The fg is an excellent knot, I've used it for many years and have absolute confidence in it, I have landed everything from 500g blacktail to 45kg GT using the knot and wouldn't use another. Some pointers...
Don't make the knot too long, it's counterproductive. I do 12 wraps, I would not recommend you make more than 15. The reason is when you tension the line, if you've done the wraps properly; meaning no air between the wraps, you want the line to bite down hard at the front end and still get some grip toward the bottom end. It's virtually impossible to pull a 20+ wrap FG tight enough, which will lead to problems.
To prevent your little finger turning blue, as someone commented, the trick is to make the first wrap around your little finger at an angle and then the following wraps back over the first, to trap the loops. That way you don't need to apply nearly as much pressure and you won't even feel any pressure on your little finger at all.
If you're just starting out learning the knot, use heavy braid and leader. It's a lot easier to maneuver, because the leader is more stiff, so it's a bit more forgiving of mistakes. As you build muscle memory it gets very easy.
Personally I don't make any half hitches. I do a 12 turn fg followed directly by a 5 turn rizutto and that's it. It's a much slimmer knot than a standard fg with a bunch of half hitches thrown in, it's quicker to tie and it has never let me down. Mechanically the rizutto is a stronger finish than half hitches, as it pulls in the opposite direction to the fg knot.
Hope this helps someone.
