My hat is off to you Sir! You are, by far, the most legitimate knot tester I have ever seen. The GOAT OF KNOT TESTING!!! I started fishing pre-internet, and was always more anal and curious about knots strength than my fishing buddies. I even purchased the Black Max Acculine tester by IWS for around 2 grand way back in the day so I could do my own knot testing. As a young man, I worked as a pro mate on sportfishing boats off the east coast of the US. I learn alot testing knots myself, but you have taken it to the next level. Thank you for doing these test, I know how much work it actually is to do knot test properly. I truly appreciate the work you have done
@@logancannady978 thank you so much for taking the time to write and respond. You not wrong when you say it’s hard. But I do enjoy it very much. Thanks
Absolutely love this channel (and the Toit Knot). You're by far the best line/knot tester on RUclips, and you're not selling us anything. One big gripe I have with pretty much everyone doing this, however, is that all the testing is done dry. Manufacturers' ratings are all wet ratings. Fishing is done in the water. Water doesn't just lubricate a knot, or just change nylon monofilament's ultimate strength. It changes its volume, density, yield modulus, bulk modulus, creep modulus, surface hardness, etc. All of which affect knot strength. I'd love to see a comparison of wet vs dry knot performance. Not just "wetted" dry line, but line that has been soaked in water for a few hours, to simulate real world conditions.
Great work and one of the few strongest fishing knot channel that is actually legitimate instead of hearsay. A suggestion would be to test the Bimini Twist in braid. I test knots myself mainly actual line strength, FG, and PR knot test. I know it's a thankless task and time consuming having tested knots hundreds of time. I am curious what your Bimini Twist in braid will reveal. I doubt you will achieve 100 percent knot strength. Too many variations in a Bimini twist and the specific braid itself will determine how strong the Bimini Twist in braid is. Very rare to get 100%, maybe 5 % of the time and it's braid dependent.
Hey Rstout, good to hear from you. Yes pulled thru as did my whole family, as we all ended up getting it. Just glad I had the vaccines before tho as I think it help prep my body from the onslaught. Take care and Tightlines.
HI Warren, I just stumbled upon your channel and it absolutely blew me away! Tremendous work and unbiased evidence based information. These are by far the best videos I have seen to this date on the subject on RUclips/Vimeo. A personal suggestion for future videos/tests would be loop knots (Kreh loop knot, Simplified Kreh loop knot, Perfection loop, etc.) and mono (nylon) to fluorocarbon line to line connections. Keep up the good work! All the best from Denmark
Hi Kenneth, thank you for the support. You were very kind with your words. Most appreciated. I am glad you like the content. Loop knots is on my to do list and is the next section of knots I wil be reviewing. Thank you again, tightlines.
Hey Warren, still use your Toit knot, it's a cracker, especially on light line. When I tie this bimini knot, I use a small piece of leather on my draw finger, saves the blood on braid and gets everything nice and tight. Sometimes I will get my son to massage those twists together with some leather, the knot looks like glass in the end with very little damage if any. Best knot show in the world, I kid you knot. 😂😂😂
Hey Barry, hope you are well. Love your final words, that is really kind thing to say. RUclips is a really tough algorithm to crack, that is for certain. Maybe one day. Glad you like the Toit Knot. It really dose deliver on all accounts. I am interested in what knot you use from the Bimini Knot into your leader for Braid to leader material? I have not tested the Bimini on Braid yet, I think there may be mixed results. From what I have looked at briefly the hard part is ensuring the Twists do not become wraps and stopping the knot from slipping is also tricky if you use too little twists. I also think some of the strength of a Bimini knot in Braid comes from the leader knot you use. If the leader knot can ensure both ends of the Bimini loop on braid are loaded equally it will prevent the Bimini from slipping and actually improve the performance of the entire connection. Tightlines and thanks for your continued support.
