How to Guide – The “Twizzled Loop”

Looking forward to this season I need to improve several aspects of my fishing, they include;

• The long pole – All to often I fish at 9 or 11 meters and when required to fish out at 13m+ I find all skill packs up and leaves and I repeatedly slap the water or spill my feed from my cups, disturbing the fish and missing vital bites.
• Waggler Fishing – I aim to fish venues which are more than X number of pole sections wide, hopefully it will help improve my cast accuracy too!
• Feeder and straight lead fishing -  I need to fish the feeder and straight lead more often and practicing it in the summer, when the fish are up and feeding is essential. It can be a deadly method in the winter, but all too often I fall back on the pole for those sure fire winter fish.

How to attach elastic to an elastic connector.

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at my match top 3, and recently after switching all my heavy elastics to Dacron connectors I have unfortunately neglected my number 6 elastic, which has well and truly perished. I had to do the fiddly job of re-elasticating my top kit, I decided not to use a Dacron connector on this lighter elastic, and went with the more conventional elastic connector. In the past I have been asked “what are the best knots to use when using tying elastic to connectors?” I never really thought about what knot I used at the time, so now when refreshing my elastic I decided to have a look at a two variations and answer the question. There are 2 types of knot which I have used, and neither of them have ever failed (on me) but have a look at see which one you’d prefer.

It's that time of year when elastics get changed!

Fishing Basics - Loop Tying - Preston Loop Tyer

I’ve recently encountered some trouble with my Seymo Loop Tyer, and although the knots have never failed me, they seem to be getting bigger than I require. So I decided to give the Preston Innovations Loop Tyer a whirl. It was a bit of a school boy error, but I managed to pick on up without instructions! So I had to spend a little while working out how to use this little fella, but once I did I was very pleased with the consistent and small loops I was creating. This little tool will be in my tackle box from now on.

If you have one, but are not sure how to use it, here’s how.

Fishing Basics - Knot Tying - How to tie a Lasso knot

This is just a quick post in response to a question I was asked a few weeks ago when out fishing using Pellets. I was alternating between a few rigs which had various hook set up's (using the pole), these were;

• A haired 8mm pellet,
• A banded 6mm pellet, and
• A lassoed 6mm pellet. 

I was then asked how I tied a lasso knot, as the angler asking didn't have any pellet bands with him. I admitted of the three methods I like the lasso least as I think the presentation of the pellet is not as good, when compared with either the haired or banded approaches. However, I proceeded to show him how I was taught to tie the lasso knot, and for those wondering, here's how you can too!

How to connect and disconnect your line to a Dacron Connector. Double loop method.

In keeping with my most recent post about which connector is better, a standard Elastic connector or Dacron connector, I hit another snag when finding out how best to attach your rig to the Dacron! A crucial point where catching fish is concerned... Unlike a standard connector where you physically clip the loop of the rig into the connector, line can be attached to a Dacron connector in a number of different ways.

This is what I ended up with! A solid efficient and reliable connection.

Fishing Basics – Knot tying - How to tie a knotless knot.

This post is designed to try and demonstrate how to tie a very sturdy and reliable knot which can be used when targeting bigger fish using techniques such as the method feeder or hair rigged baits. I have tried and tested this particular knot and can guarantee, if tied correctly will hold a lump of a fish.

The knot held this fish with ease.

The knotless knot is an essential knot which is used up and down the country by a variety of anglers who have made the jump from standard hook knots such as the grinner or half blood to the more technical elements of tying our own hair rigs. For the purpose of this post I have used a straight shanked eyed hook, rather than the conventional off-set eyed hook, which is more commonly used.

Fishing Basics - Knot Tying - The Half Blood Knot

Following on from my recent post about tying the 5 Turn Grinner knot, this is another very reliable knot which can be used to attach hooks, swivels and clips to your line. The Half blood is a knot which ties down very small and is a good alternative to the Grinner. What’s more, it is easy to tie. Again for the purposes of post I will be attaching the line to a fairly large swivel.

Fishing Basics - Knot Tying - 5 Turn Grinner.

Following on from one of my most recent posts I thought this time I would highlight how to tie one of the most heavily used knots in fishing. The 5 Turn Grinner knot. Tied correctly it is reliable, has a good knot strength and can be used to attach pretty much anything to your line! For the purposes of this post however I will be demonstrating using a fairly hefty swivel.