Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish 
mcflyangler
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Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
The Palomar knot is great for big game fish that pull hard. The knot continues to tighten when being pulled on, and the double loops around the hook eye make for a strong and abrasion resistant knot. Its also very quick to tie. I used to use this knot fairly often when working on the party boats taking people out for albacore. Sometimes the albacore would be hitting so quickly, that the second the bait hits the water my customers would have a fish on. Many of them broke off, and needed new hooks tied on. This being strong, but so quick to tie was my go to knot. I was tying knots for customers at least 10 per minute while also having to try and gaff their fish. This knot is also very common for fly fishing. Many people use this knot for their first fly on a nymph dropper. Then they do not cut the tag end off, but use the tag end for their 2nd fly. A quick and easy way to make a two fly rig. Palomar Knot Instructional Video
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3006savage
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/01 08:58:31
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It is a 90+ percentage knot with mono and braid but only tests out at 70% on flouro. I use 10lbs braid to a 12lbs flouro leader using an FG knot for the braid to flouro connection and then I use the palomar knot for my flouro to snap connection.
The weak link in the system is the palomar knot which breaks at around 8.5lbs. This makes it simple to re-tie just a new snap on and I can reuse the remaining leader. The FG knot seems to be a near 100% knot or perhaps the breaking strength of my braid is actually higher than the 10 LBS rating of the line.
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mcflyangler
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/01 12:07:56
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3006savage
It is a 90+ percentage knot with mono and braid but only tests out at 70% on flouro. I use 10lbs braid to a 12lbs flouro leader using an FG knot for the braid to flouro connection and then I use the palomar knot for my flouro to snap connection.
The weak link in the system is the palomar knot which breaks at around 8.5lbs. This makes it simple to re-tie just a new snap on and I can reuse the remaining leader. The FG knot seems to be a near 100% knot or perhaps the breaking strength of my braid is actually higher than the 10 LBS rating of the line.
Do you have a device to test the strength? Interesting to find out the difference between the different types of lines and breaking strength. I have found that older line sometimes can get brittle with knots. I had some 2 year old tippet that I used one day, and I kept breaking off. I was confused so when I came back home, I started testing my lines with my knots I used, and found that the line itself seemed to be just as strong when old, but the knots were what dropped the breakage point, and all knots seemed to make the line more brittle. (this is not scientific, more of me pulling and seeing how hard I needed to pull). HAHA Lets just say I only use newer tippet now. Every season I re-buy tippet and throw out the old.
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3006savage
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/01 14:11:31
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I get some of the info from the Salt Strong website and there is also Knot Wars on you tube.
I have used my digital fish scale to measure them also by wrapping one end to a post and slowly pulling with my scale on the other end. In my case I have found that the FG knot typically breaks at over 14 lbs when testing 12 lbs seguar flouro and 10 LBS Suffix 832 and half of those breaks are not even at the knot. The 12 lbs seaguar breaks first. I think the Suffix 832 is actually a lot stronger than 10 LBS
The Palomar knot on the 12 lbs seguar leader breaks at around 9 lbs. Main thing is that the breaking strength is consistent.
The knot strength of flouro is less than premium mono pretty much across the board with all knots according to the testing done on various sites.
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mcflyangler
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/01 22:25:22
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Oh thats a good idea with the fish scale. I didn't think about that.
I could totally be wrong, but I find that while some lines are stronger, others also might have properties that can work with certain knots better also. For instance, some lines have more stretch, some have a slicker coating, some are thinner or thicker at the same breaking strength. All these might come into play when testing certain knots. A slicker line might not do as well with a knot that has less friction tension, a stretchier line might do better with knots that have sharper angles to them, exc...
All this is speculation of course, but maybe some of this comes into play?
Either way, the simple mono we used on the party boats seemed to do best with the palomar, and I had customers break off less with that knot than any others that we used.
Have you tried the alburto knot for braid to flouro? Look it up, its pretty cool. Very strong as well. I think its much quicker than the FG, and it is pretty close to 100%. But thats only from reading that its 100%, Again I have no way of testing. I do find however that I rarely break off at the braid to flouro connection when using it. Its similar to the Albright knot, but better I think.
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3006savage
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/01 22:50:31
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mcflyangler
Oh thats a good idea with the fish scale. I didn't think about that.
I could totally be wrong, but I find that while some lines are stronger, others also might have properties that can work with certain knots better also. For instance, some lines have more stretch, some have a slicker coating, some are thinner or thicker at the same breaking strength. All these might come into play when testing certain knots. A slicker line might not do as well with a knot that has less friction tension, a stretchier line might do better with knots that have sharper angles to them, exc...
All this is speculation of course, but maybe some of this comes into play?
Either way, the simple mono we used on the party boats seemed to do best with the palomar, and I had customers break off less with that knot than any others that we used.
Have you tried the alburto knot for braid to flouro? Look it up, its pretty cool. Very strong as well. I think its much quicker than the FG, and it is pretty close to 100%. But thats only from reading that its 100%, Again I have no way of testing. I do find however that I rarely break off at the braid to flouro connection when using it. Its similar to the Albright knot, but better I think.
I agree the properties of lines affect how well the various knots will work. Knot Wars tests the knots with mono, flouro, and braid and you can see how some knots excel on one line and fail miserably on the other. The alberto knot is great. It is what I tied before the FG and I occasionally will use it on the boat when I am in a hurry. I rarely retie the line to line connections however because the line to snap connection always fails. It is the occasional wind knot that I end up cutting the braid that I end up tying a leader on. One thing about the alberto knot is that it does not feed thru the guides as well so usually keep my leaders to 18 inches long to avoid the eyes.
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mcflyangler
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/01 23:02:14
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Yeah, ive had a few issues sometimes with feeding through the guides with an alburto. It is very slim though, but I think its cause of that pesky tag end of mono that sticks out a bit sometimes gets caught.
I think even there are different properties within different brands of monos, braids, and flouro's. I mean, run of the mill $3.50 500yd roll of mono from wall mart is gonna be different than sea guar's high end mono, you know? I mean, even with the high end lines, they all make them different. But yeah, definitely big differences between flouro, braid, and mono. Much larger differences than the differences between the same type of line from brand to brand.
ITs been a long day, so don't mind me if my typing doesn't make sense. I am thinking of 100 things at once, so I have a feeling I'm not communicating properly. HAHA
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3006savage
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/02 14:08:35
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mcflyangler
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/03 16:57:03
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Thats pretty good pictures man... What camera you using? I need to get one for my flies.. Is it a macro or something to get that small and detailed?
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3006savage
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/03 23:32:39
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mcflyangler
Thats pretty good pictures man... What camera you using? I need to get one for my flies.. Is it a macro or something to get that small and detailed?
Not my pictures I just searched google images for the best photo and cut and pasted into the post. That is as high tech as I get.
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mcflyangler
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Re: Palomar Knot - Best knot for big game fish
2016/08/06 10:29:00
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LOL I hear ya. Well anyway, it was great chatting about knots. I appreciate your insight. I will have to try the FG knot again.
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