Standard Blood Knot

Stu Apte Improved Blood Knot. Use this knot for connecting different diameter tippets. Use five twists of doubled up thin line but only three turns of heavier line.

1: Double the end of your line, making the doubled portion about three feet long. Insert your hand in the loop and make 20 complete revolutions with your hand to form the 20 wraps. (Note, at this stage, the wraps are spread over a considerable portion of the line)

2: Sitting erect, hold your knees tightly together and place the loop over them. Maintain pressure, as shown, with your hands on both the standing line and the short end.

3: Spread your knees slowly, maintaining tight hand pressure in opposing directions, as before. This will draw the wraps tightly together.

4: Once the wraps are very snug, pull slightly downward with the short end while relaxing tension slightly at the same time. Be sure to keep up the tension, however, with the left hand and with the knees. The line should then roll easily over the wraps, all the way to the end.

5: This shows the composed rollover before it is anchored with a half-hitch around one strand, and several half hitched around both strands.

6: This shows detail of finishing half-hitches: the first around a single strand, and three others around both strands. Instead of making three separate finishing hitches, you can make just one—and go through it three times with the tag end instead of only once. Trim, leaving about an eighth-inch end.