Using snap swivels for convenience

[throttleplate]

vmc touch-loks, use them on every lure. After weeks of use the black nickel finish may wear off and then they are shiny stainless steel.

If you dont like the stainless look on your line you can use them as earings if you have pierced ears.

[Koz]

Never swivels, but I do use the VMC Touch-Lok snaps on some gear. As others have mentioned, you can swap out baits quicker and it can be a pain to  tie off fishing from a kayak.

 

All of my rod holders in my kayak are behind my seat, so to tie off I either have to stand the rod up and lean it against me or lay the rod down. Both of those options are cumbersome. What I will probably do is add a rod holder to the rail, specifically to hold a rod to tie off baits. The drawback is that my kayak is getting pretty crowded with stuff lately.

 

That being said, I am making a concerted effort to tie directly this year to see if I notice any difference in bait action or catch rates.

[fin]

8 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I have had one of the Norman's speed clips fail on me though. 

 

I've had situations where I thought I had it clipped all the way, but I actually hadn't slid it around far enough, and I fished with it and didn't notice until I went to change lures. I've been using them (the small ones) for years, so I'm curious how yours failed. Did it fail by bending out or what?

[MickD]

15 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I have nothing against snaps.

Just find that I don't need them.

 

A-Jay

I see you have been robbing banks again, A-Jay.

[Captain Phil]

When I was guiding for a living, I frequently had customers show up at my boat with huge snap swivels tied on their line.  Often they had a plastic worm dangling off the swivel.  I was being paid to catch fish, so my guide trips frequently turned into knot tying lessons. Other times, anglers would have their reels spooled with hideous braided line so thick you could pull a boat with it.  I was being paid to catch fish, so I would give them one of my outfits to use. 

 

If you want to catch more bass, your job is to make your bait look as much like natural bass food as possible. Worms, amphibians, eels and aquatic creatures don't have metal clips on their heads.  They glide through the water effortlessly or root for food on the bottom.  The ultimate soft bait presentation is weightless. Nothing looks as natural in the water.  This is why a wacky rig is so deadly.  Heavy buoyant line keeps your lure from falling naturally, not to mention the visibility factor.   If you want to catch more bass, go finesse.  Big bass bite lures for reasons other than hunger, but that's another story altogether.

 

I am not on this forum to argue, disprove something or promote anything.  I have been fishing for bass for over 60 years.  Fifty of those years I have been fishing tournaments against some of the best fisherman of that time.  I learned from the best of the best and won my share of those tournaments.  I have never seen a bass tournament won by someone using a snap swivel to attach his/her bait.  I see no problem with using tiny clips if you must.

[A-Jay]

3 minutes ago, MickD said:

I see you have been robbing banks again, A-Jay.

 

More of a 7-Eleven guy ~

A single haul isn't a fruitful but there's more of them.

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

50 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

If you want to catch more bass, your job is to make your bait look as much like natural bass food as possible. The ultimate soft bait presentation is weightless. 

 

I have never seen a bass tournament won by someone using a snap swivel to attach his/her bait.  

 

                                   

[tander]

7 hours ago, schplurg said:

 

 

Sometimes getting a crank hooked up to a snap takes longer than tying (trying to get the danged thing into the split ring that won't cooperate).

 

Try Tactical Anglers clips. I can take off a lure and put another on in 6-7 seconds

[MickD]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

 

More of a 7-Eleven guy ~

A single haul isn't a fruitful but there's more of them.

A-Jay

When do you think your soft water season will start?  I'm thinking mid April for Sag Bay.  

[A-Jay]

3 minutes ago, MickD said:

When do you think your soft water season will start?  I'm thinking mid April for Sag Bay.  

I was hoping for next week but it's looking more like a week or so beyond that.

A-Jay

[scaleface]

19 hours ago, BassSteve said:

Do you guys use snap swivels for easy lure swap out, or specific reasons/presentations?

