MT, Thanks so much!  A wealth of knowledge from both you and Jaximus! I cut and pasted this entire thread into a Word doc for my reference as I'll need it all to refer back to as I get a little more experience with these techniques. Good line pound test and knot advice too (took me 20 minutes to google 'gryp knot' -- never heard of that one :) ). Tie fast looks like a handy little gadget too :) Thanks again!