Loose overhand 8" up the leader. Tag through the eye, back through the SAME overhand.
Wrap tag 4x around standing, back through the overhand. Cinch — a FIXED loop stays open at the eye.
Use for: SP Minnow, jigheads, night bucktails. A snug knot kills slow-retrieve action.
DL — STAND A HOOK OFF A BACKBONE
Form a 4" circle in the backbone. Twist 5-6 turns, keep a center gap.
Pull the loop bottom through the center gap; pull both ends. Loop locks out at 90 deg.
Hook attach: loop through the eye, over the bend, snug to the eye — NO knot at the hook, and hooks swap in seconds.
WHERE THESE LIVE
NSL: every night lure (p14), weakfish jig (p22), freshwater Ned and jig rigs (p30). DL: hi-lo backbones (p16, p24), teasers (p14, p18), rock rigs (p26). Keep droppers 3-4" — longer tangles, shorter kills the standoff.
RIG FIELD GUIDE v3.0 · KNOTS7 / 38
Snell
Circle & tog hooks pull from the shank, not the eye.
TAG · SN
Tag through the eye front-to-back; lay a loop along the shank.
Wrap the tag 6-7x around shank + loop, working toward the bend.
Wet, pull the standing line — wraps jam on the shank. Line now exits the eye in a straight pull.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR CIRCLE HOOKS
A circle hook works by rotating into the jaw corner as the line comes tight. The snell makes the pull come straight off the shank, DRIVING that rotation. An eye knot lets the hook pivot and can cost the rotation on light takes.
Snell: the 6/0 striper circles and 1/0 tog hooks. Uni: everything else.
PRE-TIE DOCTRINE
4-6 snelled circle leaders (30", 30-40 lb) live in S1. Night re-rigs become one loop-to-swivel connection instead of knotwork by headlamp. Same snell, same reason, on tog hooks: blackfish hit and turn — the straight shank pull beats them to the rock.
RIG FIELD GUIDE v3.0 · KNOTS8 / 38
Fly Connections
Fly line to leader to tippet to fly — three knots.
LTLSRGCL
LTL — LOOP-TO-LOOP (FLY LINE > LEADER)
Welded loop meets leader loop — interlock like a handshake — square, not girth-hitched (a girth cuts the loop).
Leader swaps take ten seconds and zero knots. Perfection loop on the leader butt if it lacks one — or buy looped leaders (Y2 spec).
SRG — DOUBLE SURGEON'S (LEADER > TIPPET)
Overlap 5", tie a double overhand with BOTH lines, wet, cinch all four ends. Fast, near-full strength.
Adding tippet preserves the expensive tapered leader — you re-tie into $5 of tippet, not $15 of taper. Step no more than one X size at a time.
CL — IMPROVED CLINCH (TIPPET > FLY)
5 wraps, tag through the eye loop, then back through the big loop. Wet · cinch · trim close.
Sizes 18-20: five wraps max and chin the knot wet. For buggers/streamers, an NSL loop (p7) swims them better — same knot you already know.
THE FLY JUNCTION MAP (R5)
FLY LINE (WF5F)LTLwelded loop to loop9' TAPERED LEADER (4X-6X)SRGdouble surgeon's18-24" TIPPET (one X finer than leader tip)CLclinch (or NSL for streamers)FLY
Dropper rigs hang the second fly off the FIRST fly's hook bend: 16-18" of tippet, clinch at both ends. Diagrams p36.