Know Your Knots!
Before you
start, two small but important tips.
Firstly: before pulling knots tight make sure your line is
wet this will help your knot pull down smoothly and will stop any
friction/line damage when using nylon lines....
Secondly: wherever possible pass your line through your your
swivel or hook eye "twice" this will ensure excellent knot strength,
the knot is the most common places for a hook link to snap follow
this tip and it won't happen to you.
The
Knotless Knot
the easiest and
quickest way of making a hair rig and perhaps the first knot you
should learn.

First -
cut the hook link material you are using to around twice the length
that you want your hook link to be, if you are using a coated line
such as Snakebite as a combi-link (stripped of its coating) you will
need to strip back around 6 inches of the coating.
Next -
tie a loop in one end as above by using a simple overhand knot,
finish with rig glue if you want.
Next -
pass the hook link through the eye of the hook making sure that the
loop end is on the top of the hook and the free end is passed back
through the eye towards the barbed side and pull it though until the
hair with the loop on the end is the length required, this will
depend and many things, bait size, feeding confidence expected from
the fish, difficulty of the fish and more besides.... you'll learn
all this as you go along.
Next -
now you have the required hair length hold it in position and whip
the line round the hook towards the barb and finish off roughly
inline with the hook point, pass the line back through the eye of
the hook towards the barb and pull tight - you'll be left with a
nice neat hair rig, finish off with rig glue if you prefer.
The
Polomar Knot
This is great
knot for tying swivels and hooks to your hook link, very easy to tie
and very reliable.
Simple double
up the end of your line and pass it through the eye of your hook or
swivel, tie the looped end round in an overhand knot, pass the
looped tag end over the hook wet and pull the whole lot tight ....
this knot might not be suitable for tying hooks when using thin
lines.
The Four
Turn Grinner Knot
Another
excellent knot this to use when tying swivels or hooks, tied
correctly it's very strong, very neat and very reliable.
Pass you hook
link through the eye of the hook or swivel twice, loop the tag end
down towards the hook, pass your line round your hook link and back
through the loop you have made four times, wet and pull the whole
lot tight and you'll be using one of the best knots available.