Knot Wars

So far I am up to test 5 and they are putting the Trilene Knot up against the Palomar.

Both are 100% line strength with mono and flourocarbon. with their knot testing machine the lines broke before the knots broke or slipped.

The Palomar shows in their tests as the clear winner though as it held better with braid. That does not mirror my own experience, but its hard to argue when you look at their testing setup.

I don't know if this link will work for non NAFC members, but here is the test link.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1344599930/bctid1379596894

As many of you know I am strong proponent of the Trilene knot. It was very hard for me to make a post edging it out in favor of the Palomar.

So far for overall performance the Palomar beat out every other knot including the world's fair knot. That was hard to say. I've been tying the Trilene knot for 30 years.

[b]Line to lure: Clear winner Palomar Knot[/b]

Now I'm looking at connecting two lines together. Braid to mono.

In Round 13 the back to back uniknot goes heads up aginst the blood knot. Now, I tied the blood knot for more than 20 years, but about 5 years ago I switched to the back to back uniknot.

I find the back to back uni easier to tie, but the blood knot slides through rod guides a little better.

In this test they declared it a dead even tie. (pun intended)

One thing they did not particularly say, was how well they worked with lines of dramtically different diameters. They also slightly preferred the back to back uni because it is easier to tie.

Again, I don't know if the link will work for everybody, but here is the link to the final test in the competition.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1344599930/bctid1463310861

[b]Line to Line: TIE !!! Blood knot and Back to Back Uni Knot.[/b]

In case the links don't work here are images of all the winners:

Bloodknot http://www.yumabassman.com/knots/blood%20knot.gif

Back to Back Uni Knot http://www.yumabassman.com/knots/Back%20to%20Back%20Uni%20Knot.gif

Palomar Knot http://www.teamcarnahan.com/images/palomar.gif

People always seem to get their panties in a knot over this subject, so when I ran across this side by side comparison testing I had to sit and watch through the entire thing. On one forum I posted all the same above information, and even after that had guys come back with, "Well I use... 'knot that washed out early in the competition"... cause I think its the best knot." LOL. People choose to believe wat they want. I have used the Trilene knot since the 70s. I was convinced it was the best knot for line to lure connections. Now after seeing the tests done with some good real world precision equipment I am willing to conceed that the Palomar knot does edge it out just slightly, and because it is easier to tie I can see why many people prefer it.

Bob La Londe www.YumaBassMan.com

Director www.YumaProAm.com

I use it mainly for shark fishing tying 20 to 30 lb mono to 80 to 150 lb braid, I use 10 feet of braid between my mono and steel, this is to keep tail cutting by shark tails of the Mono. it allows me to use only 2 feet of steel, with my weight sliding down to that 2 feet. This Allows easy casting from the beach.

I have beach landed sharks up to 300# with this set up, and have never had the knot between the mono and braid fail