Many new anglers struggle with knot tying or identifying the right knots to use in the right situations. We break down how to tie three essential knots for bass fishing: the improved clinch knot, the uni knot, and the palomar knot. These three knots will have you covered for nearly every setup you decide to throw for bass. The improved clinch knot is a great knot to use when tying on a weight and leader for deepwater Carolina rigging, while the Uni knot is the easiest knot for a line-to-line leader. The Palomar knot is a favorite among many anglers and one of the easiest knots to learn. Along with that, it can be used in nearly any situation!

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Video transcript:

John:
Hey, what's up guys, John, from Mongo Fishing. Today, I'm here on the MONSTERBASS channel to talk to you guys about some knots. They wanted me to do my three favorite knots that I use for bass fishing, but I figured instead of doing my favorites, let's go with three that are super simple to do highly effective, and well, I guess the most important things, man. They're super simple to do and they're highly effective. Let's get into it.

John:
All right guys. Like I said, my name is John from Mongo Fishing, and this is the MONSTERBASS channel. Now, if you're new to the MONSTERBASS channel, this channel is dedicated to tips and techniques and teaching you different things to make you a better bass fisherman. If that's something that interests you go ahead and hit the subscribe button right down there, along with the bell notification button so you get notified every single time MONSTERBASS puts out another video.

John:
My channel, Mongo Fishing, will be linked down to the description below. It's mostly tournament footage. Whether I do well, or if I suck, I still put the video out. I believe it's important for people to success along with failure because that's what tournament bass fishing ultimately is. It's not always five bass limits. You're going to have those struggle bus days also. So if that's something that interests you, come over and check my channel out also. I'd dig that. But let's get into this, knots.

John:
Okay. What I have with me, I have some 30 pound mono, which is higher than I would normally throw. I'm going to substitute that for flourocarbon also because it doesn't really matter for you guys to see this. And then I have some braid.

John:
All right, so knots we're going to do, in no particular order, the improved clinch knot, the uni knot, and the Palomar knot. No particular order. Those are the three we're going to do. Let's start. I have this heavy, heavy 30 pound mono. I have this so that you guys will able to see it really well, should be able to see it really well, and I have some braid also. I think I'll probably do most of the knots with braid, but I have that fluoro for one of the knots so you guys can see it.

John:
I chose these knots. I mean, there's literally thousands of knots out there, and some of them are really, really good and some aren't. I mean, great knots like the San Diego jam or there's the dual Shindo or something like that. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right. Those are both great, great knots, but are they really needed for most beginner anglers? And I think, no. I think those are more advanced knots and probably come with... You'll learn those later on in your fishing career. I would argue most MONSTERBASS viewers are still learning the game of fishing. I want to keep it simple. I'm a huge proponent of the KISS method. Keep it simple, stupid. That's why I chose these three knots that I'm going to do.

John:
Improved clinch knot. Okay. I just have a regular EWG hook and some... What is this? 30 pound flouro, or sorry, 30 pound braid. All you do is you run in the line through the eyelet, okay? And when you give yourself enough line that you have a good tag end, I think I have about four inches of tag end here, and all you do is you want to loop this tag end around five to seven times. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Okay. Now we want to take the tag end, you have this big loop that's formed down here at the bottom, take the tag end, go back through that loop, which then forms this big loop. You want to put the tag end back through that loop. Oops. Put it back through that loop. Man, my fingers are not working. It's chilly out here. Okay. And then the number one thing with any knot, get it wet. Doesn't matter if it's braid, flouro, mono, whatever, get it wet, cinch it down.

John:
This is not a knot I would typically use with braid because this knot has a tendency to slip with braid, braid being a little slicker than some of the other substances when it comes to knots. It's a strong knot. It is not what they consider a 100% knot, meaning that it does have a weak point. Your knot is always going to be the weakest part of your line unless you have a nick someplace, but this is not a 100% knot. It is weaker than some of the others, but it's super simple to tie, fast, doesn't take any effort at all. So there's that. Use this on braid... Or sorry on flouro or mono, not on braid, typically. Let's clean this up. Okay. That was the improved clinch.

John:
Same hook, same piece of braid. Okay. Now we're going to do the Palomar knot. Palomar knot goes through, pull yourself a big piece of tag end, goes back the other direction so you are left with a big loop. Your tag end is on the same side as your line came from and you have a big loop on the other side. Okay. So you're going to take your loop. Let me turn this. Sorry. Same thing. I'm just turning it directions, make it easier for me. Okay. Same thing. There's your loop. There's your tag end and main line. Okay. You're going to take this thing and you're going to make a big overhand knot and run it back through that tag end. Just made an overhand knot. That's all you did. Take this big tag end loop that you have right here, run it over top of your whole entire bait, hook, everything. Bring everything up to the top, get it wet, cinch it down.

