Hello Grady, I got a tuna!

[enfish]

I just use the FG knot. And I test all my gear to 70 pounds of pressure. The FG knot, when properly cinched down, is a great knot, much stronger than the RP knot.

Don't get me wrong, the RP knot is a fine knot for salmon, halibut, rockfish, lings, all of your smaller fish. And it's easy to tie on a boat. When I'm tieing at home, it's always the FG.

Yep, RP knot on the boat because it's quick and easy. FG knot at home because it's stronger and thinner so it doesn't get hung up in the guides, but takes longer and is more difficult to tie.

 

[luckydude]

Yep, RP knot on the boat because it's quick and easy. FG knot at home because it's stronger and thinner so it doesn't get hung up in the guides, but takes longer and is more difficult to tie.

If you are having trouble with the FG knot, watch this:

It's true that the FG is harder to tie than an RP but it's not that much harder, I'm no genius and I have tied hundreds of FG knots.
And it is finished with a risotto knot which is the same thing you finish your serve with when using hollow core.

So far, in ~8 years of ocean fishing, I've never needed to ti top shot to braid on the boat. I always have a backup rod, so if something fails, I switch to that and sort stuff out at home.

Under no circumstances would I use an RP knot for bigeye or bluefin. Why? We routinely push the drag up to 35 pounds to stop the big runs. It's that or get spooled. My testing shows that the RP will cut through the mono somewhere between 35 and 40 pounds. I've done multiple tests, it's aways there. With 35 pounds of drag, you are dangerously close to the cut off zone.

As for your earlier suggestion of using fluoro, I don't want that. The mono is there because it stretches and that takes some of the strike shock, head shake shocks away. I _need_ the mono.

I have friends who swear by the RP. They also have only caught small tuna down in San Diego, they haven't gotten into fish in the 150-300 pound range.

All that said, people can do whatever they want. I'm pretty strongly opinionated because all my bluefin stuff came apart 3 years ago. So I spent a bunch of time testing everything to 70 pounds on a scale. RP knot didn't come close to being strong enough.

Palomar is the strongest terminal knot, it's a 100% knot, never breaks in the not. But hard for me to tie.
Springer is not as strong as Palomar but it is much easier to tie, you just need at least a 5/8" tag.
FG knot for braid to mono, properly cinched down (the braid gets shiny and feels hard like plastic), it's up to the tuna challenge.

RP I just never use after observing how it fails.

 

[enfish]

If you are having trouble with the FG knot, watch this:

It's true that the FG is harder to tie than an RP but it's not that much harder, I'm no genius and I have tied hundreds of FG knots.
And it is finished with a risotto knot which is the same thing you finish your serve with when using hollow core.

So far, in ~8 years of ocean fishing, I've never needed to ti top shot to braid on the boat. I always have a backup rod, so if something fails, I switch to that and sort stuff out at home.

Under no circumstances would I use an RP knot for bigeye or bluefin. Why? We routinely push the drag up to 35 pounds to stop the big runs. It's that or get spooled. My testing shows that the RP will cut through the mono somewhere between 35 and 40 pounds. I've done multiple tests, it's aways there. With 35 pounds of drag, you are dangerously close to the cut off zone.

As for your earlier suggestion of using fluoro, I don't want that. The mono is there because it stretches and that takes some of the strike shock, head shake shocks away. I _need_ the mono.

I have friends who swear by the RP. They also have only caught small tuna down in San Diego, they haven't gotten into fish in the 150-300 pound range.

All that said, people can do whatever they want. I'm pretty strongly opinionated because all my bluefin stuff came apart 3 years ago. So I spent a bunch of time testing everything to 70 pounds on a scale. RP knot didn't come close to being strong enough.

Palomar is the strongest terminal knot, it's a 100% knot, never breaks in the not. But hard for me to tie.
Springer is not as strong as Palomar but it is much easier to tie, you just need at least a 5/8" tag.
FG knot for braid to mono, properly cinched down (the braid gets shiny and feels hard like plastic), it's up to the tuna challenge.

RP I just never use after observing how it fails.

I've been lucky so far with multiple tuna from 130 lbs to my personal best at 207 lbs. Most of the big ones were hooked deep drop vertical jigging at night with 130 lb braid connected to ~100 feet of 100 lb mono to a swivel with a 300 lb bite leader. Though the 207 lber was hooked on a flylined mackerel during the day on an 80 lb bait rig. I've had no failures with my FG knot on that braid to mono connection (or any other connection in the rig) with my drag set to about 35 lbs for rail rodding.

But I 100% agree with you. Tie what you're confident in and fish with confidence. You need to be able to pull hard on these things to turn the battle in your favor, and the only way to do that is to be confident in your rig.

That's one of the best FG knot tutorials I've seen. I like it. My only critique is melting the mono into a stopper mushroom top somewhat defeats the purpose of the FG knot because it adds something that will hang up on the guides when reeling in. I like burying the tag end of the mono under a Rizutto knot or a bunch of half hitches so that it slides through the guides with ease.

 

[luckydude]

That's one of the best FG knot tutorials I've seen. I like it. My only critique is melting the mono into a stopper mushroom top somewhat defeats the purpose of the FG knot because it adds something that will hang up on the guides when reeling in. I like burying the tag end of the mono under a Rizutto knot or a bunch of half hitches so that it slides through the guides with ease.

We're pretty similar, I skip the melting as well, haven't found a need for it and it makes the knot more complicated. I finish with a Risotto knot and I leave about a quarter inch of braid tag. That's my tell tale, if I see that tag getting longer, it's time to retie the knot.

I tried half hitches and they come undone faster than the risotto in my experience. I sort of put off learning how to tie that finish, but once I memorized it, I do it on all my FG knots and serves. It seems to hold up.