Tying on a lure, to swivel or not to swivel

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Hey everyone, just curious if you guys only tie your spinners and such directly to your line or if you use any sort of a swivel.

I bought a few of the different lures that are well liked in the lures thread and noticed that the Bang Tails seem to have a built in swivel and the Rooster Tails do not. I am wondering if it would be detrimental to the action if I were to tie a swivel to the end of my line before attaching the spiners.

My reasong is two fold, line twist and convienience. By using a swivel with one "clip" end it is obviously much easier to switch to a different color or style, but does it come at the cost of harming the action?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
 
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I use a swivel with a clip most of the time and i catch fish. my lure of choice is the panther martin :D
 
I will say that YES they do make lure changes easier. HOWEVER I would recommend using swivels with lures like spoons since they rotate. Rooster tails have a wire shaft that stays in place while the blades rotate around it so a swivel is not required. I am starting to use another method of a barrel swivel with 2-4 feet of leader going to a spoon or such lure for line twist.. but so far it didn't work out well trolling. I need to put new line on anyhow lol. I will say that i do catch fish regardless of using a snap swivel or not on lures like roostertails. they do make lure changes easier.
 
I get line twist super bad with spinners if I use anything under 12# test. If in doubt, use a swivel as it will save you time and money compared to the alternative of a big ass nasty mess when you get to the point of trying to cast with that fateful little loop that hangs out of sight off the front of your reel, of course due to line twist!
A good rule of thumb: Even if the swivel wire is very small (which is what you *should* be using) it will never break before your line so long as you are using under 10# test or so. You can get different colors but black is never a bad choice.
I actually have used a black barrel swivel about 6 inches up my line to fight twist and have had a lot of trout just NAIL the swivel over the spinner because it looks like a nymph in the water! I used this method because the spinner was so small the smallest clasp swivel was as long as the spinner!
And use the Palomar knot!! Hands down the toughest/fastest knot, especially with swivels!
 
I have always used a snap swivel for 2 primary reasons:

Keep line twist from causing a spider's nest and ruining my day

Easily change to another spoon or spinner, to quickly find what the fish are hitting

My fav's are the Kastmaster, & Little Cleo for spoons and spinners is Rooster Tails

BTW, I use BLACK swivels, but they connect directly to the spoon / spinner being used
 
I do the same as the_intimidator, in that only the spoons/wobblers get a swivel. Obviously I'm not much into convenience :-)
 
I use black lock snap swivels on every thing I throw at them. My size #12 Black swivel is rated 15 lb. strenth. I use black because I feel that the color will not take away from my presentation.;)
 
Fish-On Fred said:
I use black lock snap swivels on every thing I throw at them. My size #12 Black swivel is rated 15 lb. strenth. I use black because I feel that the color will not take away from my presentation.;)
Click to expand...

I just wanted to note.... as above confidence is the key in any set up.
 
It seems no matter what you do your gonna get line twist.
I use the really small P-line locking swivels and they are TOUGH.

If you don't want line twist I'd suggest using small bead chain swivels up your line 1-3ft...
 
I put a sinker above the looped end of my line and then I simply use live bait on a hook with a looped leader. The river conditions tell me short or long leader. I rarely use swivels. In murky water, if I need flash, I use a small spinning blade lure with a clevis. I will sometimes put a very small bead between the hook and the clevis to keep the metal lure up away from the soft bite of the bait. Trout will spit bait out if they chomp on hard metal. However, wedding rings are like drugs to a trout regardless of the fact that the lure pieces are hard. In clear water, I use just a hook with worms or grasshoppers. Why do I use minimalist tackle? Every time I gut a fish, they are filled with food that was presented as just food. If that is what they eat when I am home, that is what I will present when I am hunting them. But I will admit the fish tackle isle has so many sparkling things and I can't resist sparkling things.
 
troutdude said:
I have always used a snap swivel for 2 primary reasons:

Keep line twist from causing a spider's nest and ruining my day

Easily change to another spoon or spinner, to quickly find what the fish are hitting

My fav's are the Kastmaster, & Little Cleo for spoons and spinners is Rooster Tails

BTW, I use BLACK swivels, but they connect directly to the spoon / spinner being used
Click to expand...

So - curious - with your snap swivel on the end of the leader connected directly to the lure, how do you tie the leader to your mainline? Clinch knots on a 2nd swivel? Or just line-to-line with a surgeon's or some other knot?
 
Ya put one on so you can switch from lure to hook
 
Matt G said:
So - curious - with your snap swivel on the end of the leader connected directly to the lure, how do you tie the leader to your mainline? Clinch knots on a 2nd swivel? Or just line-to-line with a surgeon's or some other knot?
Click to expand...


my take on this and im going to hazard a guess this is what trout dude does as well....I run the mainline all the way to a swivel and will go directly from swivel to lure. Like troutdude said its easy to change hardware to find what the fish like.
 
Yep, Intimidator is right.

The main line is attached to the "barrell" connector on one end. So, the snap end is free to change from one lure to another. Easy money.
 
So you guys are using really small main line instead of a leader segment?
 
I can only speak for myself but the pole I am doing this on is a 5' UL Ugly Stick thatis spooled with 4lb. So no need for a leader. If I was doing it on my larger pole I would probably do like you asked about and do a small swivel, then 2' of leader or so, then a snap swivel and then the lure.
 
That makes sense. The rods I use for trouting (when the fly rod is put away) are 6.5' medium all-arounds which I've spooled with 8lb. main line. I then add 2-3' of Maxima Untragreen 4lb. leader. Up to now I've used a swivel at the leader-to-mainline connection and then direct-tied the lures, but I like the quick lure change option especially when I'm with my kids.

So I may start playing with 1) flipping my leaders around, with a snap swivel at the lure end and then directly surgeon-knotting the leader to the mainline, or 2) adding a barrel swivel to the previous option between the leader and mainline, giving me two swivels.

Not sure either setup has significant advantages over the other, or whether 2 swivels is a particularly good or bad idea. But unless there's good reason to do something else I may start playing with option 1 and see how I like it.
 
I use black swivels on overcast days, and gold swivels on sunny days.... and only use mustad.
 
I use swivels frequently.
I have found very few lures that did not work well with a snap swivel.

My favorite blade spinner for trout...and pretty much anything else...matter of fact probably the most fish catching lure in my arsenal ever....is the black body, silver blade, Rooster Tail. I have caught many different species of fish on this lure. So much so, there are three or four of them in each of my tackle boxes.
 
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