Best way to snell a hook
A snell pulls straight along the shank instead of at the eye, which changes how the hook sets. The wraps have to lie flat and stay put.
Snell Knot
Good field fit · 51 ruled out first
Why it wins
- ·Essentially level with Egg Loop Knot on weighted field fit (Good vs Good). Treat them as the same answer and choose on the tradeoff
- ·In-line pull on bait hooks
- ·Excellent hookset geometry
- ·Strong connection-job fit (100)
Watch for
- !Coils crossed or gapped when they set
- !Coils set short of the eye, leaving the line room to shift along the shank
- !Tag trimmed so close it slips back under the last coil
Also in the running
- 02Egg Loop KnotDocumented terminal job from Hook the Horizon libraryGood
- 03Uni Snell KnotDocumented terminal job from Hook the Horizon libraryGood
Pick Egg Loop Knot instead Snell Knot leads on connection-job fit (100 vs 91) and eye / hardware geometry (90 vs 75). Egg Loop Knot still holds an edge on retie speed.
What changes the answer
The same question with one condition added. Each row is its own engine run.
- Cold, wet handsHolds
- Wind and boat motionHolds
- Low light→ Egg Loop Knot
- Retied all day→ Egg Loop Knot
- First time tying itHolds
How sure this is
Low confidence: this question states only a few conditions, or the top knot's strength figure isn't traceable to a published test. Add your own conditions in Decide to sharpen it.
51 of 54 modelled connections were ruled out by hard constraints before anything was ranked. A knot that fails a constraint is never scored, however strong it is elsewhere.