txchaser

That's where I started, and I had decent luck with it, but found myself really frustrated re-tying while fishing. I'm trying really hard to fish in unreasonable spots, so after a few times of being aggro'd I decided to see what my next best option is. Also, I had mixed results with it on 6lb flouro, not much there to bite into I suppose. Last failure there was a braid-flouro connection with 6lb flouro on a 5lb fish (caught it again a few minutes later). I had fished the line the day before and didn't re-tie the braid/leader that morning, so maybe that first loop just got too beat up. On top of all that I can't find any testing for matched diameter braid to leader; my understanding is that a big part of the idea behind the FG knot is to distribute load across braid that is weaker than the leader, and do it in a very slim knot. It may well turn out that the FG knot is still the best, but it's troubling to me that, for the line sizes we use, we don't have much objective data on modern lines and uses. Related, I found this somewhere, but I can't for the life of me recall the types and sizes of lines they used.

I just kept using the same surgeon knot as I was trying different end connection knots; I didn't re-tie it. 1) it's not a crazy use case for me, breaking off at the terminal knot and re-tying there. Plus I was curious to see if I had weakened it in earlier testing. I'm replicating the saltstrong tests, just with different line. Effectively braid<knot a>leader<knot b>braid, pulled slowly until something breaks. One end of the test kit is a digital scale. Yes that's correct. Flouro broke at the edge of the wraps on the flouro side. I didn't test multiple #'s of wraps on the surgeon, as the SS advice is that the surgeon knot with braid was pretty bad slipping at lower turns. Good idea for the tail end of this though. Every test taken to failure. Ah sorry if I wasn't clear, this is in-progress. I figured I'd get some useful feedback by doing it real-time. Haha outstanding catch, thank you.

On the uni/uni I was at 5/10. I'll try a 3/9 turn as well. I agree that 7.5lb sounds light.

Ok so the sale is getting me off the dime. Which two of them will be most useful? My most likely scenario is two rods with me, one spinning and one baitcaster. They don't appear to have an MH/F - the MH are all XF, as an example. At the moment I'm more inclined to upgrade the rods I fish with most vs add a third, although I was considering adding something in the jig/frog range. Longer than 7'1" doesn't fit in the car. If you were going to pick two as do-it-all, which would you pick?

A lot of the published braid to leader knot strengths are not focused on what I'm using, so I finally decided to just start testing for myself. I'll edit this post as I progress It's a bit tough to get a real read on poundage using the knot chain-to-fishing-scale approach (same as saltstrong tests) unless I'm taking video, which I'm not. This started because I had some hesitation about the FG as it is supposed to be for larger diameter/strength leader than the braid, which isn't the case in bass fishing. Plus it's fiddly to tie...so I needed an alternative. At some point I need to re-run these, one or two samples isn't great. Update - 1) frustratingly, some of the results are in a 15% or more variance. So I can see the difference between dramatically different results, but many are too wildly varying to get anything conclusive on braid to leader poundages. 2) reasonably conclusive that FG > Surgeon 6 > 3/9 Uni > 3/12 Uni > 5/10 Uni = shin lazy alberto 3) berkely braid (which has many names, it's the one that ends up with a loop by the hook and a tag end towards the rod, remains undefeated vs fish-n-fool and (very carefully tied) palomar. 4) After about 10.5 lbs the leader is completely wrecked, warps and bends and such. Regardless of whether the knot holds past that rate, the whole thing feels like it is on very think ice. 5) tying the braid to a belt loop made the FG way way easier. ----------ongoing notes---------- Sufix 832 30lb, Seaguar Blue Label 15lb Braid to Leader: 6 turn surgeon knot is stronger than double uni (~7.5lbs) which is about the same strength as the shin lazy alberto (~7.5lbs). FG stronger than 6 turn surgeon - 10.5lbs (this makes no sense given another 13.5 lbs result on another test. FG should be stronger, but results are too variant) Terminal Knot vs Leader Knot: 6 turn surgeon knot is stronger than the fish-n-fool, which appears to be a uni with an extra wrap through the eye (10.5lbs) un-retied 6 turn surgeon knot is weaker than the berkely braid knot, broke at ~13.5lbs. I think a consistent 90% would be a win. PP 10lb, Seaguar Blue Label 8lb (next up)

Mostly as an experiment because I wanted to get out in the middle of a 12ac pond, I bought one of the 89.00 inflatables off amazon. No where to keep an actual kayak. Net net it got the job done for roughly an average TW order. The water is too nasty to make it a regular thing, but it really did only take about 10 minutes to inflate and launch. At least that way you could see if it made a difference. Of course we don't have any gators so that might get in the way of the whole inflatable idea.

