For in- and offshore trolling with braided mainline, there’s no stronger knot than the Bimini Twist.
Designed around the needs of anglers chasing tuna, marlin, wahoos, and sailfish, it doubles the mainline into a secured loop, resulting in a very strong anchor for your leader connection. Most anglers then use a Bristol or Yucatan knot to attach the leader, yielding a very robust connection.
Often reaching the magical 100% knot strength, the Bimini Twist is one of the most well-known and well-used knots in the salt.
Bimini Twist Knot - Good Knot for Joining Braid to Fluoro Leader
Strength: Excellent
Speed: Poor
Ease: Poor
Utility: Very Good
Table of Contents (clickable)
How To Tie the Bimini Twist Knot
- Loop an arm’s length of your mainline around your off hand and twist the tag and mainline around each other 20 to 30 times. You’re looking for no less than 6 inches of loop, and some anglers like 6 feet of loop or more, which requires a helping hand!
- Holding the twists securely, put your feet through the loop and bring it up and over the outside of your knees. This will allow you to tension the knot properly.
- Tension the twists by spreading the tag and mainlines.
- By gently spreading your knees, you need to increase tension on the twists while feeding the tag end back over them. You’re trying to wrap the twists in a second layer, moving downward toward the loop.
- When your tag end reaches the bottom, secure these wraps with a simple half-hitch around one leg of the loop.
- Tie a second half-hitch on the other leg.
- Remove one leg from the loop to make it more narrow.
- Tie a third half-hitch around both legs.
- Tie a modified half-hitch around both legs, passing the tag end through the hitch three times.
- Trim the tag end.
The Bimini Twist Knot in Fluorocarbon and Braid
Nylon monofilament bites on itself really well, creating plenty of friction to hold a knot tight. And the good news is that the Bimini Twist works great in heavy mono mainlines, whether you’re just tying-off to a big lure or running an even heavier-gauge leader.
But as most anglers know, braid and fluorocarbon can be tricky.
The Spectra and Dyneema fibers woven together to create braided lines are slick stuff, and they slide rather than bite against themselves. That tends to drastically reduce knot strength as your line prefers to pull through rather than hold.
Fluorocarbon exhibits a similar issue in that it’s a very hard material. Unable to deform easily against itself, it, too, prefers to slide rather than bite.
The good news is that the Bimini Twist is an ideal knot for braid, and its clever design creates a huge surface area to generate friction and distribute load. Tied well, there’s no stronger knot out there.
But there has been some misinformation about the Bimini Twist that continues to be repeated in the sportfishing world.
In 2007, Sportfishing Magazine erroneously reported that the Bimini Twist was stronger with fewer twists. This continues to be reported by word of mouth on popular fishing message boards.
It’s not true!
Subsequent re-testing has revealed that mistakes were made in the initial article, and Sportfishing Magazine did the right thing--reversed their claim--and now recommends 20 to 30 twists.
Since then, repeated tests have confirmed that more is better.
Why Rely on the Bimini Twist Knot?
The Bimini Twist is one of a family of loop or “doubling” knots in that it creates a long loop that’s secured by repeated twists.
This has one chief advantage:
- Strength - Because the Bimini Twist disperses load over a very large area, and because it employs a doubled mainline, it’s almost unbelievably strong. Tied properly in undamaged braid, it has been carefully tested up to 100% of the line’s test strength!
When do Bimini Twist Knots Fail?
The Bimini Twist’s ability to hold in braid is the stuff of legends, but it can fail if you make these two common mistakes:
- Tying this knot in worn or damaged line - You may not see the damage, and it can be as simple as UV degradation. But if you tie this knot, or any knot, in frayed, worn, or compromised line, it just won’t hold.
- Improper technique - The Bimini Twist is not forgiving. Those downward wraps and half-hitches need to be neat and true, or the knot will slip.
What’s Not To Love About the Bimini Twist Knot?
The Bimini Twist’s strength comes at a price.
- Slow - This knot takes quite a bit of time to tie, even with practice and experience. Worse still, you’re only half done when you finish: the Bimini Twist creates a loop that requires a second knot to secure the leader!
- Hard - While perhaps not the most difficult knot out there, no one thinks the Bimini Twist is an easy knot to tie. And to wring the most strength from it, you need to get this challenging knot just right.
