Braided line question

[Jim]

What is your experience?? Does an unwanted knot in braided line weaken the line strenth like it does in Mono??

Jim

[Paranoid]

I am a confirmed spiderwire fan. I use 80lb for oversized sturgeon and 50lb for salmon trolling. Love it!.....but...I have tried 20lb on casting rods. It worked perfectly for pulling plugs but the terminal knots would not hold on strong hooksets. I broke off two or three fish in a row last year. I tried using mono leader but in low clear conditions 6-8lb leader will not hold with the no-to-low stretch "superlines". Stay away from "Spiderwire supermono".

[Jim]

Paranoid, I am not talking about terminal knots, I have that problem solved....I am talking about a knot mid line somewhere.

Thanks,

Jim

[Snagly]

I've never heard of a wind knot in braid. I have read of flaws in the weaving process leading to bad spots in the line (e.g. Power Pro). There's little doubt that you're going to lose at least 50% of actual line strength if there's an overhand knot in your braid.

Depending on how much line strength you really need, you can re-join your braid in one of two ways:

1. Quick and dirty: back-to-back double Uniknots should be plenty strong (if a bit bulky). I'm guessing that they'll break at 70% or more of actual line strength. Given that Fireline, Spiderline, etc actually break at way more than their advertised strength (to compensate against generally lousy knot strength unless special techniques are used), taking "70% x actual strength" you'll get more or less what's printed on the spool.

2. 100% of line strength preserved: this is time consuming, but it's the only way I know how. Tie short 70-wrap doubles in each end to be joined. Then use a "Cats Paw" connection (essentially doing a loop-to-loop followed by 10 more passes of one mass of line through the other bimini using an in-and-out figure eight). See www.harro.com.au (http://www.harro.com.au) for an illustration, or Geoff Wilson's book on knots for braided lines (orange cover).

I'd imagine you'd want the 100% for sturgeon but probably wouldn't need it for salmon/ steelhead.

[Pitch Pocket]

If you have any knot, wind or otherwise in you main line or leader that is not supposed to be there, you have to either untie it, or cut it out. Not sure how one would get in the main line, but it is where it will break when push comes to shove.

[Nanook]

A "bloodknot" will work, but don't know why you would want to do it. Emergency tuff plus one time for me and it held, but got rid of it next trip.

Rick