JW.

6 in one, Half Dozen the other when it comes to either. I like the Bimini Twist. And I use a 50 Turn Bimini on my Kayak rods.

Make sure before you roll the twists that you lube the line with plenty of Spit. after you have finished the knot, just take the time and pull the twists out with your thumb and forefinger.

Cheers

HF

im with dustin on this one the 30plus for plaits 20down for twists.....

when tying a plate just make sure you nip each line into place once you have finished it should have a slight curl off to one side this will let you know its tight as the last thing you wont is when it come through that top roller or guide it bunches up this is could of been a world record fish.......

and cats paws are crap...... learnt that after jigging with them 4 - 5 fish and one side or the other would let go.... use a uni knot it wont let you down........

 

xiaphius,

Xiphias gladius Linnaeus......

Plait, plait, plait...........nothing else for me unless it's 10kg or less then a basic spider hitch will do.

Tone E,

        Nothing wrong with no double but you do loose the option of "locking" up when the double is on the reel. A double can also protect from line chaffe or tail smack from a big fish or a tail wrapped fish.

There is a simpler way than the Bimini and plait for 15kg and down and still have better than line weight.
I call it the Bimini hitch. I basically made it up largly by trial and error.
Have been messing around with my double + leader/trace combinations for a while.
In particular I wanted to have as quick and as stronger combination as possible as I do most of my fishing off the rocks.
Have tested 8,10 and 15 kg line with 80lb leader/trace. Line breakes first well away for the double knot- yet to try 24kg.
Mark

Hi everyone , that's a fascinating bit of info!  I haven't read the article yet, kinda hard to get Bluewater here in London.  I am prepared to accept thier results but on the other hand feel compelled to point out maybe a few points.

One of the good things I always felt about the plait was that it stretches a little under pressure.  I don't know how to simulate this but I always felt if you put the line under great pressure for several hours and then tested the results, the cushion the plait gives you might make a bit of a different.  To be fair, I don't know for sure. 

One thing I do know for sure the bimini is not an altogether easy knot to roll up for the 80 and 130 line classes, and if you're doing a long double line it is not as handy to tie as the plait.  It is also bulkier and that's not an issue if you are fishing with Big Foot rollers, Wind On rollers and big roller tips, but if you're fishing say 80# or even thick diameter 50# on a 50W stand up outfit with standard Aftco HD rollers you can have trouble with the bimini passing through.  Roller tip too, if you're not careful.  The plait is narrower and can help solve those problems.

I'll never say the Bimini is not a good knot and some great captains favour it and use it with much success.  However, for much of my own fishing I've come to trust and favour the plait.  I would guess that a properly tied double is also one of the least likely components of your rigging to fail so until I start busting plaits I'll stay with them.  But each to his own.

cheers - dustin

To me it's the system (bimini's and plaits are not really knots) that you get to know best and have confidence in.

Go for whichever you wish.

However one point about plaits. Don't tie them too tight, there simply is no reason to, plus too tight and they fail. Though in saying they'll fail, if you go over line class then the wekest point should break, shouldn't it.... If you tie them tight and they bend linke a bannana then you have uneven tensions on the ends that will work against each other.

I use plaits, not super tight ones, but not too loose. We fish extreme drags without problems. At 80% the top of the plaits do buckle, but so what, they don't break, and don't slip.

Hi everyone,

Interesting to hear everyone's experiences.  I agree if I had two plaits bust I would be pretty wary about using them, until I started busting biminis!  Assuming there's no issue with knot tying (prickly subject I know but knots do occasionally get rushed and mistakes happen), whenever I've tested double line knots to break point the line always broke about an inch to half inch in front of the beginning of the double knot.  Odin - just wondering - did you get part of your knot back, or a busted tag end with a bit of curl to it, to confirm it was a failure in that portion of the knot? 

As far as plait construction is concerned, I find it pretty hard to tie a plait super tight, especially on thick lines like Amilan!  It's very hard for me to avoid some plait distortion at the very top of the plait on full drag. I don't really like the look of it, but it hasn't failed YET!  Admittedly we didn't fish them on really heavy drag so that would have been more forgiving on the line.  (Didn't prevent us from catching fish in about as quick time as all the other boats)  Some other boats did use a good deal heavier drag on fish than us, mostly using plaits, and I never heard of a broken plait. 

I'll always cut off the double and often something like 30-40 feet of line, and retie every evening after catching a good fish.  I don't know how many fish a double will stand before it fails and I don't want to find out!

With the bimini I always thought there was potential for the knot to unravel if the outer layer of twists somehow got busted, although to be fair, it would be very hard to achieve this.  I believe that's partly why some crews floss the whole length of the bimini, but that's only really practical for heavier lines.

cheers - dustin

Hi Odin,

You're probably right... it's been a couple years since a few other guys and myself did the break tests on the dock with 30# line and a scale and I don't recall what the busted tag ends look like. 

One reason I'm sure why a lot of folks don't like a plait that deforms is that, presumably if it is loose enough and the slippage is pulled back into the main line section it could experience stress that would cause it to fail under extreme tension, thus the necessity for a tight series of plaits to lock that section.  Maybe this could also explain what happened to your plaits Odin?  As mentioned I still do experience a slight amount of plait distortion on heavy lines when a fish is fought on full drag.  Nowadays I like to pull off several yards of line under full drag after the knot is tied so that if any distortion happens it'll happen then rather than on the fight when you can't see the knot!

I don't really feel it's necessary to junk the whole topshot and I like a long enough topshot so I can cut back a few times before needing to junk the topshot.  Most of the stress, I think, seems to come on the last 30 to 50 yards when the fish is fought on a short line, little stretch and often under heavy drag.  That section will almost always have to go.  If however a lot of the topshot gets chaffed as can happen with junk in the water etc then the whole thing needs to go.

I'll be back, as the Terminator said, as soon as I can, but maybe not next year.  I'm thinking now I'd like to time my visit around the Houhora One Base.  That north cape area sounds pretty amazing - and i'd definitely like to fish the west coast too! 

cheers - dustin

Quite a few years back, a skipper in Cairns showed me a different method to do doubles and I have used it since without any problems. Simply get about 3m of dental floss wax thread (use dental tape not dental ribbon, it is slightly thicker and moulds together when tied. Johnson & Johnson make a dental tape that is good). Anyway, put a hitch in the end of the wax thread to form a loop, then measure out the length you want your double to be. Feed one end of the thread loop through the other, pull tight. Carry on tieing the mono strands together with half hitches in the wax thread over both strands of mono. After about 5 half hitches, separate the mono and do a half high around each strand of mono. Then repeat with 5 over both strands and 1 around each until the binding is around 150mm long finish with a double hitch. We use it on 15, 24 and 37.