snap swivel

[Trevor Williams]

Has anybody tried these as a connection between leader and popper?. Seems like a quick and easy way to change popper if you need to. Is it too much weight at the front of the popper.

[Brandon Khoo]

Trevor, the reason most pepole don't use snap swivels is because there have been very few, if any, on the market that have been strong enough. I think most of us have found the connection via a split ring to be an easy, strong and very reliable connection.

I have seen the one you have posted but have not used it myself. I must admit that it does look very strong but I see no reason to change what I am currently using.

[Greg Burt]

They are a good strong connection for Gamefishing, but would be a bit suss on popping and jigging as they may open up when not under tension.

[Jon Li]

In my observation , barrel swivel is a better than ball bearing swivel when comes to GT popping using non stretch PE line and the snap is another component to fail and I will never use one .

I use solid ring to splitring to eyelet of the lure connections exclusively to facilitate easy lure changing but if I am not thinking of changing lure due to having more than 1 rod , i just tie the leader directly to the eyelet of the lure .

Jon . 

[Peter Childs]

In my observation , barrel swivel is a better than ball bearing swivel when comes to GT popping using non stretch PE line and the snap is another component to fail and I will never use one .

I use solid ring to splitring to eyelet of the lure connections exclusively to facilitate easy lure changing but if I am not thinking of changing lure due to having more than 1 rod , i just tie the leader directly to the eyelet of the lure .

Jon . 

Jon

Do you use a rigid knot like a uni or a loop knot for this connection?  How does the knot affect the poppers action?

Peter

[Trevor Williams]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've got a pretty good set of split ring pliers that I use for jigging and it is quick and easy to change lures so I guess I too will stick with what I know works.

[Daniel Latif]

99% of my fishing is made up of gamefishing, the Momoi escape proof swivels in question have a pretty bad reputation of opening for no reason, hence no one really uses them over a regular snap.  I cant say whether it would be too much weight at the front of a popper, but if you buy a quality snap swivel then I doubt very very much they would open up, at least they dont on 1000lb blacks in Cairns

The Sampo tournament Snap Swivels are the best you can buy, the heaviest is rated to 300lb so I doubt it will fail you if you choose to go for a snapn rather than a solid ring.....only thing is the Sampos will cost you about $9 each.

[Jon Li]

In my observation , barrel swivel is a better than ball bearing swivel when comes to GT popping using non stretch PE line and the snap is another component to fail and I will never use one .

I use solid ring to splitring to eyelet of the lure connections exclusively to facilitate easy lure changing but if I am not thinking of changing lure due to having more than 1 rod , i just tie the leader directly to the eyelet of the lure .

Jon . 

Jon

Do you use a rigid knot like a uni or a loop knot for this connection?  How does the knot affect the poppers action?

Peter

Hi Trev ,

Uni knot will work to the eyelet of the lure or to the solid ring , I have never seen a knot affects the popper action and if it does , I am not aware of it .

Jon .

[Jon Li]

at least they dont on 1000lb blacks in Cairns

In black marlin fishing one uses mono which will stretch some 30% + before breaking , in GT fishing one uses PE line which has not much stretch at all , the impact from a strike from big GT is far greater .

I have seen Sampo ballbearing swivels obliterated upon strike by GTs in Komodo and there are cases of 290 lbs. barrel swivel on the lure that met the same fate . As for snap connected to the eyelet of the lure , it will open up if a fish strike the lure at the approximate areas of the head which GT and other predators tends to do .

Jon .

[Travis Heaps]

In my observation , barrel swivel is a better than ball bearing swivel when comes to GT popping using non stretch PE line and the snap is another component to fail and I will never use one .

I use solid ring to splitring to eyelet of the lure connections exclusively to facilitate easy lure changing but if I am not thinking of changing lure due to having more than 1 rod , i just tie the leader directly to the eyelet of the lure .

Jon . 

Jon - what is the reason you prefer the barrel swivel to the ball bearing swivel?  I've been using Owner Taff Jig Spin size 3 and 5 ball bearing swivels on my twisted leaders and haven't had any trouble with them - but I don't get to test them all that rigourously.  I have noticed that a lot of lures come with large ball bearing swivels however.  Thanks.

[Jon Li]

Hi Trav ,

Ball bearing swivel is used mainly to avoid the line twist caused by lures spinning on it's axis , I see no reason to use ball bearing swivel which is far more expensive to start with while the more reasonable barrel swivel can do the job .

Good quality ball bearing swivels are many more times dearer than good quality barrel swivels , lures that use cheap ball bearing swivels may not stand up when used with tackle used with high drag setting .

Jon .

[MikeOsborn]

Trevor, we had one of these set up on the pitch bait rod this year and it worked fine twice but failed miserably once when the bait was pitched but kept on going minus the windon leader it should have been attached to? with no tension on it most of the day it must have somehow opened when the rod and bait were picked up. because of this we went back to the sampo's.
Did go-fish try and sell you some? they got me:D

[AustralianAngling]

In black marlin fishing one uses mono which will stretch some 30% + before breaking , in GT fishing one uses PE line which has not much stretch at all , the impact from a strike from big GT is far greater .

I am afraid not many of us still use Dacron and you have abviously not caught many big Marlin in the 800lb plus class like we do in Cairns every year. I have seen several broken swivels over the years including a few when crew are wiring the fish crew wrapped up on 600lb leader or doubble twisted 400lb wire.
I have never seen any GT come close to breaking a quality swivel in over 15 years of charter work.

Attached pic are double ball bearing swivel
#6 @ 130kg - #7 @ 145kg - #8 @ 180kg - #9 @ 250kg

[Trevor Williams]

Trevor, we had one of these set up on the pitch bait rod this year and it worked fine twice but failed miserably once when the bait was pitched but kept on going minus the windon leader it should have been attached to? with no tension on it most of the day it must have somehow opened when the rod and bait were picked up. because of this we went back to the sampo's.
Did go-fish try and sell you some? they got me:D

No they didn't catch me on this item -thought I'd get some feedback first. Just as well I did.