Story by Ken Duke
He wasn’t physically imposing. At 62 years of age and standing just 5-foot-7, he wouldn’t have drawn much attention. Besides, the floor of the Southern California tackle show was crowded. There was a lot to see.
The DuPont booth was of particular interest to him. It offered a challenge.
DuPont had introduced “Stren” monofilament two years earlier, and their “master knot tyers” traveled the country touting the virtues of their lines and teaching anglers how to tie good knots. The booth invited attendees to test their own knots against those the company recommended.
And that’s where Chet Palomar enters the story
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If you bass fish—and why else would you be reading this—there are a few knots that you almost certainly use. Those knots change over time as line materials change, as knot-tying methods evolve, and as angler needs shift, but for every generation of bass anglers, there are a few knots that are ubiquitous. “Everyone” knows them. “Everyone” uses them.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, just getting serious about bass fishing, the knot that everyone was tying was the “improved clinch knot.” I won’t give you a tutorial on how to tie it here (there are enough YouTube videos covering that kind of thing that you could spend the rest of your life watching them and not see them all), but I will tell you that it was a 90 or 95% knot, meaning that if you tied it properly, it would weaken your connection by just 5 or 10%.
That’s not too bad. The other virtues of the improved clinch knot were that it could be tied quickly and that it did not waste much line when you cut off the tag end.
I used the improved clinch knot for quite a while, but if you’re a young angler—maybe 30 or younger—I wouldn’t be surprised if you have never tied an improved clinch knot. It’s largely fallen out of favor as lines have changed, new knots have come to the fore, and knot-tying preferences have evolved.
Today’s most popular knot for attaching a fishing line to a single hook is probably the Palomar knot. And although I’ll bet you’ve tied thousands of Palomar knots, I think I’m safe in saying that you don’t know its history.
And that brings us back to the story I started to tell at the beginning of this piece.
It took place in 1971 and the 62-year-old man stepping up to the DuPont booth was Chester John Palomar—a Texan by birth who had recently retired from the Pomona, California Fire Department. His friends and family called him “Chet,” and he believed he had a better knot. The DuPont booth looked like the opportunity to test his claim.
So, Palomar stepped up, tied his knot using the Stren provided, and the DuPont rep tied an improved clinch knot. And….
You already know what happened. Palomar’s knot won. It was better, stronger. How much better? Well, tied properly, the Palomar knot is a 95 to 100% knot, so it’s about 5% better … plus it has a smaller profile and is faster and easier to tie, so it’s actually quite a bit better when you consider all the elements of knot tying.
Palomar changed the way most of us fish. He “built a better mousetrap” and the fishing world took notice. Of course, DuPont had a lot to do with that. If Palomar’s knot had made it no further than that California tackle show, few of us would know it today. Luckily, DuPont saw its virtues and started teaching it at other shows, published instructions in each box of line sold, and generally spread its gospel.
Did Palomar get rich as a result? Do we each owe him a royalty every time we tie his knot? The answer to both questions is “of course not.”
Palomar never got a dime for his invention, but he did get free fishing line from DuPont for the rest of his life, and the company didn’t try to rename it the “Dupont Knot” or something equally egregious.
Other innovators in the fishing world have done far worse than free fishing line. That list is long.
Chet Palomar died in 1986 at the age of 78. He did not get rich off his creation, but he did live to see it become popular, and it bore his name. Still does.
And now you know the story.