I'm currently in pursuit of a big girl on a big farm pond I fish. Pretty sure it's the same one, had her hooked up twice now. First time I was fishing a 4" bluegill swimbait, with the front treble taken off because of heavy weeds. Had picked up a few decent sized fish, but they were pretty tough to get in with only the rear treble. Decided to cast it to the deepest part of the pond and just let it sink all the way down and slow roll it back. Line got very heavy, and something started pulling very hard after a hookset. I had that stop, think, don't overreact moment. Got it about halfway back and then it was off. Running deep the whole time. Few weeks later, same spot, big spinnerbait bite was on, I felt the "dangit I'm snagged" feeling. Then the snag started pulling back. Got her to about six feet from the bank, flashes sideways to show off length.... and then... slack line. I was being really dilgent about maintaining tension too. I've caught quite a few 4-5lb (>20' but skinny, some weighed) from this pond, and this one seemed way bigger based on the action, and long too. Skinnier ones seem back towards the creek more. Anyway, I'm convinced this fish is mocking me. Or maybe there's a few of them mocking me. Somewhat related, it's interesting to see how much better fed the main lake body fish are than the creek arm cover-huggers.

On knots that have a forward facing tag end, I saw something recently that was interesting - passing the tag end back down the loop at the bottom, so it's more weedless and streamlined. Any downside to this, particularly on doubled line knots like fish-n-fool or berkely braid (which seems to have multiple names). And that got me wondering about whether I could do it on a surgeon knot, which I've started using (six turn) for braid to leader connections because the FG knot wasn't doing it for me because it was finicky at my skill level, and especially on 6lb leader. Plus it took too long to tie if I broke off on the water. Saltstrong seemed to think it was in the 80+% range, behind the FG and the alberto. Tried the improved surgeon which is even faster, but it was weak. Anyway... The one thing I don't like about it is how the tag end lays, even with adding a few overhand knots on the braid. Can I use the idea above on the surgeon knot, doing an extra wrap backwards with only the braid, so the casting end of the knot is a loop? I know the knot will be slightly bigger, but maybe it's worth it. Asking here because maybe there's a missing part of my thinking on one or both of the above, and there's a bunch of really smart people around these parts.

Reflecting on my orignal post: Although my sample set isn't very big, this year so far I've caught far more quality fish on a powerbait maxx pork looking chunk in GP, at least for jig-fishing.

No pic but a BPS and a TW box today Long-since backordered from TW -livetarget hollow body craw in reddish and brownish (I don't really need these now, but WTH I'll see how they do. I've had really good results with the small craw from okuma and the zman TRD craw. Which is all totally in conflict with the research about vague cylinders getting more strikes than complete craws. /shrugs) -Weedless neko hooks I don't need because I forgot about the backorder and bought some elsewhere. Still haven't gotten around to a neko rig, so I guess i have a few years of neko hooks now -(random?) sungill ultravibe speed worm, because I definitely need more almost the same but not quite the same worms BPS -KVD worm file to try as an alternative to bps binder -3" and 4" sunfish swimbait (softbody) from livetarget. The yellow 3" caught me a lot of quality fish recently when other stuff got small fish or nothing at all. The original lives in a bush now; wife bought it for me after she heard about what was hitting the 4" gill I had from Savage gear. But it has trebles and gets caught a lot. So it was a mission to catch some fish on it, because supporting that kind of behavior (buying me tackle) is a good choice. Turns out it was actually pretty dang good. - couple of megabass dark sleepers in 1/4 oz - Tokyo rig to try out on the mucky-bottom ponds and city lakes - v2 columbia cooling neck gaiter - yamamoto cowboy in watermelon red, because I (don't) need more jig trailers - some paca chunks in three colors because the creature bag definitely isn't jammed so full the zipper is tight, so I have work to do

I think you are going to get some metal fatigue with the size zero. But they are 3.00 a pack so just get multiple sizes.

Doesn't get on my hands so it doesn't get on the lures.

15# yellow PP braid to 6ft of 6lb flouro (blue label), which I recently changed out for hybrid (yo zuri), and went up to 8 on the leader. Going back down to six, the yo-zuri is giant. I should have read the diameter. I didn't like the 6lb blue label flouro though, for lack of a better way to describe it, it seemed fragile... I've had pretty good results with a six-turn surgeon knot (you need the xtra turns for braid), which is nice because the FG is a mental beating to tie when I'm out fishing, and FG seems to have a lot of ways to get wrong especially with tiny line. Anyway, I really like the braid visibility, knowing where it'll break when I get hung, with very low visibility at the lure.

