There are not many times in fishing when a knot can make a big difference in catching or missing a fish except in heavy grass. Sure the knot is always important it has to be strong and tied properly so it doesn’t break; the difference though is sometimes a knot can get in your way and in heavy grass that can be the case and change the trajectory of the hook.
To the grass fisherman the “Snell knot” gives you an advantage this means the line is actually tied to the shank instead of the eye of the hook. This knot set up causes it to get maximum rotation when you set the hook especially in an upward snap of the rod. What many of us don’t realize is a traditional knot can rotate around in the fishes’ mouth causing you to miss the fish in heavy cover, rotation can point the sharp hook end away from the grizzle area of the fishes mouth causing the hook to get positioned by grass weighting the line and hence changing the direction of the hook set.
When this occurs the hook misses the target grizzle area and becomes many times lodged away from the mouth of the fish. Weight can really be a factor in grass; I know if you have ever fished grass you understand just how heavy the grass can be when it gathers up from the line and hook. The Snell knot prevents this gathering up of the grass on the eye of the hook allowing the shank to control the direction of the hook giving you the maximum advantage of controlling the point position during the hook set.
The Snell knot is very simple to tie and can be found on this link https://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/snell-knot-uni-version it doesn’t take a whole lot of practice to learn to tie this knot but it does give you a big advantage when flipping grass or working even a frog over grass that can get pulled down into the heavy grass while frog fishing. The key is the wrapping of the line around the shank of the hook, when you go through the eye and wrap the line around the shank it puts the weight of the hook set down the hook instead of at the eye of the hook keeping the direction of the hook more stable allowing it to grab the area of grizzle and not turn away.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
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Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Capt. Mike Gerry