How to Tie the Bait Egg Loop
Usage
The Bait Egg Loop — most anglers just call it the Egg Loop Knot — is what you tie to hold soft bait like salmon roe, a shrimp, chicken liver, or a soft bead right against the hook. It ties your leader to the hook shank and, in the same move, leaves an open loop standing above the wraps. That loop is the whole point: slide your bait in, pull the line, and the loop cinches down and grips the bait without piercing it. It started as a Pacific Northwest steelhead and salmon drift-fishing knot — still its main job — but it holds plenty of other soft baits just as well.
Why Learn the Bait Egg Loop?
Because nothing else on a bait rig does this job as cleanly. A plain hook-to-line knot just connects the two — it gives you nowhere to trap a soft roe sack or a piece of liver. The egg loop's extra loop holds the bait out where a fish can find it, keeps the scent flowing, and leaves the hook point clear for a good hookset. The honest catch: it takes practice, and the last pull has to be slow — but once it clicks it's fast to repeat streamside.
Common Uses
The egg loop earns its keep any time soft bait needs to ride on the hook:
Fishing
- Salmon and steelhead roe: holding roe sacks or skein on the hook for drift fishing — the knot's founding, most common job.
- Catfish bait: keeping chicken liver or dough bait on the hook, where a bare hook would lose it.
- Soft beads: rigging a soft plastic bead above a free-riding hook for modern steelhead bead fishing.
- Yarn and wool balls: holding an artificial wool or yarn ball for steelhead — usually with fewer wraps than a roe rig needs.
Other Names
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Notable Features
- Holds bait without piercing it: the loop traps soft bait against the hook, so the bait keeps its natural movement and scent instead of being torn on the point.
- The open loop is the trick: a second pass through the hook eye is what opens the bait-holding loop — that's the one feature a plain hook knot can't give you.
- Adjustable loop and clean profile: feed a little slack back through the eye before the final cinch to size the loop to your bait, and the wraps lie flush along the shank so the finished knot is compact and doesn't snag.
🪥 Myth: “There's one right number of wraps”
Not really. Every guide swears by their own count — 12, 15, 18, 20 — because the right number tracks your hook size, bait, and line: a big hook with heavy fluorocarbon wants fewer wraps than a small hook with light mono. There's only a real floor — go too few on the loop set (around six) and it can slip. Above that, treat any single number as a starting point, not a rule.
How to Tie the Bait Egg Loop
Step 1
Thread about 4 feet (1.2 m) of leader through the hook eye, down to the bend of the hook. Pinch it in place with your thumb and forefinger.
Step 2
Make 10 to 20 tight wraps with the leader back toward the bend of the hook.
Step 3
Hold those wraps firmly and thread the end of the leader back through the hook eye — this time from the opposite direction.
Step 4
Make about 5 more wraps over the top.
Step 5
Pull on the leader slowly to tighten the knot down. Pull slowly on purpose: yanking it fast traps twist in the wraps and tangles them into a mess.
Step 6
Open up the line above the wraps into a loop to hold your eggs, roe sack, or other soft bait.
Pro Tip: wet the line before that final pull so it slides without heat-burning itself, and if your bait keeps sliding off, add a few more wraps to the loop set next time — under-wrapping is the number-one reason an egg loop lets go. If the wraps aren't clicking from words on a page, the Knot IQ app shows the egg loop in full 3D so you can slow it down and watch exactly where the second pass through the eye goes.
Similar Knots
Snelling Knot vs. Bait Egg Loop
- Advantage: The Snelling Knot is the simpler, stronger straight connection when you just need line locked to the hook shank — no bait loop to fuss with.
- Disadvantage: It gives you no loop, so it can't hold soft bait. The egg loop is a snell with one extra pass through the eye to open that bait-holding loop — use the snell for bare hooks and hardware baits, the egg loop when soft bait needs holding.
Security Level
Tied fully and cinched slowly, the Bait Egg Loop holds well for its job. The wrap count makes or breaks it: too few on the loop set — around six — and it can slip. Under repeated casting it can also walk up the shank and shear the bait off, so re-check your bait after a few casts. This is terminal tackle, not a life-safety knot — if a rig fails you lose a bait, not more.
Downsides
- Awkward to learn: the first pass is fiddly and it genuinely takes practice before it feels quick.
- Twists if you rush: the loop wraps hold twist that has to unwind on the final pull — pull fast and it tangles.
- Can creep up the shank: under repeated fishing stress it may slide forward and cut the bait loose.
- Wrong knot with no bait to hold: if you're just tying line to a bare hook, lure, or hardware bait, the loop is wasted effort — tie a Snelling Knot or an Improved Clinch Knot instead.
History
The Bait Egg Loop is a modern knot — it doesn't appear in the old knot books, and no one source names who first tied it. It grew up in Pacific Northwest steelhead and salmon guide culture, passed hand to hand on the rivers. Structurally it's a modification of the older snell: the same wrap-to-the-shank idea, with one extra pass through the eye to open the bait loop.
FAQ
What is an Egg Loop Knot used for?
It ties a leader to a hook while leaving an open loop above the shank that holds soft bait — roe, shrimp, chicken liver, dough bait, yarn, or soft beads — right against the hook.
How strong is the Bait Egg Loop?
There's no formal lab test, but tied with plenty of wraps it holds at least as reliably as a plain snelled hook. The usual way it fails is too few wraps on the loop set — around six is too few and can slip and break.
Is the Egg Loop Knot the same as a Snell Knot?
No, but it's close kin. A snell wraps the leader to the shank once; the egg loop adds a second pass through the eye and a second set of wraps, specifically to open a bait-holding loop the snell doesn't have.
Important Notes on Safety
This is a bait rig, not a load-bearing knot, so there's no life-safety concern — but a few habits keep it fishing well: wet the line as you cinch so it doesn't heat-damage itself, keep the wraps neat and non-overlapping, and pull the final tighten slowly to let the twist unwind. Check your bait after a few casts in case the knot has crept up the shank.