@@toitfishing I use a very long double, able to put three wraps on the reel for a lock up at the boat. I do that because I use a game swivel . Double to swivel to shock leader already tied to my lures. I'm a trolling nutcase, mostly for Kingfish and tuna. I like using Rapala lures set at different depths for an amazing pattern. Sometimes I will use two deep divers in the centre and a pattern of bullet lures on the surface, very exciting around the islands of Whitianga NZ. I have been trolling and mucking about so long that I have 47 reef maps I have scanned with my Lowance scanner while trolling around. I've been tying the bimini in braid for a while now and had no problems, but I'm very interested in the results when and if you test this knot in braid. I'm sure it will smoke the wannabees. I think I'm going back to nylon for trolling, more forgiveness with the stretch and not quite so hard. Your comprehensive talks are "the best by test". Thank you so much for all your effort to help me understand what I'm doing. Excellence at its best.
Excellent video work, as in all of your work. Seeing the knots and lines deform as tension is applied is simply amazing. The tips were also very important and extremely helpful, particularly the importance of lubrication. Now that the loop knot part has been tested and shown to work so well it you have set yourself up for more testing on the the other end, the loop to leader knot. As I have mentioned before, for trolling I tend to use the cat's paw to a swivel but it would be interesting to see how the Yucatan works on the leader end with lighter leaders for especially spooky fish. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Aussie braid stacks up against the Bimini as that has been my go-to knot for lines over 30lb. I might just use the easier Bimini though I've always liked the elegance of the Aussie braid finish where you double to tag end for a few braids the pass the main loop through the loop in the tag as suggested by Geoff Wilson. One advantage of the Aussie braid is that it can be used to join equal lines.
Hey Brian, great to hear from you. Yes indeed I definitely want to test these knots as you mentioned above. I am also keen to test my modified version for the Actual version of the GT knot, the bit where I wrap it initially around the Figure eight knot. I think it will prove to be very effective. My only reservation is how the Bimini will cope in Braid, I have seen the slipping in mono 1st hand but braid is going to be a whole different ball game, I know some Boat captains out of Palm Beach and they are using in excess of 60 wraps on Braid, that is definitely an arthritis inflictor, lol. Tightlines and thanks for the feedback.
Fantastic series. Am watching from Ghana, West Africa. Have you managed to do any testing of the Bimini twist in braid yet. in thin braid i have trouble with it snapping where the half hitches are. i suspect i am over tightening them there and cutting in on itself thus weakening that point. not sure.. need to try different finishes. as far as the twists and over wrap go, i find it easier in braid than mono. i do lubricate the braid when i am twisting it and finising it etc.
Hi Michael, Merry Christmas, yes indeed, My gut feeling it will be tough to beat, there are a few knots that reach 100% but not consistently. Considering the amount of test I did to get to that result over all the different line thicknesses it truly is remarkable, especially considering this knot has been around for about +35 years. Tightlines and thanks for watching
Makes you wonder if the 25 twists are overkill. Perhaps 15 or 20 are enough. We see this magical number of 16 twists is often reported as the "border of diminishing returns". I dunno, but if the first twists are breaking under tension anyways, perhaps this is worth testing? "The threshold of diminishing returns."
Hey the Heck, good to hear from you, yes I tested various wraps from 15 and upwards on all the line weights as per my usual, I settled on 25 for up to 50lb and 30 wraps for more than 50lbs Mainly due to eliminating slipping, as I mentioned in the video slipping is not fully detrimental to the knot as it copes really well as I showed in the 100lb category but when you start dropping it below 20 wraps you introduce too much movement as the twists just don't get wrapped up enough when doing the barrel wraps. I think it would cope fine if you were able to really constrain the barrel wraps very tight maybe with a bar puller but this may be slightly cumbersome when tying, hope that helps. Tightlines
Bimini twist to palomar at the end on the hook has to be the strongest terminal "knot" in existence. the hook simply can't pull out due to the palomar on the closed loop. I certainly don't have the measuring tools, but in multiple pull tests with 20 lb mono and fluoro, the line always broke at the pulling tool, never at the bimini or palomar. short of a steel leader, I don't think it can be improved upon. Obvious shortcoming is the bulk, so it's a no go in any line shyness situation, but you likely wouldn't need a doubled line then anyway.
