Slip should have played the lottery the night he got the 40 pounder.
last minute change of spots.
Jig tied directly to the braid , no leader.
first cast in that spot !........BAM
Good thing he was wearing the shorts or he'd have never gotten the lucky horseshoe out of his butt after landing the fish!!
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy though!
Anyway , my honest opinion on canal rigs is that as a beginner you should follow other peoples advice. After you've done it for a fe wseasons , you'll develop your own style and get equipment that best matches up to that style.
JPowers , I still tie the braid right to the leader. no swivel. Only thing that I changed since we played knot tying school under the light at pole 20 about 6 years ago is that i can no longer tie an albright without great difficulty. Stopped being able to cinch them Albrights down properly after I broke my index finger inside the reel spool trying to break free of a bottom snag a few years ago. Sometimes I still do it but mostly now its the opposing uniknots. So now I use opposing uniknots for the braid to my 50 or 60 LB Ande leader and tie a uniknot at the jig.
I still believe the absolute best way is to bimini the leader to the braid and polamar the jig to the leader. No swivels , etc. Drawback there is I'd be breaking off the snags in the braid all night instead of at the jig knot or leader knot. But If were going to hang from an airplane on the rig from 10,000 feet , that's how I'd tie it.
Oh BTW , for those who use the 50 LB spectron. Have you noticed the new "improved" (yeah right!) cortland spectron with the clear plastic fiber running through it now is no where near as good as the old cortland spectron was? Huge difference now in casting and a very big drop in strength/toughness performance. I still use it but as they say "the don't make it like they used to"!