When connecting line to the spool of your fishing reel look no further than the Arbor knot.
The Arbor knot is easy to tie and versatile since being able to be used with both spinning and baitcasting applications.
Below is an instructional video from FTWQ as well as a few tips to help you properly tie your line to the spool of your reel.
Spinning Reel Tips
Once you've tied your Arbor knot be sure to place it in a location that has the least amount of impact on the rest of your line.
For spinning applications this will be the bottom of your reel spool.
By doing so you prevent your Arbor knot from interfering with the rest of the line on your spool when casting.
On another note, if the spool of your reel includes grooves do your best to place the initial part of your line, including the Arbor knot, into these grooves.
Those grooves are there for the purpose of helping to prevent the line from slipping, a common issue with braided line.
Reels that have them are often referred to as "braid ready".
Baitcasting Reel Tips
The holes in the spool of a baitcaster can be used to your advantage when connecting your line to the reel.
After feeding your line through the line guide of the reel take the tag end of your line and feed about an inch through one of the holes on the spool.
Now, engage your reel and slowly rotate the spool. You should notice the line wrap itself around the spool.
This little trick will help wrap your line around the spool for you and save you the frustration of trying to loop the line around the spool yourself.
Secondly, final placement of your Arbor knot for a baitcaster can differ depending on the shape of the spool.
For baitcasting reels that have a spool with a straight barrel (left image), consider placing your knot to the far left or far right of the spool to avoid knot interference when casting.
If the spool barrel of your baitcaster is sloped along the sides (right image), place your Arbor knot directly in the middle of the spool.
This will help to keep your knot from interfering with other parts of your line when casting, especially if you are nearing the end of your line capacity.
Tips When Using Braid
One of the downfalls of braid is its tendency to slip. This is especially true when braided line is tied directly onto a reel.
There are 4 things you can do to help avoid braided line from slipping on you down the road.
1. Moisten your line when tying and cinching down your Arbor knot to allow for a strong tie down that provides a little bit of "grab" on your spool.
2. Keep your line relatively tight for the first few rotations of the spool when feeding on new line to secure your knot into place on the spool.
3. Use a short piece of duct tape or electrical tape backing (as seen in the video) to provide a grippy surface for the initial line tie to grab onto.
4. Use a small piece (5-10 feet) of monofilament line as a backing then connect your braided line using a leader knot such as an Albright knot.
In Conclusion
Many anglers tend to use an overhand knot or even a square knot when securing line to a fishing spool and to be honest with you both of those knots will get the job done.
However, with some practice hopefully you will discover the benefit of the Arbor knot thanks to how easy it can be tied and its resistance to slipping when properly cinched down on the spool.
No one likes having to retie due to their knot slipping.
So give it a try!
If it doesn't work for you go back to what you're good at.
After all, the best knot a person can use is the one they know how to tie!
Time to go catch em'!
Shout out to the FTWQ YouTube channel.
Their knot tying videos are the easiest instructional videos to follow along with when learning how to properly tie fishing knots.
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