Paul of Paul's Fishing Kites came up with the platted loop at the right after discovering the commercial fishing longlines he was tying conventional blood loop knots into (to attach his traces) weakened the 100kg mainline line by over 40%.
He found blood dropper loops were the main cause of breakage in the longlines.
It one of those easy fishing knots that once mastered are never forgotten.
Paul calls the new knot a platted blood loop and suggests the following test for those who need convincing of the immense improvement in knot strength over a conventional blood loop.
- Tie a conventional blood loop knot in a length of 10-15kg (20-30lbs) nylon and the platted loop in a second piece of line of the same breaking strain. (The diagrams are done from the tier's view).
- Pull both knots up slowly and carefully.
- Wrap the blood loop tabs ends around your hands and see how easy it is to break
- Do the same with the other knot and note that the platted loop is almost impossible to break.
Paul also uses the knot to join lines, he simply ties a overhand knot to temporarily join the two lines before tying the platted loop and then cuts off the temporary knot once the platted knot is formed.
How to tie a blood knot with more turns
You can also put in an extra twist in at step one and/or and extra plait after step three if you wish to make the knot bigger or have more coils in the finished knot.
One of the ends is then put back through the center of the knot to form another plait before it is fully tightened.
Both tab ends are then opposed when the knot is tightened and set.
As with any knot, tightening technique is important.
Try to keep even tension on the tab ends and tension on the loop during setting the knot.
You don't need a blood knot tying tool for this knot but you can use a fixed item like a large nail or vice handle to keep tension on the loop if using heavy lines (50kg-100lbs or heavier lineweights) |
