Wind Knots: How To Remove & Prevent Them (When Using Braided Line)
- By: Joseph Simonds
- on
Nothing can dampen your spirits on the water like a wind knot, right?
It takes a lot of time to untangle them (time you’d rather spend fishing), plus if you have to cut it out you could be wasting a lot of line…
In the two videos below, we’re going to show you how to prevent them and how to fix them, so you can have frustration-free and knot-free days on the water.
Enjoy!
How To Prevent Wind Knots [VIDEO]
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Wind knots primarily happen because of two reasons:
- The line is coming off of the spool faster than the line is passing through the rod tip
- The line is twisted
Below are 13 tips on how to prevent wind knots caused by both of these instances.
The first 10 are to help you prevent wind knots attributed to line speed, while the last three are to help you prevent wind knots caused by twisted line.
1. Don’t cast your leader knot through the guides. The knot can hit the guides, cause the line to slow down at the tip.
2. Don’t cast into the wind. Yes, this is why they’re called wind knots and the wind can slow down your line coming out of the rod tip.
3. Don’t cast too hard. Casting is about technique, not brute force.
4. Don’t use rods with flimsy tips. If the rod tip is bouncing up and down as your line goes through it, it can slow it down.
5. Make sure the line is snug before retrieving. Pull the line tight with your hand to make sure you’re not reeling in any slack and putting loose coils on the spool.
6. Don’t slap or reel the bail closed. If you do this, loose line can be put on your reel.
7. Stop the cast by hand. Once the lure is about to hit the water, stop the line with your finger and then close the bail by hand to make sure the line is tight.
8. Avoid overfilling the spool with line. Coils on the edges will be too loose and can easily overlap and tangle themselves.
9. Make sure line is evenly dispersed on the spool. If braid is bunched up at top or bottom it can cause knots. This can be fixed by either adding or removing washers underneath the spool.
10. Avoid using heavy leader with light line. For example, don’t go over 40 lb leader with 10 lb braid. Heavier leader has more wind resistance, which can slow it down.
These next tips will help you prevent wind knots due to line twists.
11. Rig lures properly to avoid helicoptering. Make sure the hook point comes out of the middle of the body and the lure isn’t bunched up on the hook or jig head.
For tips on how to rig lures properly, check out this article.
12. Use swivels in heavy current. Heavy current is one of the culprits that cause your lures to spin and swivels can help ensure the entire line isn’t spinning.
13. Lubricate your line. Lubricating your line with a product such as Real Magic can help your line come untangled if a wind knot does happen.
And speaking of fixing wind knots, in this next video, Capt. Tyler Kapela will show you how to fix your wind knots the easy way.
How To Remove Wind Knots [VIDEO]
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When wind knots happen, a lot of people try to pull out the line with the bail open to fix it.
That often just adds more line to the tangle and it comes out in a big clump.
Instead, when this happens, close the bail, loosen the drag, and pull out the line.
This will help sort out the wind knot and not make it worse.
P.S. To book a trip with Capt. Tyler hit him up on Instagram @captain_tyler_kapela.
Conclusion
Wind knots can be one of the more frustrating issues you run into while out on the water, but if you follow these tips to prevent and remove them, you can have a knot-free fishing trip.
Have any questions about preventing or removing wind knots?
Let me know in the comments below!
And if you know someone who gets too many wind knots, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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That tip about using the drag to untangle the wind knot just blew my mind. I never would have thought of that and have wasted so much line in the past by getting frustrated and cutting a section of line out.
Thank you for the tip guys!
Thanks for all the great tips and possible reasons for my nasty wind knots. I was about to switch back to mono fishing line as I was thinking it’s the braids fault, but now I have some good info on how to cut way down on wind knots. Even the slower speed of the lure than at the reel explains the mystery of this problem. I’ll give these tips a shot and report back. Thank you again for your help.
guy
Tony, great video! Appreciate the tip on using Reel Magic. I have converted my personal rods to Micro Wave line guides and get less wind knots with this guide system.
Thanks Tony for your excellent, helpful video and article. I am a brand new member and pretty much a rookie fisherman. After reading lots of the articles/videos on the site, I hit the bulletin and purchased a new rod and was so excited to try it out. Based on Luke’s advice that the rod is more important than the reel, I kept my Penn Spinfisher V 3500 reel that came on a combo rig. But after new rod, I had guy who sold it to me switch out my braided lime from 45lb test to 10lb based on recommendations read here. He added 20lb mono leader via uni knot.
Prior to buying first first ever nice rod and upgrading my braid, I have been fishing Jon stop with 7’ rod that came w combo and 45lb test braid and leaders attached via swivel. I never once got a wind knot and was curious as to what all the talk was about.
Then I tried my new rig and got wind knots immediately yesterday and had to cut line and quit Fishing. I re-rigged today and and was a little better – wind knots every 3-4 casts instead of every cast.
Obviously, I now miss my crappy 7’ combo rod w 45lb braid with swivel bc I never had problems.
Regarding the causes of wind knots, thinking back , I think I did all 13 of the wrong things with my previous rig and still never got knots. I was a total hack.
Today I was very careful, tried to follow all 13 rules, and still got the knots.
My question- do you think my new problems have more to do with the new rod or going from 45lb braid to 10 lb braid. New rod is a St Croix Mojo Inshore 7’6” Medium with Fast action. Braid is the slick version of Power Pro. I was throwing a 3.5” Slam Shady w Owner 3/0 Twist Lock hook w lighter weight.
Sorry for the long post/question. In a nutshell – am I too inexperienced to throw 10lb braid at this point? Or too inexperienced to use a nice rod like this? Thanks so much for all that you and the fellas do. I’m learning a lot and I appreciate your excellent work!
One thing that has been missed as to line flow/speed in my opinion is the difference between conventional spinning guides vs. concept (choke and runners) guides and spacing. Big difference. I build or have redone most of my spinning rods. https://www.fujitackle.eu/fuji_next_generation_k-r_concept_guides
What do most folks do with a wind knot in the middle of your line that you can’t untangle. Cut the tangle out and retie the line with a double uni/fg/Alberto knot I’m sure no one wants to waste 50/60 yards of line.
Great Video. I learned two things. I try to over muscle my casts and dont cast with leader in the guides . It was nice meeting you Saturday in Ruskin. Thanks for letting us check out your kayak.
Thanks Jason! It was nice to meet you as well!
Wonderful tips on wind knots thanks guys. Russ @ Kayak Fishing Charleston
No problem Russ!
Good video. The key I find is the manual bail close/line check after each cast. You’ll stop 90% of potential knots by doing this. As far as the video on knot removal, it was so simple it was elegant! Been fishing seriously in the Louisiana marshes for over 20 yrs, and I was amazed none of my buds had ever seen this.
Thank you for the awesome feedback Richard!
Chapstick works great!
Definitely helps!