Heavy leader to hook?

[Bunnlevel Sharker]

I use uni knots, I tie em in 400lb mono and .080 weed eater line

[Normslanding]

I would like to add a little about knots. There are several strong knots. Some of the strong knots are The Miller, the Double San Diego jamb, and my knot the Spangler knot. The knot that is tied on the strongest piece of line wins the contest. Winning knot contests is not the same as fishing.
There are many factors that make a good fishing knot. Strength, easy to tie, small in size, consistency, reliability are just a few factors that make a good knot. One of the factors that motivated me to tie knots is line size. Most fishing knots do not tie well in line over 60lb. test. My goal was to find a knot for big line. To that end  my knot is a success. It will tie in 400 lb. if you want!
Jeff Burroughs has written his second book on Long Range fishing. The Title is "For the Love of Long Range Sport Fishing San Diego Style". In the book there is great illustration of My good friend Joe Millers knot, the San Diego Jamb knot, and mine, along with a lot of other great reference materials. As technical as many are on this site the book can add a great deal to your fishing.
Ho, and i don't get a kick back from Jeff.

[Bunnlevel Sharker]

The best knot is the knot you can tie waist deep in crashing surf, in the dark, with 20mph wind and rain in your face. That's how a hatteras drum fisher told me, and I followed. Polar or uni. If I can tie any knot, it's a spider hitch/Bimini to palmor

[saltydog]

The best knot I ever used, and I used it to longline for swords and tuna is this one, I was told it was a jam knot and I have never seen one fail. This is 200# mono to a 20/0 circle, it is the way I tie my hooks to all poundages of mono from 6# to 400#. On the lighter lines I use four to five wraps but on 50# and up I use 3 wraps only.

[CapeFish]

This is very similar to our "figure 8" knot we use.

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

san diego jam knot?

[ChileRelleno]

san diego jam knot?

It is close to the San Diego Jam Knot, but not quite, but it is a type of 'Jam' knot.
It is a bit simpler than the SDJK, and I might use it.

[saltydog]

It's what we used on the longline boat I used to work on and as far as I ever saw the only time we ever were missing a hook was from teeth.And it is what I use as my standard knot for all my fishing to this day. It's quick, simple, and strong.

[Bryan Young]

Okay, I need at lease 2 more photos in the step by step.  i just cannot see how it's done/

[erikpowell]

Okay, I need at lease 2 more photos in the step by step.  i just cannot see how it's done/

me too 

[Newell Nut]

Me too. I can't see exactly how you got it. This subject taught me something today anyway. I have always used the uni knot and today I did some test against the SDJK and I was surprised that a smaller knot was stronger than the uni knot.

Show me some more on this one so I can try it.

[ChileRelleno]

Looks like this to me, and I've tied it numerous times now, and it locks in real nice.
Yep, looks a lot like a Figure Eight knot, wish I had a good way to test it's strength.

[Newell Nut]

It is hard for me to change without solid proof so I did a lot of testing this morning. I tied 80 lb mono to my bench vise handle and a foot away was a swivel. Using 40 lb momoi diamond tied to my scale with a SDJK I tested the above knot tied to the swivel. It broke consistently around 28 lb. The uni knot was breaking at 34 lb. and last I tied the SDJK to the swivel and it broke at 45 lb. From this day forward the SDJK is my terminal knot.

Safety note: don't do these test with a hook. I started testing with an 8/0 4x circle hook on my vise with some duct tape on it so it would not fly around on a break. I broke a bunch of knots trying to get all these tied correctly before using the scale. On one of the SDJK knots I gave it a hard pull and it was wrapped around my hand with a heavy glove. There was a break and I felt something hit my hand. My first thought was the 80 lb broke and the swivel hit me. The hook shank snapped and was sticking through the glove between my first two knuckles. Fortunately it did not go deep and only lost a few drops of blood.

[saltydog]

Ok I left out a few steps that weren't too clear, so here it goes.

grab line and hold with fingers this will make your loop.

wrap back around doubled line 3 times



now bring line back up through the loop you created with your fingers, lubricate the line

start to pull tight

sinch knot before pulling tight, on heavier line this will not be so tight

pull down to hook relubricate and sinch down tight and trim

[Newell Nut]

Now it looks just like the SDJK.