I have been tying a alberto knot the last 4-5 years for braid to flouro its great. I cinch the knot good and trim the tags well. The only thing that sucks is when skipping jigs or shorter casts the knot can hang up on the guides and its a pain in the ass! Anyone have any tips?
I finally gave up trying to skip or pitch T rigs and jigs with a leader on my Nrx rods. Now using strait braid or fluorocarbon. Sorry I can’t offer up any other advise.I tried every knot in the book but the rod tip guide always wins.
Using mostly NRX for skipping and pitching also. Yeah its so much better with straight braid or flouro
Got to agree, unfortunately. I use braid with leaders for every thing, but you can't skip with it. I just cut the leaders to about 24" and try to roll cast the braid so the knot doesn't go through the guides. Straight braid if I feel I can get by with it. Just can't fish straight FC or mono.
Skipping is the only place I have trouble. For pitching, I make the leader only long enough to not go in the guides. With a 7'-6 or longer rod, still have a 6" leader. That's plenty.
Rod guides have gotten too small, all in the name of fractions of an ounce weight saved. I wish they made a slightly larger guide designed to funnel a knot through them on a cast.
Hey everyone, there is an aspect to this situation that I've never heard or seen mentioned and that is the angle between the rod and line as you make the cast. If the angle is too sharp the connection knot will hang/catch at the last guide(In this situation we're asking the knot to in effect bend around a corner).
The result is a backlash or at least reduced distance on the cast (don't ask me how I know).
I had/have a bad habit of casting and stopping the rod at a 90 degree angle to the line this is usually when bad things happen. When I do it correctly there is only a slight angle between the rod tip and the line as it passes thru the guides.
Using a connection knot that leaves a clipped line end facing forward will probably add to the problem.
The more forward the rod ends up the fewer problems I have.
Hey everyone, there is an aspect to this situation that I've never heard or seen mentioned and that is the angle between the rod and line as you make the cast. If the angle is too sharp the connection knot will hang/catch at the last guide(In this situation we're asking the knot to in effect bend around a corner).
The result is a backlash or at least reduced distance on the cast (don't ask me how I know).
I had/have a bad habit of casting and stopping the rod at a 90 degree angle to the line this is usually when bad things happen. When I do it correctly there is only a slight angle between the rod tip and the line as it passes thru the guides.
Using a connection knot that leaves a clipped line end facing forward will probably add to the problem, I use a 9 wrap blood knot as recommended by the guys at Tactical Bassin.
The more forward the rod ends up the fewer problems I have.
I'm fortunate enough to have several NRX rods and I fish them all with braid to leader with no problems as long as I do my part.
Well crap, tried to edit and wound up with a double post. My bad.
Maybe im old school but tried the leader thing and always go back to straight braid or mono or floro
I've had better luck with the FG knot passing through narrower guides "better".... Still not fool proof either.
A longer leader is the solution that's worked for me. When you've got enough momentum built up from the bait traveling out, the knot flies through the guides without issue. I usually have a 12-15 foot leader on mine and it works great. Of course this means having the knot on your spool which some people don't like. I've had zero problems with the 40lb J-braid to 16lb Sniper which is my most common casting rod setup, and I use Daiwas with t-wings which supposedly don't play nice with leader knots. I've also done it without issue connecting the same braid to 18lb Shooter. I'm tying Shin Fukae's knot, one I and others have been calling the "Lazy Alberto." It is slightly thinner (and much easier to tie!) than an Alberto, so maybe that helps.
The only situation where I start running into issues getting a knot onto a spool is in my flipping and pitching setup where I'm running braid to a 25 lb Sniper leader. So somewhere between 18lb Shooter and 25 lb Sniper, the leader knot starts becoming a problem for me, but the problem is getting it onto the reel spool, not in going through the guides. In that situation, I make my leader length so that the knot is between my reel and first guide when setting up for a pitch, and have enough momentum built up there to where that knot doesn't catch on its way out. There's also enough room there for several reties. It's really not until the leader knot gets close to the tip (say, past the third guide from the tip) when setting up for a pitch that I start having it want to catch and need to think about retying. The heavier weights used when pitching help with that, I'm sure.
None of this is with "micro" guides, to be fair. Usually I've got ring size 5 runners with a 5.5 ring size tip top, both of which are pretty standard these days.
2011 Skeeter ZX225
225 Yamaha HPDI Series 2
Minn Kota Ultrex 112 52"
Console: HDS 16 Carbon
Bow: HDS 12 Carbon, Solix 12 G2, Mega 360, Garmin 106 SV, LVS 34
I pitch 99% of the time & even though it's clear the lake i fish most isn't extremely clear so i just make a short leader that doesn't go through the guides when pitching & if casting there's enough momentum that it goes easily anyway. Been trying different knots & not going to try the Lefty Kreh leader knot to see how it works.
This is the knot I prefer for today's annoyingly smaller guide trains:
That looked like a knot that I could learn to tie...at least, at home, with my readers on. I'll give it a try! ThanksOriginally Posted by dragon1
Don't bother me, I'm screwing for virginity.
I killed a 12-pack just to watch it die.
I'll have to try that myself.
Looks easy enough. Wonder how easy while on the boat.
Longer leaders help a ton. Most every time I see someone complain about a leader hanging - its either a really poorly tied knot (long tags) or it's a short leader. Go with a leader long enough to wrap around your reel spool a couple times at least and then try seeing if you have issues.
As long as it's not rocking too much, it's not that difficult to tie the Slim Beauty. Also, I take the braid/main line tag end and complete a few overhand knots over the mono tag side to completely cover the small leader protrusion, tighten down more and add a small amount of super glue and roll it as flat and clean as possible with my fingers. Make sure to only use a smidgeon of super glue as you don't want the knot to be overly hard from too much when it dries.
I always tie a leader length that puts the knot in between the reel and first guide. I will give this a try something about the knot being on the spool felt like wearing socks with flip flops
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