I can't, and man have I tried. I've watched so many videos that promise to make it easy, none have made it easy, or even something I can accomplish. I've got many knots in my arsenal that I use for different purposes, and I've never had an issue figuring out how to tie them, but this one has me stumped.

Yeah but it's a pita. I can't tie it using and sort of hand tension methods, got to have both hands free.

I put my rod over the back of a chair and use my foot to hold the main line under tension.

Then initial wraps have to be extremely tight, if the knot isn't tight enough in the initial wraps you will never get it cinched down or will end up with the wraps separating and big kinks in the main line.

Hi Blue,

Yes, I can tie a FG knot. It took a bit of practice and I think the trick is keeping your braided line tight and making sure your over left side and over right side fluorocarbon passes lay properly (if that makes sense). I tie it by placing my rod in a holder so it is upright 4- 6 feet away from me. I take a small wadded end of the braid in my mouth and hold the braided line taut in my teeth. I lay six inches of fluorocarbon or mono over the braid about a foot from the end of my nose and do my alternating wraps making sure each wrap lays down properly and not on top of the previous wrap. I do 20-22 wraps followed by two half hitches around both the braid and fluoro and then I set the knot by pulling on it as hard as I think I can get away with.

Hope that explanation helps,

FM

Nope. Watched three detailed videos. Tried several times. Ended up recommitting to tying best alberto I can. Haven't looked back.

Sounds like Peace and I use the same braid tensioning methods sorta. Keeping the braid tight is the kay to the knot IMHO. When you make the passes you'll see how the braid stacks on the fluoro if it is smooth and even (thin) you're doing it right.

I have the tool and still can't tie it

I got quite good at it. I used it for a couple years and I trust the knot. What I don't trust is that the finishing hitches will stay in place, because I've seen them unravel. I know someone on here started using Loon Glue to secure the knot, but I am not going to glue my knots. Alberto or Blood knot does everything I need. I can envision scenarios where you might want a 20 or 30 foot leader and in those situation having the FG to go through the reel guide would be beneficial, but that doesn't apply to my fishing.

After I set the knot I finish it by cutting the fluoro as close as I can and then I add two more half hitches of braid on top of the cut end of fluoro and I have started using Loon Knot sense glue to coat the knot which makes it smoother and it passes through the guides much better. Spinning combo's get a longer leader 8-10'. Bait casting combos 6-7'.

FM

i can tie it. i use the method where you tie a loop in braid and connect to the reel handle. i then tension the fluor with my foot on the spool. i have found one mistake is to have the braid too tight. you want it taught but when you make a wrap with fluro it has to have enough slack to let the braid wrap. i find about every four wraps i pull an inch or 2 of drag.Its hard to describe but i could show you easily. Sometimes i just tie the alberto instead if im in a hurry. it does fine . The only thing for me is i like long leaders 15 ' so if theknot is on your reel spool you need to cut the fluoro flush up to the knot to prevent hanging. A little nerve wracking but if you cinch the knot tight first it wont slip.

Try first by using some thiner braid and some thicker mono fluoro. I like to wrap the braid tightly around my pinky finger and keep lots of tension on it. Ive started to wrap the braid mainline around one of the cleats on the boat so I can keep even more tension on it. Like @Don Preller mentioned, you have to give a bit of slack so the each wrap can form nice, but then pull hard again so the braid bites in.

Make sure that the braid is biting into the mono good. That’s why thinner braid is easier to start out with.

Look up salt strong FG knot, that’s the video that I learned from. After a while you’ll start to see what the wraps are supposed to look like.

I've watched several 'How to' but will never try tying one. I'm fast approaching 80 and my fingers aren't as nimble as they used to be. It looks to be a PITA even for young squirts. I can live with a slightly larger splice knot. My drag isn't set to where it would break a knot. Only a couple of my rods have the tiny, tiny guides and I would never consider using a leader on them.

I even tie an Alberto at home rather than tying one while fishing. If fishing, it's easier to tie an Albright which is plenty strong enough. I think too much attention is paid to having the absolute strongest knot. There are plenty that properly tied will do the job well. I hardly ever use a leader. Started fishing at 5. Probably could count on one hand the number of times a knot failed.

Uni to uni, Albright, Alberto and several others mostly broke at the knot. I got tired of this and started on the fg. As I looked around and watched videos, I realized that I needed the tool. It helped a bunch. As I tied them I kept needing another tool for cutting etc so I made myself a kit. I’ve never had an fg knot fail.

