Few Questions About Swivels.(When To Use And When Not To?)

[Pat3697]

For whatever reason whenever I tie on a hook or lure I tend to

put a swivel on there first. Does this affect the fishing? am I suppose to

put a swivel on with lets say...a rapala countdown? or a mepps mino?

 

any incite would be appreciated thanks a lot !

[moguy1973]

I personally use snaps on all my lures, doesn't matter what they are.  There are a lot of people on here that say that it's sacrilege and you won't catch any fish doing it that way, or that you'll lose sensitivity between you and the bait, but I've never had any problems with catching fish using snaps...It does allow me to change lures a lot faster without having to retie every time though.

[Pat3697]

^ thanks for the input..ya that's exactly the reason why I use the snaps ..because its a lot easier to go from lure to lure ..Thanks again.

[bigbill]

I use the ball bearing locking snap swivels on all my topwater, crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, inline spinners and spinflys. The ball bearing swivel allows the lure to swing left and right much in a much smoother side to side action. It gives it more movement too at no extra cost. I do use different sizes of the ball bearing locking snap swivels too.

I use the standard locking snap swivels on my plastics rod setup. This allows me to go from a split shot leader, to a Carolina rig in seconds without the hassle of tying. I use a locking snap swivel on the rod and on the end of my leader and rig. I have hooks already in my plastics ready to be put on by a snap.

I have a hard time tying knots in the daylight and forget tying knots in the dark when fishing at night.

Since using the snap swivels it increases the side to side movements of my crankbaits plus the free smoother action actually increases my catch. I use the spinnerbaits mainly with the closed loop eye too. Mann's classic and the smaller strike king mini and micro spinnerbaits have them.

Wether you use them it's up to you.

[Pat3697]

thanks a lot bill..great incite.. just had a bad day fishing last Friday ..I think at this point I am just second guessing my method. anyways thanks again helps a lot.

[Bankbeater]

Years ago I used snaps and swivels all of the time.  Now I have gotten to the point where I tie everything.  I have had too many snaps and swivels break and I got tired of losing fish.

[Pat3697]

^ thanks for input appreciate it.. My whole thing is when im trout fishing ...are my swivels spooking the fish? like I said..probably just second guessing myself since I had a bad weekend of fishing haha

[tholmes]

The only time I use swivels is on spoons and some large inline spinners. Always ball bearing swivels, no snaps. The snap, at least in my case, just seems to catch a lot of weeds and junk.

 

Tom

[MikeinFresno]

I use them often, but if the water has lots of water plants you will get it stuck on the snap more easily than just tying on direct. Swivel doesnt seem to do this by itself.

[Long Mike]

I have a condition called Essential Tremors, which means that my hands shake.  On my mistake days, trying to tie a knot as simple as a Palomar is all but impossible for me.  For that reason, I use snaps on all of my bass fishing gear, and have not noticed any change in my catch ratio.

[Fishes in trees]

I'll use a ball bearing swivel on Carolina rigs & jigging spoons, like a Dixie Jet.  Not a big fan of snaps of any sort and as long as I can tie a decent knot, I probably won't be.  With my stubby little fingers, I find it  harder to close the snap than it is to tie a knot anyway.

[Loop_Dad]

This topic comes up time to time.

 

I use snaps often because I rotate baits frequently. I find this is especially useful when you are fishing from a bank with one or two rods available. Less important factor when I am fishing from a boat with 5-7 rods available.

 

For the concern about breakage, I have experienced some snap breakage. They were on some no-brand cheap stuff. I did my own test and lock snap is the best combination of ease of use and strength. With this I have confidence that my hook bends open before my snap breaks, even with 3x strength puddle tail swim bait hooks, which I did a couple days ago.

 

For the concern about loosing sensitivity, I don't see that myself.

 

Getting extra weeds is a negative in certain case.

 

I use the ball bearing locking snap swivels on all my topwater, crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, inline spinners and spinflys. The ball bearing swivel allows the lure to swing left and right much in a much smoother side to side action. It gives it more movement too at no extra cost. I do use different sizes of the ball bearing locking snap swivels too.

