I got tired of losing expensive lures through braid snap-offs mid-cast. Leader knots in braid are notoriously fickle, especially in the thinner braids, so I learnt about this method of using a Braid leader on my spinning setups from some of the KZN spinning pro's.
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The idea is to have a 4m Braid leader (on a 10ft rod); [7m leader on a 13ft rod]; that is much stronger than the Mainline braid. This is wrapped round the spool a few turns, so that one casts off the much stronger braid. It also provides better abrasion resistance than the thinner mainline braid and saves a fortune on lures.
I've been using this setup for a few trips now and I'm sold on it.
On my 20 and 30lb mainline braid setups, I use 50lb Braid leader, 4m on a 10-11ft rod.
On the 50lb Braid mainline setups, I use 80-100lb Braid leader, 7-8m on a 13-14ft rod.
There are a number of variations in this setup.
1. Bimini mainline braid, Bimini Braid leader, join with a CatsPaw.
2. Stitch the Mainline braid into the Leader with 14 stitches, and the same with the Leader into the mainline - 14 stitches. This is fine to do at home, but impossible on the beach. This is first prize and the strongest way.
3. The way I do it - which can be easily accomplished at the beach. Make a few Braid stitched leaders at home and keep them in your tackle box.
Bimini the Mainline. Join the Loop of the Braid stitched leader to the mainline Bimini loop with a Modified CatsPaw knot, takes 1 minute on the beach.
All Braid knots will decrease the strength of the braid, sometimes by up to 40%, so the less knots in Braid the better. Enter the Braid Stitch, which is essentially a Tanaka's loop, which works through the principle of a Chinese Cuff - no loss of strength through the braid, a 100% knot. So we use this where we can.
Best is to Braid stitch the end of the Mainline into the leader, and then leader into the mainline. This is fine because you can do this at home. Problem comes when you need to replace your Braid leader on the beach - there is no way you can stitch braid at the beach! So, we make a few Braid stitched leaders at home and keep them in your bag.
So we do a Bimini in the Mainline, joined to the Stitched leader with a Mod CatsPaw.
How to make a Braid stitch loop -
http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=74.0This is what it looks like... a 4m Casting Braid leader
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Next step is to do a Bimini double in the mainline -
http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=66.0Now you can join the Loop in the mainline to the loop in the leader with a Modified CatsPaw -
http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=71.0Once joined, then you can join the Braid leader to a 1m Fluorocarbon leader with the 7turn Uni/Fig 8 knot -
http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=73.0Or you can use the PR Knot, or the FG Knot, which is becoming very popular.
This is what you'll have:
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Bimini in the mainline - as you can see, the knot is tiny and perfectly castable through the guides.
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The 2 different setups:
1. STITCH MAINLINE DIRECTLY INTO BRAID LEADER
2. BIMINI MAINLINE WITH BRAID STITCHED LEADER
Hope this helps someone as much as it did me... changed my whole spinning experience!
Here's the Video...
Make a Casting Braid leader