I tried 8 - 10 maybe 20 times at the house. It failed to lock in and thought to myself, WHY? If I can't tie it while bobbing around in boat, I'm not using it. Sticking with the old reliable Alberto.

I can - without tools - and I use to rely on it...but switched to the Alberto. It's easier to tie and hasn't failed me yet.

Yep - though it has days where it seems tricker than others, usually when trying to tie it to light (4-6 lb.) leaders. I don’t run braid/leader on baitcasters (just 1 exception this year), so almost all spinning outfits. As such, I really only use it maybe a third of the time at best. Have used a lot more ‘J knot’ connections this past year or two, and Alberto’s any other time.

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I can't, and man have I tried.

You can do it.

I know this because I can.

Putting the line in my teeth was what got me over the hump. For me, it's WAY easier.

Get some old line and plop yourself down in the living room with a good YouTube video.

After an hour or so it's a piece of cake.

I have used the FG knot for years in saltwater. I can tie it a few different ways, and my deckhands can tie one with their eyes closed in rough seas.

I use an Alberto for most of my freshwater fishing. I can tie an Alberto in seconds, and it is p strong enough. I used to use both uni to uni and albright knots, but after tying my first Alberto, I never looked back. I do use blood knots for tying similar size mono to mono, but do not like the bulk of a blood knot for braid to leader.

The FG is the strongest knot, but gets more difficult to tie the lighter the leader line is. In saltwater I'm using 60 lbs or more leaders, making it easy to tie.

It is easy to make some common mistakes with the Alberto. I have watched many videos where they are even making the mistakes in the instructional video. Once I learned what the mistakes were, and how to avoid them I did not have any problems with the Alberto, and even use it when I'm in a hurry while saltwater fishing.

The Uni to Uni is a strong straight forward knot with almost zero possibility of making a mistake. If you want a strong knot and don't want to take the time to learn a more complicated knot, you will probably never have any complaints with the Uni to Uni. I used it for years and landed numerous large fish of many different species.

A correctly tied Alberto is slightly stronger, and much smaller than a Uni to Uni, but not as strong or as small as an FG. If you insist on having the strongest smallest knot possible, the FG is it. There are many ways to tie one, and once you find the one for you, with a little practice it won't be difficult.

If you struggle with the FG, don't bother. In my humble opinion it is not necessary for any application you might use in bass fishing.

If there is an application that you use while bass fishing that requires the strength and size of an FG ( I'm sure there are many, I just don't use them) than I recommend either taking the time to learn to tie the knot, or use another technique.

I use the pinky method and its pretty simple that way. With ultra thin line is more difficult for me but that is my sight not the knot.

I just hate to carry my reading glasses to the water.

If I am at my desk, with good natural light streaming in, the dogs are outside, I have an illustrated instruction on a 30" monitor in front of me, and the line diameters are just the right combination of stiff and supple, then I can do it. If the phase of the moon is right I can even do it on the first try.

For all of that, I fall into king fisher's camp. The alberto takes 1/10th the time and effort and is far easier to get right which is the most important part. I can tie that in the boat if need be (2-3 times a year I have to, usually because of a deep snag that broke at the leader knot). I've never broken a fish at the leader knot, only snags. I tried the double uni but just never got comfortable with it. And the alberto is smaller.

This is all spinning tackle, so 10 lb mainline and leader at the top end, then lighter from there.

The answer in my world is no! 😁 I have tried but just haven't gotten to the point I trust it. It holds for a while, then all of a sudden the cast goes woosh and my bait is sailing towards shore!! 🤣

33 minutes ago, Gera said:

I just hate to carry my reading glasses to the water.

Not sure how old you are, but I can't fish without my 4x cheaters.

I might look like Bubbles when I'm tying a knot, but I can't do it without them.

Yes, I can tie it. It took a bit of practice. I find the trick is to make sure the leader pulls the braid tight and smooth against the previous loop. The finishing knots must be tight too.

SuperSlick is the only braid I just can’t get the FG knot to take.

My bud who ties FG knots acts like an Iconoclast over it.

(same with shaving with bar soap suds)

I don't care, and don't need to - been rolling Allbright knots and shooting them through fly rod snake guides for 35 years.

They've never let me down.

Yes, and that's my best and first choice for line to leader, I do that at home always, and if I am in water and must do line to leader i do crazy alberto.