I use the standard locking snap swivels on my plastics rod setup. This allows me to go from a split shot leader, to a Carolina rig in seconds without the hassle of tying. I use a locking snap swivel on the rod and on the end of my leader and rig. I have hooks already in my plastics ready to be put on by a snap.

I have a hard time tying knots in the daylight and forget tying knots in the dark when fishing at night.

Since using the snap swivels it increases the side to side movements of my crankbaits plus the free smoother action actually increases my catch. I use the spinnerbaits mainly with the closed loop eye too. Mann's classic and the smaller strike king mini and micro spinnerbaits have them.

Wether you use them it's up to you.

 

Bill, I'm curious how that work...so you have main line > snap swivel> intermediate line with weight > another swivel > leader > hook & worm, something like that?

[moguy1973]

^ thanks for input appreciate it.. My whole thing is when im trout fishing ...are my swivels spooking the fish? like I said..probably just second guessing myself since I had a bad weekend of fishing haha

 

Trout fishing is a different beast.  I tie direct for all my trout fishing because of that reason.  The baits/lures are a lot smaller (esp files) and they need to have a lot more natural movement without a clip/swivel getting in the way or weighing them down.

[WRB]

The basic rule with lures is use them the way the manufacturer recommends, they want you to catch fish with that lure.

Bass fishing I can't remember using a snap swivel for any lure or rig. I use Berkely Cross Loc snaps,black, size 3, for crank baits, spoons and hard swimbaits. I don't like inline swivel rigs and only use a swivel if there isn't any other option to reduce line twist.

Tom

[SirSnookalot]

For whatever reason whenever I tie on a hook or lure I tend to

put a swivel on there first. Does this affect the fishing? am I suppose to

put a swivel on with lets say...a rapala countdown? or a mepps mino?

 

any incite would be appreciated thanks a lot !

For the record there is a difference between a swivel and a snap swivel used to attach lures.  For maybe 90% of the species of fish it probably doesn't matter, I find snap swivels to have an awkward look, don't care for it.  For freshwater fishing, mainly LMB, I'll use a duolock snap (not a snap swivel), no better no worse than other brands.  I use swivels as line connectors for my leaders nearly 100% of the time, the exceptions are certain species that will attack a swivel as readily as a lure, then I tie line to line.  The only reason I use a duolock is to conserve my leader as I carry 1 rod and 2-4 lures and no other tackle with me, I can tie a loopknot very quickly, which is what I use for saltwater.

[CTGalloway21]

I never use swivels.  Tying a knot takes 2 seconds and it always doesn't hurt to retie every know and then.  Only time I use snap swivels is on A-rigs.  

[bigbill]

On my plastics rod on the main line I have a standard locking snap swivel.

On my carolina rig I have a swivel at the top, the weight is between beads and captured with two carolina keepers. Then at the end of this 24" leader is another locking snap swivel. I have all my plastics pre-rigged with hooks so I can change them out much faster. I carry pre-made up carolina Riggs with different sized weights all on 24" leaders wrapped up neatly in zip loc bags in the bottom of my tackle box. I carry senkos, brushogs, creature baits, minnows, all pre-rigged.

Due to my health my fishing time is limited so I fish as fast as I can. Till the pain gets so bad I need to go home. Someday s it's 30minutes while most of the time it's a few hours.

[.ghoti.]

I use a snap for jerkbaits and some topwaters because I can't seem to tie a decent loop knot.

 

I use a swivel for c-rigs and deep dropshot rigs.

 

I never use a snap-swivel.

[Pat3697]

much thanks to all who responded..def helpful info.

[Smokinal]

I'm "Aaron Martins" anal about my rigging so, obviously, i don't use them. I take that back, I use a plain snap (not a ball bearing swivel, just a snap clip) on my crankbait rod. Everything else gets tied directly. One reason is, when I was younger, i did a lot of brook fishing and would always catch more trout than my 2 buds who used swivels. I always rode them hard about it too but they never changed. Now, as I got more into bass fishing, I would think a swivel would hang up a lot of weeds on a bottom bait. Just my opinion though. Trout are just so wary that I want every advantage to make my bait look as natural as possible.