I've been doing a lot of knot testing the past couple weeks looking at braid to mono/fluoro leaders. So far I've played mostly with Uni-Uni's and Stren knots and have seen little difference between the two. Anglers seem to each have their own opinion as to how many wraps to put on each end of such knots. What I've found is 4, 5, 6 or 7, it really doesn't matter much as you can't tell a difference unless you're using a very accurate tensile strength meter to find differences. Even at that, slight variations each time you tie the knot will account for more differences in knot strength than the number of wraps.
What I have seen is that it is usually easier to use fewer wraps as your fluoro/mono leader strength increases. In other words, while you might tie a 6 or 7 wrap uni with 10 pound or under fluoro, if you move up to 20 pound leaders 4 or 5 wraps might be best, or at least easier. This is due to the diameter of the leader line, especially with fluoro that tends to be stiffer and a little less manageable with wraps and turns.
When an angler has a break with such a knot, they often think the knot failed because the braid slipped. In most instances it's not that the braid is slick and slipping, but instead that it's diameter is so small and fluoro being more sensitive to "line on line" pressure points as well as tight bends in the line itself that the braid ultimately just cuts right through it. I've been doing a lot of testing with 20# braid and 17# fluoro and I am routinely getting a consistent break at about 15 pounds with both these knots.
After lots of practice I'm finally getting the J-knot down. From what I've been able to see when I get it tied right, I would say the J-knot is at least as strong, if not a couple pounds stronger as a connection versus the others.
I started by dropping down and testing 20/8 instead of the 20/17 I had been using. The lighter line (smaller diameter) is easier to tie because it's more flexible. Instead of breaking at 6-7# like I thought, I could pretty regularly get a breaking strength of 10-11#. I think this is because the smaller diameter and more flexible line cinches down better and makes for "nicer" knots. As you move up to heavier fluorocarbon line leaders it seems like you lose some of that flexibility and tight cinching ability, similar to what I mentioned above.
I'm still having more variability with breaking knot strength with the J-knot, but that might be my lack of experience or expertise with tying it. I like the idea that it's a single knot connection instead of multiple, but I'm more consistent with the double uni at the moment. If you've got the J-knot down though, I'd say you're certainly not giving up anything strength-wise.
Another observation from all these tests is that I've only had the braid break once and the fluoro to scale connection break twice. Every other test (dozens & dozens & dozens) have all broke at the connection, so using a leader with braid will always leave the connecting knot between the two as the weakest link in the system, assuming you're tying a good knot to the lure. This is the reason I've been playing around a lot this fall with fishing straight braid as well as testing the various braid knot strengths. I've also toyed with the whole visibility issue of braids.
As you've probably read, I've been throwing 6-8# test flame green Fireline with finesse jigs since mid-October. Visibility is great, even without polarized lenses. I started out using leaders, but after reties or break offs in rockpiles I finally started tying direct one day just to save me the trouble of releadering. To my surprise the bite was never affected to any degree that I could tell. From Halloween until our lake froze just last weekend I ended up catching over 200 bass on the finesse gear, 75% of which came on the flame green line. Water visbility on my lake ranged from 3'-6' as the lake water grew colder, pretty decent for most bodies of water around here. The other 25% came on red PP braid tied directly and fished side-by-side against the flame green line in the clearest visibility waters and I could tell no difference in number of fish caught or size of fish between the two. Big difference in visibility though, red being much harder to see on the old eyes against many lake backgrounds.
Back on knots, I also tried the Alberto this afternoon - quite interesting. It is an easy knot to tie, especially when the fluoro being used is quite thick compared to the braid like in my 20/17 situation. I actually like this knot a lot from the little I've tested with it. Here's the catch I've found. If you tie it exactly right with the back wraps exactly matching the forward wraps, it is a very good knot. Was able to get 16-17# break strength out of the fluoro. However, if you don't get the braid wraps right and they end up crossing each other unevenly, you'll weaken the knot due to the braid crossing itself. When I messed up the tie I would typically only get 13-14# pound strength. This is still pretty strong, but not as good as when tied perfectly and slightly less than some of the other connecting knots. The cool part was that the break was almost always in the braid with this knot when tied slightly off, the only knot to do this.
So from what I've seen, if you have any concerns about leader knot strength, I'd strongly recommend trying to tie direct with the braid just to see what happens. This direct connect will nearly always be stronger than using a leader with another knot in the mix. I'll have to wait until next spring to continue the experiments, but I've been pretty surprised with the results so far. Another option if you're a bit nervous is to carry a black Sharpie with you and just color the last foot or two (or more) of braid line, especially the yellows and chartreuses to help camo the brightness.
Fishery Science In the Classroom
Since we reference so many studies on this site, many of which are carried out by graduate students and their professors, I thought this little piece was both timely and interesting.
UC Davis students get practical study of 'fish biology'
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