John:
This one is really, really important that you cinch down while wet because especially with fluoro or mono, it will burn your line. That's why people think that fluoro has bad abrasion resistance. It doesn't. It has great abrasion resistance. Look that up with any line manufacturer. Fluoro has better abrasion resistance than mono, but the reason people think it doesn't is because they typically burn their line when they tie their knot, then it makes it weak and it breaks easy. That is the Palomar knot. That is about as good as a hundred percent knot as you're going to get. It's up there. And of course, you clip your tag end as long or as short as you want.

John:
Now, the benefit of that is there's actually two pieces of line that are running through the eyelet. The improved clinch only has one piece of line running through the eyelet. The Palomar has two pieces of line running through the eyelet so it makes it a little bit stronger. And you still only have one tag end to cut. Some of those other knots have three tag ends, and I'm just not a big fan of that.

John:
All right. Next is the uni knot. We'll put the uni back on this again and then we're going to tie it another way also. The uni goes through, it starts just like the improved clinch, and then you're going to run it back through a second time so it's basically gone through twice. Okay. Bring the tag end up at the main line. We're going to take this tag end and kind of make a loop like that. Okay. It's still up against the main line, basically. I'm going to take your tag end and your loop and your main line, you're going to run your tag end through this like five to six times. 1... It's going underneath both of these. 2... Okay. Since you're done, just want to get it wet and pull. So your knot is right there. Get this giant loop and then cinch it down right there. That is the uni.

John:
Then the last knot we're going to do is also the uni, but we're going to do it for the other technique that I like to use it on, and that is attaching braid to mono or braid to fluoro. That's the uni to uni. There is no eyelet involved. There is no hook involved. You're just tying line to line. Use this, if I'm using... A lot of people like to use braid for top waters and stuff like that, and if it's a treble hook, top water, I don't like to run just straight braid. I want to have at least a small section of either fluoro or mono, a small section, of fluoro or mono so that it adds a little bit of stiffness so the treble hook can't get caught up in my line. So in that case, if I have something like this or if drop shots or something like that, where you want to tie a little bit of fluoro or braid, sorry, fluoro or mono to your braid, a leader, then this is what you do.

John:
My two tag ends right here, lay them across to each other and you're going to make a loop with one of them. We'll go with the mono first. Make a loop, and run it through itself-

Speaker 5:
Ready?

John:
... five times.

Speaker 3:
[inaudible 00:10:25].

Speaker 5:
[inaudible 00:10:27].

Speaker 3:
Okay.

John:
4, 5. Get it wet.

Speaker 3:
[inaudible 00:10:36]. Drop it like it's hot.

Speaker 5:
[Inaudible 00:10:42].

Speaker 3:
[inaudible 00:10:40].

John:
Okay. We have the mono one tied and we're going to do the same thing with the fluoro or sorry with the braid. Make our loop right there. Run this through five times.

Speaker 4:
[inaudible 00:10:59] Careful on the road [inaudible 00:11:05].

Speaker 5:
Okay. [inaudible 00:11:05].

Speaker 4:
[inaudible 00:11:05].

John:
Okay.

Speaker 4:
I don't [inaudible 00:11:14].

John:
Get it wet. Cinch it down, then get them so now they're both kind of cinched right there. Get them both wet, cinch them down on each other and then tighten them up. If done properly and they're the both similar sized diameters, this will go right through your eyelets, no problem when you cast. Now, I use such a heavy mono so you guys'll be able to see it when I'm tying it or it doesn't look very good on this, but when done properly with properly sized mono, like 10 pound, 12 pound, something like that, this would go right through the eyelets perfectly fine.

John:
So that's that, man. Three super simple knots to do. The improved clinch, the Palomar and the uni, and then the uni to uni for making a braid to mono or braid to fluoro leader.

John:
That's that guys, thank you very much for watching. Again, if you're new to the MONSTERBASS channel, go ahead and hit the subscribe button right down there, along with the bell notification button so you get notified every single time MONSTERBASS puts out another video. My channel, Mongo Fishing, will be linked down in the description below. I'd dig it if came over and checked me out too. Again, you guys thank you very much for watching. As always get on the water, be safe and go catch a MONSTERBASS.