ALPENA, MI – Their boats are parked side-by-side in the boatyard in Alpena, Michigan as defending General Tire World Champion Bobby Lane and three-time Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Aaron Martens prep their tackle for the following morning’s Wiley X Summit Cup Championship Round. As one might imagine, the conversation has wandered all over the road and back.

Lane prefers a larger hollow-bodied frog, Martens prefers his to be more compact. Lane would rather golf for exercise, Martens prefers to run 40 miles a week. But when the discussion comes around to tying braided line to a fluorocarbon leader, the two are in total agreement: the FG knot is the only way to go.

“What do you use to tie your braid to flouro, a Double Uni or a Surgeon’s?” Lane asks a photographer lurking nearby. “You should be tying the FG Knot, it’s the best one out there.”

Martens concurs: “I just started tying the FG Knot this past year,” he says. “I used to tie an Alberto, which is a really good knot, but the FG Knot is such a drastic improvement as far as both knot strength and the size of the knot. It really makes a difference.”

The FG Knot comes from the saltwater world (popular rumor traces its origins to Australia), and was developed as a means for the braid-to-fluoro connection to pass smoothly through the smaller eyelets of rods used for light jigging. It’s significantly smaller in profile than almost all other similar wind-on connector knots, and has tested in the low 80^th percentage for breaking strength (the Double Uni and Surgeon’s tested in the mid to low 50^th percentages).

The FG is slightly more complicated to tie than other connectors, but the payoff is worth the effort, according to Lane.

“You can barely even tell there’s a knot when you tie it properly,” he points out as he shows off the knot he’s just tied to on a drop-shot rod. “It takes a little time to learn how to tie it right consistently, but it’s worth the effort.”