For the last year or so  I have been fishing with braided line on my spinning tackle.  My set-up is braid, swivel, fluro, lure.  I use 30lb braid and 12lb fluro (BPS XPS).  Before setting out with my swivel combination, I did a few tests and found that the fluro knot failed at the swivel at between 9 & 10 lbs.  No big surprise.

With the intent of improving my casting accuracy, I decided to eliminate the swivel and tie the two lines directly together.  I figured that this tactic would enable me to get my lure next to the tip of my rod on my casts, and would so improve my accuracy that everyone would be calling me the next KVD, instead of the SOB term that I am much more accustomed to.  But I digress.

With the intent of eliminating the swivel, I used a Uni-to-Uni knot to join the braid to the fluro.  I was very careful tying the knots and even checked them under a magnifying lamp to make sure I had no overlaps on either the fluro or the braid.  I then tested my new knots and after four attempts, found that the fluro knots all failed at around 6.5 to 7 lbs.  Without exception, they all failed directly beneath the braid knot.  Big Surprise.

Thoroughly confused, I started checking the fishing knot sites and found only one reference to the problem I had witnessed.  www.animatedknots.com stated that one can expect a line-to-line knot to support only about 50% of the rated strength of the weaker line.

Can any of you experts out there provide any input on alternate knots that would get me back to the 80% range?

Hey Mike a freind of mine at work uses something called the SURGEONS KNOT Ill see him on Thurs and ask if there is an example on the net

Hey Pal. it's 1:30 in your area.  Go to bed or you will begin to look old and wrinkled like me. Er, I think I'm a little late with that advice.

Muddy, forgot to mention that I've already done a lot of research on knots.  Seems the surgeon's knot is only used on circumcisions these days

Double you braid when you tie the uni. This should stop the braid from cutting the fluro.

Here is a site that may help

http://www.proknot.com/Fishing_Knots/fishing_knots.html

To Muddy - I tried the sugeons knot today and it failed at about 7 lbs also.

To DRat - I tried doubling the braid as you suggested. It worked like a charm!

The knot failed at eleven pounds

Many thanks for the great advice.

Mike

Mike,

The strongest knot to join braid to any leader is opposing nail knots. They are easy to tie with a "knot tyer" tool, even with disobedient hands like you & I have. LOL This knot will not fail, you will break the leader first. It's compact and if you tie it right it slips through the guides easily. Here's link to the tool & knot. I hope this helps.

http://www.tie-fast.com/Knot%20Tyer.htm

Ronnie

Thanks Ronnie. I had planned on picking up one of those little jewels the next time I was at BPS, which will be this week-end. Their auto-inflate life vests are going on sale at $40-$50 off.

Disobedient hands. I like that term. It sounds so much more sophisticated than the other terms we have used about our respective disadvantages.

BTW, if I told you how long it took me to conduct my half dozen knot tests you would crack up. Let's just say that I would have missed a re-run of Gone With the Wind.

Mike,

The strongest knot to join braid to any leader is opposing nail knots. They are easy to tie with a "knot tyer" tool, even with disobedient hands like you & I have. LOL This knot will not fail, you will break the leader first. It's compact and if you tie it right it slips through the guides easily. Here's link to the tool & knot. I hope this helps.

http://www.tie-fast.com/Knot%20Tyer.htm

Ronnie

Per the request of people on this site I've started using this knot and it's great.  Just yesterday I was casting and my braid had a wind knot and snapped.  The braid itself snapped before the knot did, and I was impressed.  I was using 30lb braid with 20lb fluro leader.  I've gotten really good tying this knot just by using a small piece of a drinking straw about 1.5 inches long.

I'm trying to figure out the best fluoro-to-braid knot myself. Just exactly what is meant by doubling the braided line? Do you mean double the number of wraps as suggested by http://www.proknot.com/Fishing_Knots/fishing_knots.html, or do you mean make a large loop in the braided line that you then treat as one line when you tie the knot - which leaves you with 4 tag ends instead of 2?

Also Mike, exactly what do you use to measure the breaking strength of your knots? Do you have some scales that keep up with the highest recorded pull/weight or do you just keep an eye on your scales while you pull to see where it is when the knot breaks? I would like to be able to do these kinds of tests myself but currently am limited to tying a different type of knot one each end of my test line and see which one breaks first.

Also have you tried the Albright knot? Just curios as to how it compared if you tried it.

Thanks,

Kelby