No

 

[Dogface]

1 hour ago, tander said:

 

Try Tactical Anglers clips. I can take off a lure and put another on in 6-7 seconds

 

I use them on the heavy stuff for pike and musky. At first I fumbled with them but after time I learned to use them and they have been great. 

 

I also use the Mustad Fastach Clip sometimes. It is not easy to use with all baits but is quick and easy to change baits. 

[collards]

I am pretty much blind (total in left eye) and I am paralyzed in my right hand. They are a God send as I have a hard time seeing and tying. I take several rods so if I snap a line I can somewhat (not always) quickly change. I still catch lots of fish and these allows me to actually fish as sometimes it takes 15 minutes or so to tie. I also use a spincaster too as I can move my thumb some. I use the bullet and the omega pro from Zebco. I have over 15 of them set up. I like them a lot as i am not into being the super pro as I love to fish. I also do bank fishing as I have a giant chair and I am not allow to drive a car or a boat. But I do catch fish.

 

[Bass Rutten]

Another tactical angler clip fan here. All my cranking rods and a swimbait rod sport them.

[padlin]

I see a good number of folks using snaps, but not swivels, why no swivels?

[fin]

1 minute ago, padlin said:

why no swivels?

I think a better question is, why swivels?

[throttleplate]

33 minutes ago, fin said:

I think a better question is, why swivels?

every snelled hook or snelled leader i make has a spro barrel swivel #8. Why? so i can quickley attach it to my braid mainline touch-lok clip.

[QED]

1 hour ago, fin said:

I think a better question is, why swivels?

 

Exactly.  Extra hardware and mass which may affect lure action and be visible to the fish.  For inline spinners. small ball bearing swivels make sense.

[the reel ess]

13 hours ago, fin said:

 

I've had situations where I thought I had it clipped all the way, but I actually hadn't slid it around far enough, and I fished with it and didn't notice until I went to change lures. I've been using them (the small ones) for years, so I'm curious how yours failed. Did it fail by bending out or what?

It could certainly happen. I don't prefer to use them with braid. The braid knot is slicker than a mono knot. But the ones I use are so tight I think it would be difficult to lose the lure. Also I use 15# Berkley Big Game mono, which ties a pretty fat, tight know.

[Jaderose]

On 4/1/2022 at 9:22 PM, the reel ess said:

I have had one of the Norman's speed clips fail on me though. 

I hate those darn things.  My sausage fingers coupled with increasingly poor eyesight make those useless to me.

[Bird]

I've had a speed clip failure on a really nice Bass. 

During the fight, Spinnerbait worked it's way out of the clip as I was attempting to net fish.

 

I mostly direct tie these days but do have a jerkbait setup that I use these without a failure. They are tiny, have a 50# rating and do not compromise the baits action.

[BassSteve]

1 hour ago, Bird said:

I've had a speed clip failure on a really nice Bass. 

During the fight, Spinnerbait worked it's way out of the clip as I was attempting to net fish.

 

I mostly direct tie these days but do have a jerkbait setup that I use these without a failure. They are tiny, have a 50# rating and do not compromise the baits action.

Yes i purchased these yesterday by vmc, at first they seem like they might be a pain to use but I was surprised to find it's easy to open them up and close ?

[billmac]

I too have always avoided snap swivels, but honestly, having seen the Tokyo rig, I'm not convinced that extra hardware scares the fish away.  If it is interfering with the action, that's one thing. But a little extra bling probably isn't hurting anything.

[BassSteve]

28 minutes ago, billmac said:

I too have always avoided snap swivels, but honestly, having seen the Tokyo rig, I'm not convinced that extra hardware scares the fish away.  If it is interfering with the action, that's one thing. But a little extra bling probably isn't hurting anything.

Yeah I agree with that 

[the reel ess]

13 hours ago, Jaderose said:

I hate those darn things.  My sausage fingers coupled with increasingly poor eyesight make those useless to me.

I had one come apart as I was about to land my second 4+ pounder of the day.

 

I bought some Orvis polarized glasses with 1.5X readers a few years ago. They help immensely with knots and snaps.