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Home > Learn to Fish & Boat > How To Fish > How to Tie Fishing Knots > The Bowline Knot
If you want to learn a few essential boat knots, the bowline knot should be on your list of knots to practice. Follow the steps in this section to learn how to tie a bowline knot for creating a fixed loop at the end of a rope or line.
If you are wondering how to tie a basic boat knot, the bowline (pronounced Boh-lin) knot is one of the best to start with. The bowline knot is a frequently used knot by many boaters because it creates a secure loop that can withstand a significant amount of pressure from a load while remaining easy to untie.
You can practice tying a bowline knot using a piece of rope or a dock line by following these steps:
Once you practice these steps on how to tie a bowline knot, you will see how easy this knot is to master. There are a few variations of the bowline knot, such as double bowline knots and the running bowline knot, but you can learn the variations once you feel confident with tying the standard bowline knot.
Some example bowline knot uses while boating can include:
Whenever you need to make a fixed loop at the end of a line, you can tie the bowline knot.
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