The only issue may be if the Palomar was tied incorrectly ie, the final loop needs to go thru the middle of knot rather than the end of knot where all pressure is on the exiting line. I would also say if the double lines into palomar are not coerced correctly and one of the lines exiting Bimini is loaded biased to one line, this will cause slippage within the palomar which may cut into the line, but at circa 40lb and below lines I would say it’s definitely a good connection. Tightlines
@@toitfishing good point, I’ve always felt weird if the palomar “noosed” the main line, I push it down onto the knot, it was just a gut feeling but it seems the science bears that out :). And I somewhat agree on the “uneven legs” point, don’t find it hard to tie this evenly on 20 lb which is my go to, but it could be an issue on heavier. But what about this benefit- if one leg breaks for any reason, you’re still tied on with a normal palomar if you’ve cinched it down strongly, and if you break the correct leg lol you’re on the main line anyway. Is there any other knot that has this potential failsafe? Plus on any line with stretch, either the palomar would center itself, or you’d have a bit of shock absorption built in. If it’s obviously uneven I’d retie anyway, but human imperfection might not be that bad a thing in this case. Again, haven’t tested properly, and won’t lol, but seems very legit in my tinkering. This hybrid is such a production it would be overkill for my usual bay and inshore fishing, but I’m definitely trying it out next time I go after bigger game.
Hey Adam, kind words on both fronts, yeah I got that Covid-19, it knocked me out big time, lost some weight. Fully recovered and hopefully back on it. Yeah the tips are really important, I thought I was confident with the knot, tied it loads times. Then I put it on the testing machine, boy did I have to up my game to get those results, the biggest shortfalls are those 7 tips mentioned, particularly tip 7. Tightlines and thx for watching.
@@toitfishing ahh, no good about covid wazza, it’s a nasty diet plan from what I hear, all the best with your recovery and getting back to normal again :)
Hi KZN fishing, hoping that stands for Kwazulu Natal? Grew up in Amanzimtoti, used to cycle down on my BMX most days to rocks to get some fishing in. Definitely will be testing the the Bimini in Braid, it sure will be interesting to see how many wraps are needed to stop those twists moving. Tightlines
J'ai testé mon noeud. Avec du fil tressé 10 livres, un Bimini à chaque bout, et une balance à poisson. Il casse à 13.5 livres, mais toujours au commencement du noeud Bimini. C'est correct, ou je peut faire mieux ????
Most Braided lines on the market of what I have tested break at 2X the breaking strain generally. So if it is a 10lb line I would expect the manufacture sells it at around 20lb actual breaking strain. I would say if it is failing at the knot there is always room to improve, but on braid it is difficult as the microfibres always fail where the lines are touching within the knot. Try increasing your initial twists on the Bimini for braid, sometimes on 80lb braid I will use in excess of 50 twists for the braid not to slip. 13.5 lb is a good figure to, I would be more than happy fishing with that on 10lb.
My hat is off to you Sir!
You are, by far, the most legitimate knot tester I have ever seen. The GOAT OF KNOT TESTING!!!
I started fishing pre-internet, and was always more anal and curious about knots strength than my fishing buddies. I even purchased the Black Max Acculine tester by IWS for around 2 grand way back in the day so I could do my own knot testing.
As a young man, I worked as a pro mate on sportfishing boats off the east coast of the US.
I learn alot testing knots myself, but you have taken it to the next level.
Thank you for doing these test, I know how much work it actually is to do knot test properly.
I truly appreciate the work you have done
@@logancannady978 thank you so much for taking the time to write and respond. You not wrong when you say it’s hard. But I do enjoy it very much. Thanks
Absolutely love this channel (and the Toit Knot). You're by far the best line/knot tester on RUclips, and you're not selling us anything.
