The FG knot

The FG is not quite a knot. The braid is not tied around the leader — it is wrapped around it in alternating passes, and the connection holds on the friction of that wrap rather than on a cinched loop.

Why it is flat

A cinched knot is always thicker than the line, because inside it the turns lie on top of one another. In a wrap the turns lie on the leader in a single layer, and the build-up comes out minimal.

That is what the FG is tolerated for: the connection passes the rod guides almost unnoticed, does not knock on the cast and does not cost distance. A double uni in the same place knocks.

How it is tied

The leader is held under tension while the braid makes turns alternately from one side and the other — each new turn pinning the previous one. Many turns are needed. Once the wrap has length, it is locked with several half hitches of the braid tag around both lines.

The lock is compulsory: the wrap on its own unravels the moment tension goes.

How to hold the tension

The wrap comes out even only on a taut leader — a slack one sags and the turns lie unevenly. Tension can come from anything: the leader clamped between your knees, hooked over a rod guide, looped around your hand.

This is not a detail. An uneven wrap does not hold, and the reason a FG fails is almost always here rather than in the number of turns.

How many turns

Far more than in cinched knots: the wrap holds by cumulative friction rather than by pinching, and the count runs into dozens. Readiness is checked by pulling — a wrap that creeps along the leader is still too short.

What it costs

Time and hands. The FG takes longer than any other joining knot, needs constant tension on the leader and barely ties at all in wind.

So it is done at home or in a boat on calm water, not on the bank in gusts with fish already showing and hands in a hurry.

What it holds on best

On the pairing of slick braid and a stiff leader. Braid bites into the surface of the fluorocarbon leader, and the friction comes out greater than between two lines of the same kind.

Between two monofilaments of equal stiffness the FG holds worse — there is nothing to bite into, and another knot is more logical there.

The tag ends

The leader tag is trimmed short: it is stiff and, left long, catches the guides. The braid tag is left longer — it is softer and passes the guides without resistance.

Both are trimmed after the wrap has been checked under tension, not before: an unfinished wrap has to be undone, and long tags are needed for that.

When not to use it

When the connection does not pass the guides on every cast — for instance when the leader is short and stays beyond the tip. Then the FG advantage disappears while the complexity remains, and a faster knot wins.