New(?) Braid to Mono wind on leader connection method...

[28Conquest]

I've been experimenting with a quick & easy braid to mono wind on leader connection method, mainly for my light casting rods catching stripers in Cape Cod Bay, but I think it could be used for heavier lines as well... My goal was to have a knot that will cast through the guides easily, can be tied quickly and easily, and didn't involve splicing loops, tying bimini knots, and that sort of stuff cause I'm too lazy to figure all that out!

The basic idea is to melt the end of the mono or flouro leader so it flares into a ball, and then tie a 12-15 wrap uni knot with the braid (see picture). For added security I put a drop of super glue on it. Note that the white-ish lump towards the left of the knot is just the frayed end of the braid. It doesn't "do" anything. This picture shows 80lb power pro tied to 80lb mono.

I realize it's not nearly as elegant or strong as a loop to loop connection, but I've found it to be far superior to an albright or uni-to-uni. (My tying technique on braid to mono albrights must suck because I've had a few come undone under pressure.)

Anyways, just thought I'd share this "innovation" -- I would imagine others have tried this too, but I never ran across another reference. I know enough about knot breaking theory to know that, at least in theory, the leader should be very strong as there is no bend or knot at all, whereas the uni-knot on the braid will be at normal uni-knot strength (i.e. about 65%). So unless the uni slips off the leader (unlikely!) or melting the end of the leader somehow weakens the line so that the ball breaks off (less sure about this one, but seems unlikely), this should perform as well as any other braid to leader knot, but IMHO is a lot easier to tie! (I have a torch style lighter on my boat that works even in pretty high winds -- also useful for heating up shrink wrap or lighting cigars!)

So far we've boated several stripers on 50lb braid tied to 50lb flouro without any issue. I don't have a casting setup for bluefin, so I don't think I'll be able to test this under big game conditions, but I'm curious to know if it works! Anyone else every try something like this?

28C

[CindyLou]

My albrights suck too, and always seem to rub the guides when casting. This (above) technique is interesting. I'm wondering if it does/would hold up on a tuna spinning set up.

[AlloyToy]

Check out the Red Phillips Knot.....very strong. Very close to what you have done here....

[28Conquest]

Hey - that's a pretty cool knot! Here's a diagram that I found...

Definitely looks much more secure with braid than the Albright, as with the Albright, I found that the whole braid coil can slip off the end and goodbye fish (+ expensive lure).

But I wonder if the tag end of the leader gets snagged on the guides on the way out? That's the other thing I don't like about the Albright - because the leader is doubled back, the knot is sort of facing the "wrong" way for casting (i.e. the thick catchy part comes through the guides first followed by the thinner part of the knot.) But I bet the Red Phillips could be tied so that the tag gets buried in the braid coil...

If mine is just as strong then I think it will cast better as it's about as thin as possible...

28C

[AlloyToy]

Yeah I cut the tag ends way short.......you are correct if not they can hang in the tip guide....

I put this knot to the test up on Jefferies with a BFT. Not a problem other that the fish spitting the hook