Connecting Leader to Line
- This topic has 12 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated May 3, 2007 at 1:51 pm by
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David,
Some of the coatings on newer lines are so slick that they won’t hold a nail knot, and for that reason an Albright is better. Leader splicing kits are available that allow you to run the butt section of the leader through the end of the line. Makes for a nice smooth connection, but its been my experience that this method is better suited for larger lines–like fives and up.
Like Zach, I use Amnesia with a perfection knot in the end for about half of my lines and regular mono for the rest. I also try to match the butt material to the diameter of the fly line to prevent hinging.
Bryan
Hands down the best line to leader knot I’ve ever used. It has a small head and will ease through the guides. I use this on all my rods including the 10wt and I haven’t had one fail yet unless it was a level leader and the perfection loop broke. Nail knots will cut into the line and eventually fail under HEAVY use. By heavy use I mean breaking 20 pound test when it gets hung up deep. Learn this knot and you’ll never again waste a bunch of time messing with some fancy leader to line connection. It looks too good to be true but I’ve tested it many many times and this one passes with flying colors.
The Albright would be my second choice. I use an Albright for baking to line connections and heavy leader to light leader connections
Hands down the best line to leader knot I’ve ever used.
Pretty much looks like a Sheetbend which has been a traditional connection between line of different diameters for centuries. http://www.42brghtn.mistral.co.uk/knots/42ktshtb.html
Hands down the best line to leader knot I’ve ever used. It has a small head and will ease through the guides. I use this on all my rods including the 10wt and I haven’t had one fail yet unless it was a level leader and the perfection loop broke. Nail knots will cut into the line and eventually fail under HEAVY use. By heavy use I mean breaking 20 pound test when it gets hung up deep. Learn this knot and you’ll never again waste a bunch of time messing with some fancy leader to line connection. It looks too good to be true but I’ve tested it many many times and this one passes with flying colors.
The Albright would be my second choice. I use an Albright for baking to line connections and heavy leader to light leader connections
Mike is correct on this. I broke my 350 grain shooting head that had an loop and he showed me the Castwell (which I went home and immediately learned) and it has had no other trouble. If doing it at home and not on the water you may want to super glue the not or some other type of glue so that the connection is sealed. Over time, this knot will continue to tight and lock together, especially after a few hook sets.
I’m not a knot historian so I don’t know who invented it nor do I care, but the castwell .gif is one of the best illustrations of it on the web so far… 😕
Steve that was the factory nail knot on your shooting head that broke. The first thing I do is cut them off my new lines. Glue is not needed for the castwell or whatever you want to call it knot but I guess it won’t hurt anything.
on my trout lines I tie a nail knot with heavy maxima ultragreen, on salmon lines I tie a loop knot at the butt end of the leader then tie a cinch knot with only 2 twists tied to the loop, works like a charm.
Try it and you’ll see it won’t slip. Take a piece of 20# mono or fluro tie a perfection loop in it and then run you fly line in the pattern of the blue line on the illustration. If it slips you tied it wrong…
Here is a quote from the guy who did the illustration. He’s been using it since 1945.
I learned this knot in 1945, I was ten then and with ‘grass-mowing-money,’ bought a used bamboo fly rod. It came with a reel, line, leader container and some flies. Over the years the flies have disappeared, the leader can is gone and a friend borrowed and broke the Granger fly rod into several pieces.
All I have left are fond memories and this knot. It was to tie the very fine end of a SILK fly line to a loop in a gut leader. Since a silk fly line is very small in diameter the resulting connection was hardly noticeable. It would not readily collect stream-born grass and would pass easily through the very small tip-tops and guides used on bamboo rods of that era.
So far, I have not been able to find an original name for it; so after half a century of looking and not finding one, I will put a name on it. The Castwell. I am positive it has another name, but it needs to be named now. In the many years of fly fishing I have shown it to a whole lot of people and none have ever seen it, or anything like it.
It is so devilishly simple it is actually hard to learn and remember. Be very careful to get it exactly right. In my lifetime of fly fishing it has NEVER FAILED. I have, over the years, used other knots for the ‘line-to-leader,’ connection. This remains my personal choice for all size leaders and fly lines. The tippet and leader have always failed and this knot has held. Will this work for the ‘blue-water’ big game stuff? I have no idea. That is a different ball-game.
The ‘Castwell’ uses a very small amount of fly line and can actually be backed off if needed. I cut it off to change a leader. If you change leaders often, you may use it to tie the short leader-loop butt section to your fly line. ~ J. Castwell
I’m not a knot historian so I don’t know who invented it nor do I care, but the castwell .gif is one of the best illustrations of it on the web so far… 😕
Steve that was the factory nail knot on your shooting head that broke. The first thing I do is cut them off my new lines. Glue is not needed for the castwell or whatever you want to call it knot but I guess it won’t hurt anything.
Yeah, I went back and looked at my 250 grain and realized that it was the factory knot that busted. Some sites that talk about it say a dab of glue won’t hurt but not everyone has glue on the water
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