How To Tie The Surgeon’s Loop Knot On Braid [Strongest Method]

In this post, you’ll see the results from some strength tests of the Surgeon’s Loop knot when used on fishing line made from braid.

This knot is often used in place of the Bimini Twist for doubling over the braid because it is much quicker and easier to tie.

The purpose of doubling over the braid is because it most often enables a stronger braid to fluoro/mono knot due to having two strands of braid going into the knot compared to just one.

So this post will highlight the following 3 things:

• How to tie the Surgeon Loop Knot
• How many twists are best for braid?
• How does the Surgeon’s Loop Knot compare to the other options for braid?

How To Tie The Surgeon Loop Knot

The various forms of the surgeon’s knot are popular because it is so easy to tie while also having a surprisingly strong holding strength.

Surgeon’s Loop Knot Steps

1. Double over the line (length based on the size loop you want)
2. Turn the end of the loop into a point
3. Wrap the loop point into a circle
4. Thread the loop point through the circle and pull it through
5. Repeat this step 2 to 5 more times (more wraps = more strength)
6. Pull on all 4 strands to tighten down the knot
7. Cut off tag

Surgeon’s Loop Knot Video

How Many Twists Are Needed?

The standard amount of twists for a Surgeon’s Loop Knot in most tutorials is 2 or 3.

I used this knot for many years with just 2 twists, and it proved to be strong enough to catch a lot of good fish.

But after testing the impact of more twists, I now recommend using at least 3 twists (as high as 6) if you’re using braid because it proved to add more breaking strength.

After 6 twists, it starts getting tough to cinch down so I do not recommend going any higher.

How Does It Compare?

The Surgeon’s Loop Knot is probably the fastest and easiest of them all to tie.

However, a head-to-head contest that I did revealed that the Surgeon’s knot wasn’t quite as strong as the Bimini Twist nor the Spider Hitch knots.

Click here to see the contest details.

Conclusion

I still believe that the Surgeon’s Loop knot is a good knot to use, but I no longer use it personally for doubling over my braid.

The primary reason for that is because FG Knot tied to a single line of braid proved to be a stronger connection than the combination of the line doubling knot plus the 2nd knot for the braid to leader connection.

I sure with that I would have started testing lines sooner because it has been very surprising to see my most trusted knots from before get beat by ones that I simply never bothered trying.

If you want to skip doing the testing yourself, then click the link below to see the full ranking list of knots that I’ve tested out so far.

Go To Our Knot Testing Homepage [Full Knot Rankings]