Purpose Knot For Encasing Monofilamant Leader - And

[jewgaffer]

Hi Everyone.

I thought I'd pass on what I consider to be a good method in general of protecting your leader against abrasions from and being broken off by toothy fish. However any advice given on fishing is up to you, the fisherman to try, evaluate and judge the benefits of or otherwise for yourself..........

When you are concerned about having bite abrasions on your leader and subsequent or immediate break offs from the surprise arrival of toothy fish or even when you are not surprised, a good way when using a 1 hook rig or if you are using a 2 or more hook rig for that matter, is to tie the last hook/s tied, I.E. the lower hooks (the top hook or a slider adjustable hook will come into it as I write)......

Tie the knot back up the leader instead of along the shank of the hook whenever this is not necessary - if it is necessary, still wrap the exposed line up in the manner below, in order to protect the line underneath (or a straight thru main line whenever it is necessary to rig that way) from being bitten into and at the worst broken off and thereby losing part of your rig and also the fish........

What I do myself is something most likely unheard of and that is to tie a three part knot including the pressure knot which is only a 3 wrap uni knot (three wraps with the heavy leaders and a few more wraps with the light weight lines) and putting the line of the uni knot part down thru the eye of the hook twice. Having a uni knot tightened hard up against the hook, keeps the knot below the highest parts of the outide of the eye for the first part of the exercise.

Going thru the hook eye twice will create a sling ( the sling will tighten well clear of the machined end of the eye....... I leave the tag end longer to tie what I call an "overlay" knot around the main leader to encase the leader itself inside the wraps of the "overlay" knot, which is tied from the tag section....

The tag end does not have any pressure on it whatsever, and can be tied neatly in a criss cross manner over, and back down the leader and the second part, the Centuri knot will sit over the main knot (see the Centuri knot part below), and the third part (see 2 © below) will be wrapped over and the resultant encasement will protect the main leader.

This is how I tie my "overlay" knot, and you can use this permanantly or anytime you are worried about sharp edges in a particular hook's eye or are likely to get mouth abrasions in or break offs at the leader/line section above the hook:-

1. Tie your first hook. (you can protect that part of the leader above the hook on any other hook too! You can use the same heavy leader for the separate "overlay"over the leader for your slider and tie the blood knot overlay knot back up the line -{the slider will be be tight but will move when you need to adjust it} - with the tag end of the separate overlay (for finishing off along the leader above the hook refer to 2) and just thread your main leader straight thru the wraps before you close your knot, by-passing the eye of the hook.

2.

a - Plier tighten the uni knot and pull the uni knot hard in against the centre of the top of the eye of the hook

b - Again using the tag end, tie 4 wraps of a centuri knot directly over the 3 wrap uni knot up the leader line and push the tag end thru the centuri knot, holding the open loops and single line tru with a finger and thumb so that you can take the next step.

c - With the remaider of the tag, tie long blood knot wraps up the leader and criss cross over the underlay of the blood knot leader casing on the way back......... Thread the tag thru the first wrap of the blood knot and back thru the centre of the centuri knot coming in thru the eye end again ( which makes a reinforced centuri covering the knot also not in the book) and lock the blood knot up by putting the tag end back thru the top end loop of the blood knot....... The tag end will not be under any pressure at all and will only add more leader material to fully cover and protect your main leader.

You can also insert the leader into lumo tubing and tie the "overlays" over that to hold the tubing in place and provide extra protection for your leader without doing much extra work at all. I feel, due to knot failure and particularly leader failure, some of our members are often victims of break offs and thereby losing good fish when they have everything else right and work hard to catch them.

Hope this helps

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited January 28, 2009 by jewgaffer