Tying the Bimini Twist - The easy way

[Old Smoothound]

Tying the Bimini Twist

The Bimini Twist was developed by Big Game fisherman for trolling lures and is a knot that doubles its strength, unlike most other knots that loose their strength when tied. The other bit of line tied to it will break before this knot does!!


Take the main line from your reel and form a large loop, now take hold of the loop and twist around in a spiral motion a minimum 20 times, whilst keeping hold of the other end with your left hand.

With this large loop now twisted and held in you left hand and your right hand still inside the loop, place the loop over your boot or shoe toe cap. DO NOT LET GO OF ANY THING IN YOU LEFT HAND

Now take the tag end and the main line and pull them down and apart going towards your toe cap and where the loop of line is held. This action compresses the Spiral twists in the line, (but do this gently as a lot of friction is caused and the line can be weakened as a result).
Now lay tag end of line at 90 degrees to the twists and ease off the pressure slightly and you will see that the line twist over itself again. Make sure that the line is evenly butted up to the spirals. Do this until it stops re-twisting over itself. When you have done this take the tag end and make a half hitch on one side of the loop. I.e. hold the compressed twists with you left hand between finger and thumb, whilst with the right hand take the tag end over the right side of the tight bit of the loop around your toe cap then back inside up and under kind of thing. This makes the first hitch, then do the same on the left hand side of the tight bit of the loop finishing with a half hitch. DO NOT RELEASE THE TENSION FOR A SECOND!

To finish this part of the knot make another half hitch around the bottom of the twists and other half hitches to make it very secure.

Once completed take the loop from over your toe cap and let the loop go whilst keeping hold of the main line, you will see the line twists up and forms a tightly spiral of a twisted doubled loop with a small opening at the end of the loop.

Now take your shock leader and pass the tag end up through the loop, so you have the tag end facing to your left and the loop facing to your right. Take the tag end and twist it around the twisted loop at least 5 times then bend it back on itself and come back another 2 times, making sure you have a firm hold on the loose knot, put the tag end through the loop again.

We are about to tighten the knot up, so wet the open knot and then start to pull it tight by gripping the main line in you left hand and the tag and shock leader in your right, pull them very tightly together making sure the line does not cut into your hands or fingers.

Trim the tag end as close to the knot as possible, if there is a short spike of line take a lighter and melt it down so it does knot stick out, but do this very carefully. If there is a spike of line sticking out it will cut into your thumb every time you cast.

That’s it, its simpler than it sounds!

[big guy]

well done mate. suppose you want your mars bar now. LOL

anyone who hasn't tied one before or seen it being done is thinking what the f**k is he going on about. worth taking the time to learn it though, best in the business.

i can't explain how to tie knots in writing, i end up babbling on. well written fella.

[Old Smoothound]

MMMMMmmm how you gonna send this MARS BAR then?

Na your allright i'm on a diet at the moment anyway...it was a challenge to write it and I enjoyed doing it.

Like you I think it is the best and probably only really safe method to join a shock leader to your main line.

[pingu]

cheers smoothy saw you show this to talis in january
must learn it, will practice hard
using above techiquie

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read and thanks

[John Marshall]

Nice One Smoothie,

[CWoody]

OMG...you call this the easy way...

just a joke...

I have tried this just now and want to know if it's ok.

I have done the actual twist and got the loop at the end...it's all finished with the 1/2 hitches and everything.

Now this is the bit I don't quite follow. If I tie my leder to this loop I am going to end up with two knots seperated by roughly 4" of twisted loop (one being the leader knot, the other being the twist).

Is this right? I imagined that the two knots would somehow bind up close to one another. If this is correct don't the two knots catch on opposite sides of the reel?

[..::Pike Pirate::..]

all them words are confusing me lol. i might look for a diagram or something. sounds a great knot though! ill practice it !

[Allandec]

A great place to see this knot being tied is on the Sea Angler rigs DVD, available from Sea Angler magazine and sometimes on ebay etc.

[jimmy]

http://www.britishcongerclub.org.uk/...mini_twist.htm