Snelled Knot

This knot is ideal for hooks with up or down turned eyes in a ganged configuration. It would have to be one of the hardest knots I learnt in my repertoire of knots. Tying of the actual knot is relatively easy, just the placement of fingers on the hook and monofilament was difficult to master, especially when dealing with small ganged hooks, to get a comfortable feel to tying it.

The objective of a ganged rig is to bind or gang several hooks in line, for use with bait such as white bait, pilchard, squid and garfish.

The eye of the hook can be threaded as shown, but its not always preferred. Make a loop with the tag, then wrap the loop around the tag and shank of the hook 8-10 times. As you pull on both lines to tighten the knot, any excess of loop will be taken out when the tag is being pulled. Cut any excess tag off.

I learnt this knot by actually studying and unsnelling a pre-made rig I purchased from a local tackle store. When rigging, keep in mind the type of fish your going for because it is this which governs the size of hook and strength of line your going to use for your bait.

For example, I use 25kg monofilament line with chemically sharpened 4/0 hooks for Salmon, Mulloway, Snapper and Trevally. This line is somewhat thick and easy to work with. For smaller fish such as garfish, Tommies and sand whiting, I use 4-6 kilo line.

When tying a ganged rig, leave plenty of line out from your first hook to allow tying the rest of the rig. Snell Hook 1, "A", then tighten the line at "B" which is part of the tag, and repeat the process on Hook 2 and treat Hook 1 as if it wasn't there.

Repeat the process for Hook 3. Just be careful you don't prick yourself. Some bait like garfish can be long and you may need 4 ganged hooks. When finished, cut any excess tag off.