Learn the knots that build every rig.
Start with three. The Palomar, the dropper loop and the non-slip loop build every rig on Lac du Bourget, and the Palomar alone covers most of your fishing. The line joins and the fly and bait knots carry the wider library. Each one is a clean, numbered diagram you can follow at the water. Tie one wrong and you lose the fish, so they are drawn carefully.
Wet it, seat it, test it
1Wet it
Wet every knot before you pull it tight. A dry knot drags against itself as it closes and the friction heat weakens the line.
2Seat it slowly
Draw it down slowly and evenly, then trim the tag end close, leaving a stub of a millimetre or two so it cannot slip back through.
3Test it
Pull the finished knot firmly against your hand or the rod before you fish it. Better it fails now than on the take.
The core three
Learn these first. The Palomar alone covers most of your fishing; the other two are for the rigs that hang a hook off a branch or want a lure to swing free.
How to read a knot diagram
Every knot is drawn as a short row of numbered panels, like assembly steps. The line that moves, the working or tag end, is drawn in the accent colour (and as a distinct line, so it reads in black and white) while the standing line stays calm. The little arrows show which way each wrap goes. The panel before the final cinch carries a small "wet it" mark, and the last panel shows the finished, seated knot.
The knot-to-rig map
| Knot | What it joins | Which rigs use it |
|---|---|---|
| Palomar | Hook, swivel, jighead, pike trace and sabiki to the main line. The workhorse. | Every rig |
| Dropper loop | A standing loop in the line for a hook branch. | Paternoster, gambe / sabiki |
| Non-slip loop | A fixed loop at the lure or jighead, for free movement. | Vertical jig, pike lures |
Learn the Palomar and you can fish almost everything here; it builds every rig on Lac du Bourget on its own. The dropper loop is for the rigs that hang a hook off a branch; the non-slip loop is for when you want a lure to swing freely.
The wider library
The line joins and the fly and bait knots that carry the wider rigs, each with its own numbered step diagram.