a test

[Tarpon4me]

I actually have a book that has the actual percentage of the tensile strength each knot retains. I'm going to look for it today to eliminate some of the confusion. Knowing what type of knot to use with each different situation, I.E. type of fishing(trolling, bottom, attaching a steel leader to mono, attaching a light tippet to a fly line) and the pound test each knot works best for in each situation can seriously pick up your catch percentage. I'll see if I can't find it and get it on here. You'd be surprised though. The common knots that most people use only retain a max of 75% of the lines breaking strength. I know I always wondered why I got all my line back when i'd get snagged, it was because it was breaking at my knots. However, this isn't such a bad thing either. When you get snagged, 8 times out of 10 you're going to loose the rig anyways. Breaking at the knot saves you a whole lot of line. Imagine fishing in 50 to 60 foot of water and getting stuck on the bottom. Now, your line breaks just on the surface at the lines weakest point since you're using a high quality knot. Three 50+ foot break offs of line and you've got to respool your reel. That can get costly after a while. I'd rather loose just the rig and no line rather than the rig and 1/6 of my line. The trick is to use a knot that has a happy medium, I'd say about 90% retention. Most quality lines, like Ande or Berkely break at a few pounds over what test they are. For instance, say you're using 20 pound test Big Game. That line averages breaking at around 22-24 pounds. You use a knot like a "world's fair knot" which hold's around 90% of the tensile strength. At 90%, it will break right around the lines tensile strength, 20 pounds, maybe a little more. The moral of the story is you're not giving up strength, however, keeping the line on the reel because the knot will break just before the line would.
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