One big gripe I have with pretty much everyone doing this, however, is that all the testing is done dry.
Manufacturers' ratings are all wet ratings. Fishing is done in the water.
Water doesn't just lubricate a knot, or just change nylon monofilament's ultimate strength. It changes its volume, density, yield modulus, bulk modulus, creep modulus, surface hardness, etc. All of which affect knot strength.
I'd love to see a comparison of wet vs dry knot performance. Not just "wetted" dry line, but line that has been soaked in water for a few hours, to simulate real world conditions.
Thank yo so much for investing you time watching the channel. I really need to get some new content out. Just been really busy recently, Tightlines.
Great work and one of the few strongest fishing knot channel that is actually legitimate instead of hearsay. A suggestion would be to test the Bimini Twist in braid. I test knots myself mainly actual line strength, FG, and PR knot test. I know it's a thankless task and time consuming having tested knots hundreds of time. I am curious what your Bimini Twist in braid will reveal. I doubt you will achieve 100 percent knot strength. Too many variations in a Bimini twist and the specific braid itself will determine how strong the Bimini Twist in braid is. Very rare to get 100%, maybe 5 % of the time and it's braid dependent.
Thank you for your message steering to your test.
Amazing knot, really love this knot, well done!
Hey Grant, glad you like it, certainly one of the all time greats. One of those knots everyone should try learn.
Glad to see you back. Was worried the virus got you. Sounds like you had a little scare with it but glad to see you pulled through.
Hey Rstout, good to hear from you. Yes pulled thru as did my whole family, as we all ended up getting it. Just glad I had the vaccines before tho as I think it help prep my body from the onslaught. Take care and Tightlines.
Someday, please do a segment on the popular Sipder Hitch and Seaguar loop knots.
HI Warren, I just stumbled upon your channel and it absolutely blew me away!
Tremendous work and unbiased evidence based information. These are by far the best videos I have seen to this date on the subject on RUclips/Vimeo.
A personal suggestion for future videos/tests would be loop knots (Kreh loop knot, Simplified Kreh loop knot, Perfection loop, etc.) and mono (nylon) to fluorocarbon line to line connections.
Keep up the good work!
All the best from Denmark
Hi Kenneth, thank you for the support. You were very kind with your words. Most appreciated. I am glad you like the content. Loop knots is on my to do list and is the next section of knots I wil be reviewing. Thank you again, tightlines.
Hey Warren, still use your Toit knot, it's a cracker, especially on light line. When I tie this bimini knot, I use a small piece of leather on my draw finger, saves the blood on braid and gets everything nice and tight. Sometimes I will get my son to massage those twists together with some leather, the knot looks like glass in the end with very little damage if any.
Best knot show in the world, I kid you knot. 😂😂😂
Hey Barry, hope you are well. Love your final words, that is really kind thing to say. RUclips is a really tough algorithm to crack, that is for certain. Maybe one day. Glad you like the Toit Knot. It really dose deliver on all accounts. I am interested in what knot you use from the Bimini Knot into your leader for Braid to leader material? I have not tested the Bimini on Braid yet, I think there may be mixed results. From what I have looked at briefly the hard part is ensuring the Twists do not become wraps and stopping the knot from slipping is also tricky if you use too little twists. I also think some of the strength of a Bimini knot in Braid comes from the leader knot you use. If the leader knot can ensure both ends of the Bimini loop on braid are loaded equally it will prevent the Bimini from slipping and actually improve the performance of the entire connection. Tightlines and thanks for your continued support.
@@toitfishing I use a very long double, able to put three wraps on the reel for a lock up at the boat.
I do that because I use a game swivel . Double to swivel to shock leader already tied to my lures. I'm a trolling nutcase, mostly for Kingfish and tuna. I like using Rapala lures set at different depths for an amazing pattern.
