The first three knots — the line breaks at the knot, almost every time

When a good fish breaks you off, the line almost never parts in the middle. It parts at the knot. Every knot weakens the line; tying well simply means weakening it less, and that takes no talent and no strength. Three knots are enough to start: the clinch for hooks and swivels, the blood knot for joining two lines, and the figure-eight loop. Between them they cover nearly everything you will do from a Japanese breakwater.

Four habits that apply to all three

• Wet the knot before you tighten it. Water or saliva. Tightening dry generates friction heat that damages the line exactly where it will later break.
• Tighten slowly and evenly rather than yanking. Let the wraps seat neatly, then pull firm at the end.
• Test it by pulling before you fish it. A knot that slips in your hands will slip on a fish.
• Trim the tag to one or two millimetres. Flush to the knot and it can pull through; long and it tangles the rig.

1. Clinch knot — hooks, swivels, snaps

Pass the line through the eye, twist it around the standing line five or six times, then pass the tag through the first loop next to the eye. Wet it and draw both the standing line and the tag down slowly. Use fewer turns on thick line (about four) and more on fine line (six or seven). Passing the tag back through the large loop you have just formed gives the improved clinch, which slips less. Practise this one until you can tie it without looking — because you will be tying it in the dark.

2. Blood knot (denshamusubi) — joining two lines

Overlap the two lines by about ten centimetres. With one tag, wrap four or five turns around the other line and pass it back through its own loop — a uni knot. Do exactly the same with the other tag, facing the other way. Wet it, pull both standing lines, and the two knots slide together into a single small join. Use it for changing droppers, adding a leader, or repairing a main line that broke mid-session. It is not the knot for joining PE braid to a leader: braid is too slippery, and for that you will need a friction knot such as the FG.

3. Figure-eight loop — making a loop

Double the line back on itself, twist the doubled section once as if drawing a figure eight, and pass the loop through. That is the whole knot. Japanese shop-bought rigs connect loop-to-loop (chichiwa), so this is what attaches them, and it also gives you a quick attachment to a swivel or a way to secure line to a rig holder. Its strength is not the highest, but a knot your hands can tie in the dark has a value of its own.

What to cut before it fails

Line that has rubbed on rock or tetrapods is damaged inside even when it looks fine. After every session, and after every snag you pull free, run the last half metre between your fingers; if it feels rough anywhere, cut that section off and retie. A metre of line is never worth the fish you would otherwise lose.