Thinking ahead of the possibility of fishing this weekend, I remembered that I used my last leader the previous weekend. Time to tie some leaders.

For winter fishing, one of my goto’s is bobber and egg. To help keep the bait on the hook, I tie leader to my hooks using an egg loop knot. This allows the leader to be pushed back through the eye of the hook and wrap around the bait.

How to tie an egg loop knot

Step 1

Cut a section of leader off of the spool.This knot takes up some line, so you’ll want to give yourself anywhere from 12 to 16 inches of extra line until you get a feel for exactly how much line you’ll need. You can always trim the excess. Run the line from the top of the hook down along the shank. For your solid tie bait and hoochie rigs, this will be the trailing hook.

Step 2

Take the running line and start wrapping it around the shank of the hook. I am right handed so I hold the hook with my left hand and wrap with my right hand. For a lot of anglers, the number of wraps you make depends on the fishing application and personal preference. For tying hoochies or herring leaders, I start by making five wraps in a clockwise manner. These first five wraps are done fairly tight against the shank of the hook.

Step 3

After making the first five wraps, you want to take the lead end (not the tag end) and run it back up through the eye of the hook from the bottom to the top. Run it through until you have about one inch of line sticking out of the eye of the hook. Make sure the line is lying flat against the shank of the hook.

Step 4

At this point, you will pick up the same end that you were wrapping in Step 2 and continue wrapping. Put five more wraps on the shank of the hook, but this time, do not make the wraps very tight. You want the wraps just tight enough so they won’t come undone. You will be wrapping over the tag end as well as the lead end.

Step 5

While pinching the hook and wraps with your left hand (if you’re right handed), slowly pull the lead end the rest of the way through the eye of the hook until the entire leader comes out of the eye of the hook.

In Step 4, you didn’t make tight leader wraps because you are pulling the leader underneath those wraps and you don’t want to chafe your leader. Your knot should look something like this when you’re done.

This is why they call it the egg loop knot.

Make sure your leader is well lubricated throughout the entire knot tying process. I usually wet the leader before I start and then again in the middle of the knot. When tying bait leaders for herring or anchovies, it is important to make sure that the tag end of the trail hook is nonexistent. Trim this tag end as close to the knot as possible so you can run this trail hook through the bait without ruining a good piece of bait. You can also make your tag end short and wrap over it in Step 5.