Heavy Snap Swivels..Pros Cons Discussion

[rarhomes]

Tried 9# once, lost my bowlin pin teasers. They opened up

[Current Affair]

Rite Angler makes an AUSSIE Ball Bearing swivel that is great I use the 400lb or 500lb swivel with no snap on the heavy gear, to eliminate any possibility of a snap failing or opening up. I use a 400lb Rite Angler Ball Bearing Cork Screw for my dredge reels. I use a custom 100LB snap that is Ball Bearing from fishermans center for my tlds and i use a small crock wind on barrel swivel for my tuna rods. All are wind-on leaders.

[Deep C]

Hardware is the weak link in all fishing... I go snapless and swiveless on my light stuff. I have come around to a snap I found at hinches on my medium stuff. Little bugger that a 300 pound rating and I believe it... About the size of a normal sail snap but way way stronger. I believe it was billfisher that made it.
Spro gets my nod on wind on stuff... I use a series of snaps made down here by Bill Copeland for most of my medium heavy to heavy work...

Now not to twist anyones spine, I am NOT a big fan of ball bearing snap swivels... Their rings are too weak and those same rings have in the past screwed me up By allowing the snap to kind of twist and lock in on itself blowing the wholde damn thing up.
I'm also not a fan of way way big heavy snaps.. You know the ones. The size of a small child stuff... They leave a wake and actually have enough weight to disturb how my baits run... I don't see any need for 1000 pound stuff. I don't know too many people who can bust 300 pound test even when double
wrapped much less that.

The corkscrew designs were out there back in the early eighties. World wide sportsman in Islamorada sold em... Lost a bunch of fish to em and vowed never to go back... Black tip sharks roll a lot and they were masters of backing the leader right out...

[Qualifier Chris]

I have also had #9 the escape proof snap swivel open up on me. They are good after you tweak them. Take your crimpers and lightly press on the round groment on them. That will tighten them up. Dont squeeze them too tight with your crimpers or you will never get it open again.

[dunn6253]

Also after sqeezing your Momoi escape proof swivel, don't be scared to add a wrap or two of black electrical tape. Better to be safe then sorry.

[Capt Lindsay]

We use mostly 50# gear when trolling with Strike drags set at 17#.We have found a couple of issues with ball bearing snap swivels. If the snap swivels are too large, they dap the water while trolling and that causes bite offs.

We use Sampo and Spro ball bearing snap swivels. The Spros are much smaller for the same weight class than the Sampos. If we are using 60# Sampos, we have to use heavier Spros or they get stuck in the rod's roller top.

For most trolling, we use 60# or 100# ball bearing snap swivels. The snap snaps onto the end of the leader so the fish seldom gets anywhere near the snap swivel.

We caught a 156" overall length Blue Marlin and plenty or large Yellowfins and Big Eyes and have never had a snap swivel failure while fighting a fish.

[sancocho]

to eliminate any possibility of a snap failing or opening up.

suerte,

[Wireman]

50, 80, and 130 tackle all get leaders crimped directly to a barrel swivel. I use no snap swivels of any sort on 50 lb or higher tackle.

[FESS]

Thanx for adding #'s...great job!

#1...This may be my favorite...Yozuri (ausie) swivel with rite angler short snap.(?)

2...don't know this one at all...looks good. Would prevent snap end from sliding down the main shaft of snap, but looks like it may hang up on the ring(??) and lock to the side, like Deep C mentioned on this or another ref. #. (dbl. welded rings are supposed to prevent this, but not sure on this #2 model).

3...Standard Sampo maybe...snap wire looks a little light, but hard to say without looking at it better. Dbl welded rings.

4...Cross locks (?) with ?? swivel...maybe Sampo(?), who's swivels does Owner use?? Never been a huge fan of this style...maybe on 50 # though.


5...Old school swivel with pigtail/corkscrew style closure. No thanks. Too big a disturbance when trolling.

6...Same ting with Dbl. welded rings on Sampo swivel. Still, no thanks.

7...Same ting with single welded ring (SWR). No thanks.

8...Standard Sampo...dbl. welded rings. I never use black ones. Feel free to ask why.

9...Escape proof, maybe, but have had these open duiring trolling for what reason I'm not sure. No thanks.

10...I think this is the giant version of #9, although the bottom ring looks differant. No thanks.

11...Same as #8, but in SWE...single welded eye. A big no thanks!

12...A la Chunda....what I use for pitch baits. shhh. With wind-on, it's a great thing to grab a hold of right before release or gaffing.

13...If it's Momoi it's gotta be good. What are they saying is stainless steel...the snap or the swivel?

14...Pompanette dwe standard.(?) Long (standard) snap.

15...Not sure here...may be the unlimited ausie with short snap though.

16...Not sure either...Momoi with ?? snap.

The Copeland swivels (fishin stick or something close to that) i used to sell seem to have a backwards snap or lay to the wraps and open wierd to me...maybe they're made by a lefthanded person...and the last little hook that goes around the standing portion of the snap itself always seemed a little short to me and seemed like they may come open easier than most others.

Riteanglers snaps seem like they are made out of a softer stainless than say the Yama variety. I have had one of these snap slide all the way down the standing portion and pinch the mono and break...granted it was a guest wireman (yacht broker) and he got bound up on the wire and could not dump and almost became a member of the underwater wiremans club, but when asked about what happened ther fella....he "ment to do dat"....ok...right. But was interesting to see it slide like that. Riteanglers s.s. has a brushed finish and the yama's have a brighter finish...what the differance actually is I'm not sure....the yama's are a lot harder to open I do know that...and the r.a. snaps are no picnic to open either....the yama is the original x-short sanp i think(??).
Allen

[getreel]

Whether you are direct crimping to a ball bearing swivel or using a BB snap as your terminal gear for main line to leader connection, has anyone experimented with small skirts over this connection to disguise it? I have noticed on very calm days (not common here in the NE) that the swivel connection can cause unwanted surface commotion ahead of the offering while on the troll. The idea of a skirt covering this connection would act as somewhat of a teaser, but also has the potential to act as a lure and get cut off by toothy critters. We do get the occasional Wahoo here in the NE canyons that could be problematic, but is the benefit worth the risk? Given an average leader length of at least eight feet is my norm, would a “teaser” at that distance be of any benefit in the spread? Does anyone have any experience with this and have fish striking this skirt been an issue?