Swivel Or Not

[Adleyfishes]

Do swivels help and are they worth it? And should I use them?

[FLStorm]

Swivels or snap swivels?  I'm not a big fan of snap swivels, but use barrel swivels when fishing unweighted Flukes.

[Scott F]

Not.

[quanjig]

With what type of lure??

[yugrac]

I have used snap swivels for 40 years, I fish a lot of inline spinners, and that helps with line twist, it also makes it much easier to change lures. I usually have at least 6 rods rigged up on deck, It depends on if I have my 105 lb dog with me, she steps on the rods sometimes and I am afraid she will break a tip.  My eyesight at almost 56 years old, and my manual dexterity has suffered much over the last 10 years and its very difficult for me to tie knots, loss of feeling in my hands, and arthritis take there toll, only having to tie one knot at home helps. I was fly fishing a year ago in a small local river and lost my fly, it took me nearly 20 minutes in the water, with a slight breeze to tie a new one on, of course you dont use a snap on a fly rod, but it saves lots of pains with my other gear.

[Neil McCauley]

Nope. Smaller the swivel the less twist it relieves. The bigger the swivel the more it messes up the weight and action of the lure. Most of the time, better off just tying em as well as using multiple rods.

[RoLo]

Virtually Never

There are only 3 situations when I’ll use a swivel:

=> As a stop for a Carolina rig, but I very rarely use a C-rig

=> For spoons that make a full revolution, which calls for a Sampo ball-bearing swivel, but haven't fished one in years.

=> For saltwater 3-way swivels, but that doesn't count

 

Roger

[A-Jay]

Snaps for Jerk Bait season ~

 

Sampo or Spro Ball Bearing swivel for Spoons

 

And I will begrudgingly use a barrel swivel for the Old Ball & Chain (Carolina rig - which I hate)  

 

But if you see me using that one kindly fire up the defibrillator ~ I may not have a pulse.

 

 

A-Jay

[blckshirt98]

I use a swivel but only because I have knot breaking issues between my braid/fluoro connection.  Haven't noticed any downsides to using it, so decide for yourself.

[ThatZX14Fella]

I only have one rod and reel, so it'd be nice to use snap swivels so I can change my baits easier and faster, but I don't want to risk missing fish bites because of it.

[einscodek]

I use snap swivels but you need to modify alil or oull be sorry.. most of the ones sold out there have failed me at one time or another several times costing me a good fish and many lures.

Last year I had a 5 pounder shake free a spro hyper snap swivel purported to be "the best" style.. yea right.. the main arm was still locked but the short arm with the swivel link was somehow shaken free by the beast.. and one last shake saw her and my best spinnerbait drop in the drink with jaws wide open (mine)

[blckshirt98]

I only have one rod and reel, so it'd be nice to use snap swivels so I can change my baits easier and faster, but I don't want to risk missing fish bites because of it.

 

Instead of a snap swivel try using Bill Norman Speed Clips...no swivel failure point and they let you change lures out quickly.

[MickD]

I never use a snap swivel exc when using spoons or trolling lures that might twist the line.  But there are a lot of uses for swivels as has been detailed in previous posts.  I use small snaps with almost all my lures if I want to be able to change without retying.  One thing that works well is to buy the swivels and snaps separately, and if you buy the duo-lock snaps they unlock at both ends and when you want a snap swivel, just add a swivel to your snap.  I do not recommend the old straight wire snaps or the ones with just a little curl on the end of the wire as they fail too frequently.  The cross locks are really good for heavy duty stuff, but you cannot even hook hollow front surface lures to them.  Get a couple for heavy duty and you'll see.  The snaps have pound test ratings, and with duo locks, a 30 pound test is not very big.  I'd get a number of sizes for different uses.

 

If you fish for powerful fish like salmon, pike, or muskies, beware of split ring snaps swivels.  Most just won't take a king salmon strike without failing.  You can get solid ring swivels and they too are sold by pound test.  If you are going for fish like this, get solid ring, ball bearing swivels with cross lock snaps, about 50 pound test.  Even though you may be using only 30 or 40 pound test line, the impact can fail (straighten) the rings without failing the line.

[Shockwave]

Instead of a snap swivel try using Bill Norman Speed Clips...no swivel failure point and they let you change lures out quickly.

 

I'll use a snap swivel when trying to figure out what color lipless crankbait the fish want.  Once I get one narrowed down, I tie directly to the lure.  I'm always pretty nervous about it tho and have been thinking about switching to these speed clips.  

[HoosierHawgs]

Not unless I'm fishing saltwater. Never in fresh water. I don't fish C rigs and I definitely don't fish snaps. If you were walking the bank with only 1 setup, then maybe as a time/line saver. But not worth it to me, I don't change lures often.

[blckshirt98]

I'll use a snap swivel when trying to figure out what color lipless crankbait the fish want.  Once I get one narrowed down, I tie directly to the lure.  I'm always pretty nervous about it tho and have been thinking about switching to these speed clips.  

 

These things will change your life if you switch out lures a lot and don't want to deal with sticky sharp treble hooks poking and sticking to things.  Also saves some line in the long run because you're not always cutting off line as you re-tie.

[SirSnookalot]

A barrel or crane swivel is only a leader connector, they do next to nothing to reduce line twist. Strength is an issue that IMO one should not be concerned with, even small swivels are rated 40 or 50#.  How many fish are that big and can pull out that kind force, not many.

 

I tie line to leader, leader to lure which does keep me from changing my lure too often.

As Rolo mentioned "For spoons that make a full revolution, which calls for a Sampo ball-bearing swivel," I 100% agree.  

Only 2 situations where I use swivels, no snap/swivels, both are saltwater.  Briefly, when drifting offshore having an egg weight sitting on top of a swivel, then attaching a leader to hook is very common set up.  Secondly I use a lure that does constantly rotate, I make the lures with a ball chain swivel the I attach the lure with a 40# BB swivel to my main line.  The smaller swivel incorporated with a different braid I'm using, yields much less line twist than I used to get.  I'm using the same braid (10#) for bass fishing with no swivel and again my line twist has been greatly reduced, I use a lot of in line spinners too.

To answer the question, use a swivel or not, that's a personal decision.