And now back to our regular scheduled programming.........

First off I would like to make a few comments about our previous collection/tagging trip. It was good fishing, we happened to be in the right place at the right time.

When we are on these trips, it gives us a chance to try out different techniques and products. My two new pet peeves have been the non-slip loop knot and the connection between monofiliment to fluorocarbon. Also, we put the screws to Blackwater Shock leader(their saltwater fluorocarbon) to find out exactly how far we could push it. Since we all like to hear about new products or how things withstand true punishment let me approach the latter first.

Short story, Norman and I were honestly impressed with the abrasion resistance and overall strength of the shock leader. I will go on to say, in my opinion, this is by far the best fluorocarbon on the market right now. First thing, the clarity of the material, lay it side by side with ANY other fluorocarbon on the market and you will see how much more clear it is. The shock leader doesn't have that milky or opaque appearance, that right there will give me more when I go to tie a piece on. Next came the big test, I wanted to see just how long one three foot section of 50 pound would last. In one day of very good fishing on Bluefin tuna, in the size range of 12 to 18 pounds with three in the forty pound class I landed 28 fish with only one knot failure. Let me explain further, during these collection trips we really have to pull hard on these fish to get them to the boat in a very short time frame to reduce the amount of lactic acid build up in their muscle tissue. Another thing is that you can't display fish that are scared up from line marks or worn fins etc.. This one piece of fluorocarbon was put through the rigors and I only had to re-tie once! Try this with any other fluoro and you won't get these results, this test was a true eye opener everyone onboard Shogun. If this isn't enough, the knot I was using was a perfection loop which is known as an 80% knot at best, but more on this later. Norman also found the same results, with the 50 pound test and the 80 pound material.

Now for the connection between mono and fluoro. There was only one knot that I wanted to try out, that would be the five turn surgeons. Basically an overhand knot passed through five times. It works great, no problems and its easier to tie than the back to back uni. One item of importance when connecting two piece of mono/fluoro together is to match the line diameters as closely as possible. You don't want to be trying to attach 50 pound to 100 pound line, it just won't work, at least not with this knot. Just go with 50 to 50 or 40 to 40. One thing nice about the Blackwater is that it is coming in different sizes, than the old standards, now you can get 35 pound which works great as a leader for the 40 pound.

On to the great debate of the non-slip loop knot. My study was done here in the galley aboard the Shogun. I used Izorline 25 pound test and tied a different non-slip loop knot on to each end, with a 6/0 Mustad 94150 attached, then proceeded to pull in opposite directions until one broke. My real reason for this research was the fact of trying to come up with a 90 to 100 percent non- slip loop knot. After sitting at the table for a couple of hours trying different approaches I came up with something that, as close as I could tell, would be like a Jansik loop which ended beating the others hands down until coming up against the perfection. Now I have alway looked at the perfection as a heavy material knot due it only test 70 or 80 percent of the total lines breaking strength. This may be true, but it ends up being that it is at least as strong as the Jansik loop and most defiantly stronger than the Rapala loop or (I hope I don't get into trouble for this) the nameless knot currently being used by a number of note worther long range fishermen, for now we can call it knot X. Here are my findings:

Jansik loop vs. knot X

Winner-Jansik loop 9-1. knot X broke nine times out of ten.

Jansik loop vs. Rapala loop

Winner-Jansik loop 9-1. Rapala knot broke nine times out of ten.

Jansik loop vs. Perfection loop

Winner- Perfection loop. Sort of. Jansik loop broke 11 out of 21 ones tests, while the perfection only broke 10 of 21.

I say here the Perfection was the winner when really it was a toss up between them. In my mind the positives of the perfection are that it is easy to tie, small, easily adjustable loop size make it an overall better knot.

So in summary I have to admit that these were not controlled circumstances and I did not have a knot testing machine like you see at the Fred Hall show. But, what is happening is the fact of being able to quickly tie these knots and having them with stand true punishment. The five turn surgeons and the Perfection are now my goto knots weather fishing fluoro or not. The attached picture is the one leader that landed 28 BFT in one day only breaking at the perfection loop once at about the sixth or eighth fish.

Hope this helps everyone in landing more fish. See you on the big blue.

Big Fish Happen,

Bruce A. Smith