Knot Experiments

[John Purser]

I posted another thread about having a problem with my Uni-Uni knot for my shock tippet passing through the level wind on my Abu. I got some great feedback on that post and that got me to experimenting with knots to see what worked.

My background is ultra light spin and fly casting. And that was a couple of decades ago. My how things have changed! Quite a difference between 2 lb line and 30!

My testing set up was some Berkley Big Game 15 lb and some Shakespeare Omniflex 30 lb along with some 4 oz pyramid sinkers.

Here are the results:

LINE TO HARDWARE
Uni to Clinch -> Uni by a mile
Uni to Improved Clinch -> Uni by a mile
Uni to Palomar -> it depends. A WELL TIED Uni and a palomar generally broke the line in the middle. HOWEVER I would clearly mess up the Uni more often in which case the Palomar won easily. I don't think I've messed up a Palomar yet.

I'm doing some line to line knot testing now focusing on the Albright and Slim Beauty. The Albright is MUCH smaller, I really like it. But I'm messing something up and can't see when it's bad. The Slim Beauty on the other hand is kind of obvious when it's messed up. On the one test where I thought both were well tied I got a tie in strength as the 15 lb line broke in the middle.

I'm glad I took the time to play around with this some. Clearly I need to learn about some newer knots and practice tying them. If I mess up this often in the living room imagine what's going to happen on the water!

I also learned that my teeth are not as sharp as they were 20 years ago and that Spaniels REALLY DON'T LIKE the sound of mono repeatedly busting behind them.

Have a good one.

John

[emanuel]

So what do you catch shorefishing up there?

[John Purser]

I just moved up here. I'm a disabled vet and I'm waiting for some VA paperwork so I can get a discount on my license. And I've got a little gear coming to help me out as well. I'm hoping that by the end of next week I'll have everything I need together. Then I'm going to go play in the surf!

Right now there are Pink and Coho salmon running and both are caught from the shore as well as public piers. Also there are flounder, cabezone, dogfish, and other species to try for locally and surf perch out at the coast.

I've been lucky enough to find another pier and surf member who lives up here who's loaned me a reel and is filling me in on the local possibilities.

All in all I'm looking forward to learning what's out there.

John

[Drumdum]

Try the blob knot... I'd be curious to see how a blob knot would do against the others you mentioned.. Burn the bigger leader on the end so that it makes a lump,then take the running line and tie a nail knot to the heavier line.. I know it would have to be small.. I have never done this,because I don't use levelwinds,but just curious as to how it would work for your situation??

[Cobia Seeker]

The blob/nail does sound interesting. I use both level and non-levelwind reels and have tried all kinds of knots on my Record series reels. 4 out of 5 casts with a shock knot are fine but that 5 one is a beast. I think anytime you use a shock knot with a level wind reel you will stand a chance of blowing up if you hit the cast hard. All that needs to happen is the knot rubs the levelwind just enough to slow the line comming off the spool because the spool does not slow and you will hear that fluffy sound.