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Swipe right for a good knot
  |  First Published: July 2016



Round and round and round and round and round. I’m not talking about the federal election, or about the ceiling fan after just one sample of rum from the special Boobies Batch. Neither am I referring to my physical description on Tinder, if I ever was to go on Tinder, which I haven’t. In fact I don’t even know what Tinder is, and anyway, what’s wrong with that? Except that I don’t know what it is.

Actually, I’m referring to tying a braid to mono leader knot. For those who don’t know, braid line is like very thin, strong string, which is great because it’s sometimes easier to cast and better for feeling bites. Unfortunately, it also breaks easily when rubbed against a rock or a log, and it has no stretch, which means fish find it easier to pull the hooks from their mouths. For these reasons, it’s best practice to tie a small length of old fashioned fishing line, or mono line to the end of your braid line, which gives you some protection in terms of shock absorption and protection from rocks and snags. The nylon hopefully rubs against the rocks and logs and is much tougher than braid.

But here’s the problem. You have to join that thin, string like braid to the thicker stretchy mono line. That knot has to be stronger than a giant strong thing, but also thin enough to pass easily through the rings on your rod. If the knots are too big, casting your line feels like driving a B Double with no tyres over a steel cattle grid. Now there are many ways you can tie these two bits together. When braid first came on the market, there were no interwebs to give us directions on tying these knots, so it was a bit of trial and error. Skipper had one that was about the size of a shotput ball, but harder. We encouraged him to start tying it the night before our Dudd’s trips started – mainly so we could hang shite on him on the trip to Awoonga/Turkey/Baffle while he finished tying up. Mostly that failed because he still hadn’t finished by the time the trip ended.

It was no use asking the pros about it. We paid old mate at Awoonga to take us out and show us how the big boys did things and before we got out there onto the water he showed us his you beaut knot. Great we thought. It was a pretty knot, but questions were raised when it came undone under the strain of a big barra. Luckily we’d only been casting for an entire football season non-stop so I wasn’t that cut up about it. Think of Tarzan yodelling and birds flying out of trees, elephants trumpeting and leopards hiding in trees. But it’s pretty standard for me to throw my toys out of the playpen when I lose a fish, so the Dudds weren’t surprised.

Since then we’ve moved through a plethora of variations in an effort to find the thinnest, strongest connection. Boobies thought he’d found the holy grail earlier this year but while it works well, you have to wind Part A around Part B roughly eighty times in four equal directions under exactly 33lb tension all while you position yourself in a half cloverleaf pretzel position. Much like that one photo of me on Tinder. If I was on Tinder. But I’m not. I don’t even know what it is. What’s Tinder?

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