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Bimini Twist

Moderators: Sudesh Pursad, Morsie

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James9118
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Bimini Twist

#1

Post by James9118 »

Whenever I tie a Bimini Twist I end up with some residual twists in the loop itself - what am I doing wrong?

Thanks, James
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Paul Arden
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Bimini Twist

#2

Post by Paul Arden »

I think that’s normal, James. Since we are pulling the knot tight from here it’s going to leave some twists. If we pulled the knot tight the other way it can damage the single strand which we don’t want.

Cheers, Paul
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Mangrove Cuckoo
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Bimini Twist

#3

Post by Mangrove Cuckoo »

James

That can happen for a few reasons. Are the twists in only one leg or both?

Be sure to back wrap / overwrap all the way past the inner twist, hold the loop open under tension as you lock in the half hitches, and try not to roll the loop off of whatever you use to hold the apex.
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WJC
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Bimini Twist

#4

Post by WJC »

I'm not sure what the concern is.

On the loop to loop end where a class leader connects to the butt loop all the guys I've fished with have always added twists to the loop prior to tying a surgeon's loop in the doubled line formed by the bimini loop. Some of the old timers used to cut that bimini loop in half, tie the ends together, then twist it up before tying the surgeon's loop in the two twisted strands.

I twist mine up with my index finger in the bimini loop, then rotate that hand so my pinkie forms a new (now twisted and doubled) loop, grab the tag end (the end of the original bimini loop) and the bimini end in my other hand and milk the 4 twisted strands up toward the end of the doubled loop. Then I tie a surgeon's loop and cut off the tag - which is the end of the original bimini loop.

Now the original two strands of the bimini loop are twisted, and those two twisted strands are in turn twisted around each other.

What this does is basically to form a torsion spring between the butt leader loop and the class leader. The other looped end of the bimini is attached to the bite tippet (or shock tippet for the old guys) with a Huffnagel, slim beauty or whatever. That "spring" will untwist several revolutions and, I think, help protect the class leader during jumps and head shakes where fly line stretch is too slow to help.

As far as softening a strip strike - I think it has little effect because strip strikes on hard mouth fish really has not much effect anyhow since even 50 lb hard mono-core tropical lines will stretch 4 feet with 40 feet of line out.

I'm curious what Morsie's thinking on it is.

Cheers,
Jim
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Paul Arden
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Bimini Twist

#5

Post by Paul Arden »

That's interesting Jim. Can you post a few photos please? I always used a slim beauty to connect to the butt section. However recently I've been converted to twisted leaders.

I'm still using the Bimini for my braided leaders - I don't know if that's a good idea or not but it seems to work fine.

I absolutely love this knot.

Cheers Paul
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WJC
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Bimini Twist

#6

Post by WJC »

Paul,

I got an old video of about 2 minutes if somebody wants to put it up on youtube or something. It's a .wmv file and I don't do youtube any more.

There's no bimini there but the part I was talking about is there and you can easily see the stretch I was talking about. If you have something to put the middle of the twisted section around - like a boat cleat or something, it makes it easier than free handing it.

Some young guy wanted a decent, fast way to double a loop to loop to loop #4 wire to 20# monofilament. Just pretend the doubled line is the loop formed by a bimini.

http://www.miterclamp.com/videos/Vysogi384.wmv

Cheers,
Jim
WJC
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Bimini Twist

#7

Post by WJC »

Or, perhaps I've misunderstood the original question as to where the twists are?
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Paul Arden
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Bimini Twist

#8

Post by Paul Arden »

Thanks Jim. I just made one - very neat. I've been using what James calls the J-knot instead of the Surgeons - I think it is a little straighter - for my twisted leaders.

I think I do something quite similar for my Snakehead leaders, incidentally, but instead of folding the twisted line in half, I J-knot first* and then go back about 1/3rd the way up from the knot, feed the loop through the twists at this point, and bring the tag end completely through the loop. I then work the twists back up the line towards the end forming a new doubled set of loops. I was shown this by a friend in Singapore and I've been using it for quite a while now. The neat thing is it goes 4 strands, 2 strands, 1 strand - hence tapering.

* For twisting the line in the first place, I feed the line together starting 2/3s along. Twisting the line together while working the twists in the free ends out, otherwise I don't think it will work but instead will unwind when I tie the J-knot :laugh:

Cheers, Paul

PS sure I'll put it up on youtube when I get a chance!
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