Teaching Tips for Fishing Knots & Rigging

We strongly recommend that an experienced adult angler present this station. If you are not the state aquatic educator, a fishing instructor, or someone who regularly ties the Palomar Knot, you will need several practice sessions before an event where you will teach rigging.

Prepare in advance. If you need the script for the first couple of times through you might want to put it on a clipboard with a rubber band to keep it from flapping in the wind. Have some rocks or weights on hand to anchor your props in case a breeze comes up.

Two volunteers are needed at this station to provide enough help when everyone builds a rig. Even with two volunteers, the parents of the participants should be involved to help assemble the rig.

Participants need to sit down to do this activity. A tarp or other ground cover not only provides a place to sit, but also aids in finding dropped hooks, splitshots, and line.

Use a table to keep your gear and supplies together. Stand in front of the table so the seated participants will not be tempted to get up and crowd the table to see your equipment.

Tape the posters to the front edge of your table so they are at eye level and close to the participants. If that is not possible, move your station to where the posters can be displayed, particularly the Palomar Knot and Basic Rig poster. Having a visual image
of how to tie the knot and the rig you are building makes teaching these items much easier.

When you distribute parts of the rig to be assembled, hand the parts to the adults.They in turn can give the part to their child. Distribute one item at a time, attach it, distribute another, attach it, etc.

This station requires a lot of small finger coordination. Give lots of positive reinforcement to the participants while they are tying the knot and building the rig.

You will need to pre-cut the fishing line into 4 foot lengths and crush the barbs on the hooks before the event. Keep enough uncrushed barbed hooks to use as a demonstration of how to crush the barb for each group.