You don’t need to be able to tie dozens of knots to fish effectively. In fact, you only need to become proficient at tying a few of the strongest knots and you will be able to cover most fishing situations. Once you have mastered these you won’t have to worry about that big one getting away because you selected the wrong knot or used poor handiwork.

In these pictures we have used large diameter yellow cord and an oversized eyelet which represents a hook or a swivel, to make it easier for you to see how the knots are tied. Each knot has a starting position shown in Fig A. At the end of tying each knot the tag end of the line will need to be shortened to an appropriate length.

Create a large loop and position it to one side of the main line.

Wrap the loop around the main line, passing the hook/swivel through the centre of the loop.

Wrap the loop around the main line and the hook/swivel four to five times.

Pull the main line down to create the basic shape of the knot.

Slide the knot into place.

Tighten the knot once in place by pulling down on the main line and the tag end.