# Even ugly Bimini twists work as designed!



## GAHUNTER (Jan 30, 2008)

The other day I was anecdotally testing some fishing knots (no scale, just feel), mainly to decide if I wanted to attach my tuna poppers via knot or crimp (I've never trusted my crimps on line below 100 pounds). I also tested my mono to braid knots (Albright vs. double uni). For line, I have a 10-year-old spool of 40-pound mono that has never seen sunlight and seems as good as new.

I started all these tests by first creating a loop via a short Bimini twist, and looping it over a stair case banister knob (fortunately, my wife was not home to see this). My knots being tested were tied to the standing line, which would normally be going to the rod. Which knots performed best is not the subject of this post, although I will say the double uni greatly out performed the Albright when doing line-to-line connections.

The point here is, I tested or retested about 15 different knots, therefore I had to tie about 15 different Bimini knots. Seeing as this was not a test of Bimini twists, all double-lines were tied in haste. Regardless, some of Bimini twists were works of art that I would be proud to show off to the likes of a Captain Bart Miller! Others, however, were gawd-awful looking things, with wraps that crossed, or wraps that instead of being tight, spiraled down the length of the knot at a 45 degree angle -- knots that I wouldn't even dream of deploying for battle!

One thing that all the Bimini twists had in common was, however, _*NONE*_ of them broke either in front or behind the knot before the knot being tested broke. Didn't matter, ugly or gorgeous, the Bimini knot always held.

When I think back over all the years when I stressed over whether or not my Bimini knot was tied right when I was fishing offshore, it's kind of comical. In 30 years, the only Bimini failure was I when I brought in a slammer dolphin and one side of the double line had broken somehow. The other side held, however, and I still landed the fish.

You can keep your Australian braid, surgeons knot and spider hitch, I'll keep tying, sometimes ugly, Bimini twits!


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## Starlifter (Feb 24, 2011)

What do you dislike about the Australian Plait (Braid)? The Australian Plait seems much easier to tie if your making loops around 20ft in length.

Australian Plait (Braid) YouTube Video


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## MrFish (Aug 21, 2009)

Plait and spider hitch are easier to tie, but there is no doubt that the bimini is a stronger connection. I just can't tie a pretty one either.


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## GAHUNTER (Jan 30, 2008)

Like you, I thought the Australian braid was the cats meow for forming long double line. However, the first few trips I ever fished with it, we had a couple of failures on mystery fish. That said, it was probably the fault of the way they were tied, however we could not identify my mistake. Ours looked just like the ones my teacher tied.

After the second failure, I swore off and went back to tying the Bimini. Fortunately, I have three sons, so finding the second set of hands for the long double line tying has never been a problem.


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