Ok @Quarry Man I'll break something down for you that took me till I was about 35 to learn. I never understood why people wanted to talk about the weather (umm yeap, have windows) or a game (wasn't in it, don't care). A close cousin to what @Sam had to say is this: people may be looking for a way to relate to you. If you are the fishing kid, people are going to assume you like fishing. And may try to connect with you by whatever they happen to know about fishing. Not all communication is about information or transferring ideas or relating an event, some of it is about building relationships, or maintaining them. You know that story your grandpa is telling for the 15th time? It's not about the story. It's about the connection. Maybe try and move them from a technical thing like baits and reels - ask them if they have any good/favorite memories of fishing... now they can share a story, and you can live in their story for a few moments.

One of the things I'm taking away from this is that 'low action beaver A' and 'low action beaver b' are likely not as different as senko vs knockoff, at least in the middle, but maybe a little different out on the heavy (yamamoto) or light (zman) end for fall rate. And that difference doesn't matter nearly as much as action level. Am I getting that correctly?

For me it is quiet water entry when pitching. Accuracy is good enough, but it lands like I chucked a rock up in the air. More time will probably fix it. And it is a priority for me since because of BR I've gained this love for getting into the nastiest snaggiest weediest spots that no one would ever want to fish. It literally never would have occurred to me 20 years ago to fish there.

Dang, I'm going to need a sherpa.

As much as I hate the name (SOG Ninja) this bag is perfect so far. Zips most of the way open. Fits 3700 boxes, or can stack 3600 boxes just right sideways, with room for the BPS worm binder mentioned above. About $37.00 Space for 1 thin 3700, 2x3600, 1x BPS worm binder, plus some soft line-through swimbaits in the main pocket, without overpacking it. Sunglass pocket on top (nearly hidden), spike it pocket, drink holder, outside pocket for line, ned kit, spinnerbait box, scale etc. My pliers came with a sheath that clips well on molle. I added two molle pockets on the hidden side, one for jig trailers, one for "whatever I think I'm likely to fish first unless suprised by conditions and whatever I just took off and is waiting to dry" The only thing I'd change at this point is if I found one that had better mesh in the back for breathability/air flow. It'll eventually be lighter, but I'm still exploring which of the many pounds of soft plastics I have a preference for.

I'm noticing I seem to be able to discern which version or flavor of lots of different baits I can/should throw, but the bug/creature world has got me a little confused. And since there's such a difference (apparently) between an actual senko and the knock-offs, it seems like an important line of questions. Some example questions: Is there any difference between a missile baits d-bomb and an RI sweet beaver? I can tell the difference between rage tail and other stuff with big flappy arms but (just as an example) I can't tell the real difference between these two. Oh and the pit boss and the rage structure bug too. When would I throw a yamamoto kreature vs the double tail hula? When would I throw a rage hawg vs a zoom brush hawg? Is a lizard really a lizard presentation, or a slender creature presentation? When should I use something bugg-y vs hawg-y vs craw-y?

I'm in the market for a second pair of sunglasses, specifically for overcast or dawn/dusk. My primary pair are Costa 580p in green, they are amazing. But when the light drops, it's pretty hard to see. I tried a pair of amber KK's since they were only $20. Stunning amount of difference in how deep I (can't) see with them. What color do you recommend for low light/overcast? -These will only be used on the water; I don't care if they are ugly or useless for driving, I do care about being able to see underwater and notice fish. -Slight preference for plastic over glass. -Happy to pay up for good ones. Costa or I've been reading a bunch about Smith (chromapop/ignitor)?

Just got the size zero in. So tiny in person, just perfect for finesse, and double the line strength anyway. I'd try the tactical anglers power clips mentioned above if they had smaller sizes.

Nice! I ordered some, as the 1 size was too big for anything finesse-y, and I mostly don't trust regular clips. The higher quality japanese ones have been fine, but I still cringe flexing that metal.

I only fish two rods, so change-outs are a thing for me. I have them in the smallest (25lbs) and the next to smallest. I just use the smallest, my leader is 15lbs anyway. Medium are too big. Probably 50+ fish in on the experiment, never lost a bait or a fish. I'm nearing being comfy enough with them to pull the split rings off my hardbaits.

Tackle advisors was a big fan of the okuma EPXT-30 Epixor. The size 30 is 41.00 on amazon, 65-70 elsewhere. I bought one and it's been great so far. Seems well built, does what it is supposed to.