flyflingerandy1 wrote:
My only issue with the nail knot/perfection PLB is that it hangs in the guides when my leader is longer than my rod.
Yeah, I have the same problem with a nail knot on my 2wt. The tip-top guide is fairly small and a nail-knot hangs up constantly.
I actually learned this trick from Joe Robinson, the super nice Austin Angler/Orvis Austin/ guy (who also gets mention in the
Texas story of one of John Gierach's books). I took some casting lessons from Joe years ago and afterwards he showed me how to create these loops in the line.
Joe, at the time, was cutting the first 35' off his lines and creating one of these loops at the back of the 35' section, which he then used to attach to a loop in the running line that stayed on the reel. Instead of buying extra spools for all of his lines Joe could quickly strip the 35' head off the reel, coil it, and store in a case made for Shooting Heads. He could then put a different line on the same reel using the existing running line. This takes about 5 minutes. Longer than swapping a spool, but a heck of a lot cheaper than buying extra spools if you have several lines (floating/intermediate/sinking) for each line weight.
Most of my lines are now 35-40' heads which attach to a semi-permanent running line on each of my reels. I eventually figured out that the same type of loop on the front of the line works great for looped and furled leaders.
I can understand being wary about messing with the front of an expensive line, but I have yet to screw one up, and it goes through guides easier and picks up less scum in the water than the nail-knotted butt sections I have on some of my heavier lines.