Tying blood knots
Fishermen are always concerned about knot strength, and
rightly so. After all, who wants to lose that fish of a lifetime through a line
breaking at a weak knot.
A fishing loop knot is an essential part of several
fishing rigs like ledger rigs or sabikis and the conventional dropper loop knot
or blood loop is normally used for these rigs.
It is also very commonly used in many others rigs where a
loop knot protruding at a right angle from the fishing line is required.
The conventional blood dropper loop, while being very
easy to make, is probably the weakest knot you can tie in your tackle.
Sarawak Deep Ocean Anglers came up with the platted loop
at the right after discovering the commercial fishing longlines he was tying
conventional blood loop knots into (to attach his traces) weakened the 100kg
mainline line by over 40%.
We found blood dropper loops were the main cause of
breakage in the longlines.
It one of those easy fishing knots that once mastered are
never forgotten.
I calls the new knot a platted blood loop and suggests
the following test for those who need convincing of the immense improvement in
knot strength over a conventional blood loop.
Tie a conventional blood loop knot in a length of 10-15kg
(20-30lbs) nylon and the platted loop in a second piece of line of the same
breaking strain. (The diagrams are done from the tier's view).
Pull both knots up slowly and carefully.
Wrap the blood loop tabs ends around your hands and see
how easy it is to break
Do the same with the other knot and note that the platted
loop is almost impossible to break.
Paul also uses the knot to join lines, he simply ties a
overhand knot to temporarily join the two lines before tying the platted loop
and then cuts off the temporary knot once the platted knot is formed.
How to tie a blood knot with more turns
You can also put in an extra twist in at step one and/or
and extra plait after step three if you wish to make the knot bigger or have
more coils in the finished knot.
One of the ends is then put back through the center of
the knot to form another plait before it is fully tightened.
Both tab ends are then opposed when the knot is tightened
and set.
As with any knot, tightening technique is important.
Try to keep even tension on the tab ends and tension on
the loop during setting the knot.
You don't need a blood knot tying tool for this knot but
you can use a fixed item like a large nail or vice handle to keep tension on
the loop if using heavy lines (50kg-100lbs or heavier lineweights)
