Twisted Leaders: Instructions + Diagrams

[Brandon Khoo]

Alan, in territory like you are describing, you are going to get dominated by 20kg GT and absolutely by trout and other reefies under 10kgs. If you land a 40kg GT in that kind of environment, you just got dead lucky!

A twistie made from 200lb mono or a single from 400lb is going to an absolute brute to cast. You are going to get more wind knots than you can poke a stick at.

[Alan Syme]

thanks for your input brandon. great recent articles in bluewater mag by you, good work!

i guess i will just have to keep at it and hope that i get lucky with one of the bigger fish.

cheers

[Brandon Khoo]

Someone might have some better ideas on what to do in this type of situation but I have never found it myself. Shallow water, reef and big GTs are a very nasty combination. I have known of guys in the past who have tried kevlar (yes, kevlar as in assist cord) leaders but they seemed to get hammered like everyone else. I suppose I have found twisted leaders made with a leader like Penn 10X to be a tiny bit more resilient. I have landed fish where one strand of the twisted leader has been snapped but what it then does is wrap around the other strand of the leader.

I think the best way of approaching it in this kind of territory is to try to get on top of the fish as quickly as possible and then just hang on and hope!

[Luke Wyrsta]

Agreed. The next best thing is thread heavy 600lb assist sheath over the nylon.

Alternatively, you can find a sailing/climbing shop and buy ultra-heavy - 1000lb dyneema with core that you could use as a bite leader connected via nail knots. Mind you, given the depth and impossible angles this is probably a fruitless exercise!

[Alan Syme]

good thoughts.

i have been getting the driver to slowly drive off the reef on hook up with the hope of trying to pull the fish towards the deeper dropoff.

on the sub 20kg fish this works if i get the first 10 secs of the fight right, if not it is all over very quick as all they have to do is get their heads down. best fish yet so far using this has been 20kgs, but i have been destroyed by plenty of fish up to 40kg plus.

as has been said, the terrain most definitely favours the fish.

i have been thinking about getting the boat more over, or on top of the fish as you mention as another option.

i should add this location is the ocean reef edge with breaking surf waves also which can get interesting and a watchful experienced boat driver is needed.

in the lagoon there are less gts but there is more of a chance of landing fish. but the fishing on the outside fringing reef is so addictive and adrenaline filled.

thanks again for the good advice.

[Brandon Khoo]

Alan, my only suggestion in this type of environment is that there is no room for slow driving. You either get the boat driver to drive off into deep water as quickly as it possible or you drive over the top of the fish the same way.

The rationale for either driving into deep water or over the top is dictated by the territory and the likelihood of being able to pull the big fish off the reef. If you think you can get the fish into deeper water, then this is preferable but if not, your only choice is to get right over the top of it and chase it like hell.

I have had Damon Olsen from Nomad change tactics on a number of occasions after hooking up. Initially, he's decided to try to drag the fish out but as it has run into even shallower water, he changes tactics to try to get over the top of it instead. The guides from Nomad have been able to land some amazing fish from graveyards in the past. Of course, luck plays a bit part but the boat driver/guide plays a huge part in this.

[Mark Tamim]

Didn't see a response to this gentleman's question... I had the same question.  Youtube has a video by TheRodBaron and he's got a method of tying the main braided line to the twisty leader.  Just curious if any of you have employed this method and if you've encountered any problems.

Thanks!

Have you guys tried his method? Tried it in the shed, and provide the bimini is neat, glides through the guides......

attaching a twisted leader to braid mainline

Cheers,

Pat

[Brandon Khoo]

Mark, there is one way to find out! The primary objective is to get the braid to grab around the twisted leader, not collect at the loop at the bottom. My only reservation with this is that I suspect that under pressure, you are going to find that the long segment which that connection is over is going to bunch up. You can test this quite easily at home to see if that happens. I will test this when I have a moment.

[Mark Tamim]

Mark, there is one way to find out! The primary objective is to get the braid to grab around the twisted leader, not collect at the loop at the bottom. My only reservation with this is that I suspect that under pressure, you are going to find that the long segment which that connection is over is going to bunch up. You can test this quite easily at home to see if that happens. I will test this when I have a moment.

Thx Brandon!  I would really appreciate if u could give it a quick test. I am a little new to this game and am going for my first gt trip in a couple weeks.  Want to make sure all my connections are tip top!  Thx again,
Mark

[Brandon Khoo]

Ok Mark

I have tested it a number of time to a pretty severe level of pressure. What I can say is that based on the little bit of testing I have done, it would not be my preferred connection for a bimimi to a twisted leader and i would recommend you against using it. The problem with this approach to attach a twisted leader is that the pressure is not spread evenly along the full length of the connection. it is focussed at a single point around the twisted leader. I have attached a couple of photos which I hope can show it.

The first photo shows the attachment before any serious pressure is placed on it.

The second photo show the attachment after some really serious pressure has been placed on it. Unfortuntely, the damn thing looks almost exactly the same! What I suspect would happen did not in fact happen. Unfortunately though, what happens is that the bimimi only really tightens around the highest point on the twisted leader. In effect, the rest of the wraps around the twisted leader are pointless. I tried to attach this on a number of occasions to get it to tighten throughout but could not get it to do it nor do i think this is possible the way this attachment is made.

In a lot of ways, this has parallels to people to tie a really long FG knot. It is actually pointless to do so because the FG only tightens against the leader for about 1/5 the length of the FG knot. The rest of the knot hasn't bitten into the mono and is useless.

[Brandon Khoo]

Amr, I atrongly recommend you do not do this when you are attaching a mono loop to a braid loop. The braid loop will cut through the mono loop.

[Tom McCafferty]

This is how I do my twisted leaders and works a treat for me.

[Mark Tamim]

Thanks for the help!  I think I'll stick to the hand-drawn diagram posted on an earlier page of this thread... the one where you wrap the twisty 6 or so times around one side of the loop of the braided main line.  I tried it for the first time last night and it appears to be a tight, compact, snug connection.  Thanks again!

[Brandon Khoo]

Mark, i suggest that is a far better attachment. It's tried and true

[Sami Ghandour]

Ok Mark

I have tested it a number of time to a pretty severe level of pressure. What I can say is that based on the little bit of testing I have done, it would not be my preferred connection for a bimimi to a twisted leader and i would recommend you against using it. The problem with this approach to attach a twisted leader is that the pressure is not spread evenly along the full length of the connection. it is focussed at a single point around the twisted leader. I have attached a couple of photos which I hope can show it.

The first photo shows the attachment before any serious pressure is placed on it.

The second photo show the attachment after some really serious pressure has been placed on it. Unfortuntely, the damn thing looks almost exactly the same! What I suspect would happen did not in fact happen. Unfortunately though, what happens is that the bimimi only really tightens around the highest point on the twisted leader. In effect, the rest of the wraps around the twisted leader are pointless. I tried to attach this on a number of occasions to get it to tighten throughout but could not get it to do it nor do i think this is possible the way this attachment is made.

In a lot of ways, this has parallels to people to tie a really long FG knot. It is actually pointless to do so because the FG only tightens against the leader for about 1/5 the length of the FG knot. The rest of the knot hasn't bitten into the mono and is useless.

Brandon,
Any reason why you did not pick up the slack from the main line when you connected to the twisty?