You can join floating fly lines to 5x tippets using a blood knot.

There are also those who prefer using a blood knot for joining mono to braided backing and a 300-lb mono top shot to a 200-lb fluorocarbon leader.

Basically, you will tie two fisherman’s knots that go in the opposing directions and leave a loop right in the middle which will function like a fishhook’s eye.

As soon as you’ve completed the wind, it would be a great idea to thoroughly lubricate the knot so you can cinch it tightly. Snip the tag ends when you’re satisfied with the knot.

Palomar Knot

The fisherman’s knot isn’t the only way you can tie a hook to a fishing line. There are also folks who like the Palomar knot better.

To learn how to tie a fisherman’s knot, make a 4-to-6-inch loop using your line then pass the loop onto the hook’s eye. Make an overhand knot with a double line then pass the hook onto the loop. Wet the knot before you cinch it tight.

Conclusion

The fisherman’s knot is often compared to the more complex and sophisticated fishing knots. However, all serious anglers know about the knot as it’s the most commonly used for attaching hooks to lines.

The knot is also very easy to demonstrate or explain how to tie. Follow the steps above and let us know what you think of it in terms of use!