Sometimes I will use two deep divers in the centre and a pattern of bullet lures on the surface, very exciting around the islands of Whitianga NZ. I have been trolling and mucking about so long that I have 47 reef maps I have scanned with my Lowance scanner while trolling around. I've been tying the bimini in braid for a while now and had no problems, but I'm very interested in the results when and if you test this knot in braid.
I'm sure it will smoke the wannabees. I think I'm going back to nylon for trolling, more forgiveness with the stretch and not quite so hard. Your comprehensive talks are "the best by test".
Thank you so much for all your effort to help me understand what I'm doing. Excellence at its best.
best video. thank you.
Excellent video work, as in all of your work. Seeing the knots and lines deform as tension is applied is simply amazing.
The tips were also very important and extremely helpful, particularly the importance of lubrication.
Now that the loop knot part has been tested and shown to work so well it you have set yourself up for more testing on the the other end, the loop to leader knot. As I have mentioned before, for trolling I tend to use the cat's paw to a swivel but it would be interesting to see how the Yucatan works on the leader end with lighter leaders for especially spooky fish.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the Aussie braid stacks up against the Bimini as that has been my go-to knot for lines over 30lb.
I might just use the easier Bimini though I've always liked the elegance of the Aussie braid finish where you double to tag end for a few braids the pass the main loop through the loop in the tag as suggested by Geoff Wilson. One advantage of the Aussie braid is that it can be used to join equal lines.
Hey Brian, great to hear from you. Yes indeed I definitely want to test these knots as you mentioned above. I am also keen to test my modified version for the Actual version of the GT knot, the bit where I wrap it initially around the Figure eight knot. I think it will prove to be very effective. My only reservation is how the Bimini will cope in Braid, I have seen the slipping in mono 1st hand but braid is going to be a whole different ball game, I know some Boat captains out of Palm Beach and they are using in excess of 60 wraps on Braid, that is definitely an arthritis inflictor, lol. Tightlines and thanks for the feedback.
Fantastic series. Am watching from Ghana, West Africa. Have you managed to do any testing of the Bimini twist in braid yet. in thin braid i have trouble with it snapping where the half hitches are. i suspect i am over tightening them there and cutting in on itself thus weakening that point. not sure.. need to try different finishes. as far as the twists and over wrap go, i find it easier in braid than mono. i do lubricate the braid when i am twisting it and finising it etc.
Agreed it seems to be the best specially for thousand pound fish
Hi Michael, Merry Christmas, yes indeed, My gut feeling it will be tough to beat, there are a few knots that reach 100% but not consistently. Considering the amount of test I did to get to that result over all the different line thicknesses it truly is remarkable, especially considering this knot has been around for about +35 years. Tightlines and thanks for watching
Makes you wonder if the 25 twists are overkill. Perhaps 15 or 20 are enough. We see this magical number of 16 twists is often reported as the "border of diminishing returns".
I dunno, but if the first twists are breaking under tension anyways, perhaps this is worth testing? "The threshold of diminishing returns."
Hey the Heck, good to hear from you, yes I tested various wraps from 15 and upwards on all the line weights as per my usual, I settled on 25 for up to 50lb and 30 wraps for more than 50lbs Mainly due to eliminating slipping, as I mentioned in the video slipping is not fully detrimental to the knot as it copes really well as I showed in the 100lb category but when you start dropping it below 20 wraps you introduce too much movement as the twists just don't get wrapped up enough when doing the barrel wraps. I think it would cope fine if you were able to really constrain the barrel wraps very tight maybe with a bar puller but this may be slightly cumbersome when tying, hope that helps. Tightlines
Bimini twist to palomar at the end on the hook has to be the strongest terminal "knot" in existence. the hook simply can't pull out due to the palomar on the closed loop. I certainly don't have the measuring tools, but in multiple pull tests with 20 lb mono and fluoro, the line always broke at the pulling tool, never at the bimini or palomar. short of a steel leader, I don't think it can be improved upon. Obvious shortcoming is the bulk, so it's a no go in any line shyness situation, but you likely wouldn't need a doubled line then anyway.
