This is the best knot we’ve found for joining a mono leader to main braid reel line. We first came across it when fishing for tarpon in the Florida Keys some years back and it’s proved totally reliable. The knot is compact, strong and passes through the rod ring eye easily.

The Florida Flats fisherman call this knot the “J” knot.

A mono leader on the end of braid needs to be between 25ft and 35ft long. 25ft is ideal for shallow water fishing up to 100ft, but for greater depths use 35ft leader to give a little more stretch to protect light hook holds in bigger fish.

HOW TO TIE THE KNOT

1. Lay the line and leader alongside each other but overlapping by about 15 inches.

2. Keeping the two lines together tie in an overhand knot and pull the full length of the mono leader through the loop.

3. Leaving the loop of the overhand knot still open, pull the ends of both line and leader round and through the bottom of the over-hanging loop, over and back inside the top of the loop, and once more pull the tag ends through the bottom of the loop.

4. Holding both ends of the lines begin to draw the knot slowly together making sure the knot closes evenly with no loose coils. Keeping even tension on both ends helps achieve this.

5. Finally trim the tag ends off tight to the knot.