The only issue may be if the Palomar was tied incorrectly ie, the final loop needs to go thru the middle of knot rather than the end of knot where all pressure is on the exiting line. I would also say if the double lines into palomar are not coerced correctly and one of the lines exiting Bimini is loaded biased to one line, this will cause slippage within the palomar which may cut into the line, but at circa 40lb and below lines I would say it’s definitely a good connection. Tightlines
@@toitfishing good point, I’ve always felt weird if the palomar “noosed” the main line, I push it down onto the knot, it was just a gut feeling but it seems the science bears that out :). And I somewhat agree on the “uneven legs” point, don’t find it hard to tie this evenly on 20 lb which is my go to, but it could be an issue on heavier. But what about this benefit- if one leg breaks for any reason, you’re still tied on with a normal palomar if you’ve cinched it down strongly, and if you break the correct leg lol you’re on the main line anyway. Is there any other knot that has this potential failsafe? Plus on any line with stretch, either the palomar would center itself, or you’d have a bit of shock absorption built in. If it’s obviously uneven I’d retie anyway, but human imperfection might not be that bad a thing in this case. Again, haven’t tested properly, and won’t lol, but seems very legit in my tinkering. This hybrid is such a production it would be overkill for my usual bay and inshore fishing, but I’m definitely trying it out next time I go after bigger game.
thought you was gonna test it with the other lines fluro and braid?
Thanks for the tips wazza, enjoyed the vid, looks like you have lost some weight too!
Hey Adam, kind words on both fronts, yeah I got that Covid-19, it knocked me out big time, lost some weight. Fully recovered and hopefully back on it. Yeah the tips are really important, I thought I was confident with the knot, tied it loads times. Then I put it on the testing machine, boy did I have to up my game to get those results, the biggest shortfalls are those 7 tips mentioned, particularly tip 7. Tightlines and thx for watching.
@@toitfishing ahh, no good about covid wazza, it’s a nasty diet plan from what I hear, all the best with your recovery and getting back to normal again :)
Can you please test the AG chain knot? coz 90% of the anglers i spoke to use this knot for jigging.
It is on my to do list for tying.
Can you do a video with braid instead of mono
Hi KZN fishing, hoping that stands for Kwazulu Natal? Grew up in Amanzimtoti, used to cycle down on my BMX most days to rocks to get some fishing in.
Definitely will be testing the the Bimini in Braid, it sure will be interesting to see how many wraps are needed to stop those twists moving. Tightlines
@@toitfishing 100% correct. I am from KwaZulu-Natal fishing these beautiful shores of ours
Let's goooooo!!!!!
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for your continued support.
@@toitfishing of course, man! Elated to have you back.
@@Slayerformayor1983 Best comment ever….. take care.
Yo...real quick. For your tips section, you titled it "Tips on How to Improve Your Slim Beauty Knot". Just a quick note.
Thanks bud, did not think anyone even used the Chapters, Just updated, mistake sorted, thanks for updating me on that very helpful.
No FG in your tests?
Hey Soobz, thx for reaching out. I will definitely be testing this knot in the near future.
J'ai testé mon noeud. Avec du fil tressé 10 livres, un Bimini à chaque bout, et une balance à poisson. Il casse à 13.5 livres, mais toujours au commencement du noeud Bimini. C'est correct, ou je peut faire mieux ????
Most Braided lines on the market of what I have tested break at 2X the breaking strain generally. So if it is a 10lb line I would expect the manufacture sells it at around 20lb actual breaking strain. I would say if it is failing at the knot there is always room to improve, but on braid it is difficult as the microfibres always fail where the lines are touching within the knot. Try increasing your initial twists on the Bimini for braid, sometimes on 80lb braid I will use in excess of 50 twists for the braid not to slip.
13.5 lb is a good figure to, I would be more than happy fishing with that on 10lb.