Swivels ... how much do they actually help?

[millsboy79]

I was out fishing recently and one of my lures ended up putting some nasty twisting in my line which got me wondering how much worse it would be without the swivel at all.

They were mustad ball bearing swivels (the best ones I could find)

Today I was trying to think how I could easily get the twists out of my line (without a boat) so I thought I would tie a snap swivel to the wall take my rod to the other end of the house and simply run my fingers down the line. Wouldn't you know it the swivel started flying I thought I was a genius. I soon noticed that it only really functioned when there was a little slack in the line. Which never really happens in the water so this brings me to my original question ... how much good do they actually do in real life situations?

20-30% reduction perhaps? Guess it would depend on how big the lures you're throwing.

Just food for thought ... what do you think?

[silverdoctor]

I use braid for everything now, and only ever fish for trout with the flyrod. Swivels do help, especially with the spin on some of the spoons on the market.

[RavYak]

It depends on the lures and your line.

Light test braided lines are bad for twist because they twist with very little effort. I find lighter spinning lures and light braid line to be the hardest to prevent line twist on. With bigger lures and stronger line twist has never been an issue for me.

If you really want to know how much a swivel actually helps just go try fishing without one. Take some spare line with you, you are going to need it lol.

Like you I have had multiple ball bearing swivels that don't work as good as a barrel swivel. Which is odd because the whole thinking behind them is that they are supposed to work better under load. I just think the small size ones are too difficult to manufacture accurately and they just don't work good enough because of it. I use bearing swivels on my light gear now because in my experience they just seem to work better.

If you are using bigger gear like fishing for pike then the ball bearing swivels work good, but use the little bit bigger ones, not the little 30 lbers.

[fluxcore]

I usually put an extra small swivel in between my leader, especially when using a heavy blade lure

[millsboy79]

Some swivels are better than others.

But personally, one swivel in a setup doesn't cut it for line twist....

I have one swivel at the end of the leader, and then on the reel. I terminate the line in the following order: bead, chain swivel, snap

So I always have 2 swivels in the mix, single and a chain.

Chain swivel is really the only swivel that does a decent job of preventing line twist.
During my experiment I thought of the chain swivel so if one swivel is good five MUST be better. So I connected all of the snap swivels from the package in a chain. When I ran my fingers down the line only one of the swivels did anything. In my mind that means that the chain swivel means that you have backups for when one gets grime in it and stops working then there is another to pick up the slack but I don't believe you get "extra" reduction in line twist with the chain you just get more opportunities for the amount of reduction to stay constant.

[wildwoods]

Depends.
Jig goes straight to the braid.
Trolling, swivel 100%

[Travco1]

Always buy the best swivels you can . I find cheaper line twists easier . If spinning reel fishing and you are fighting a fish don't crank the handle while the fish is pulling line off the reel. let them run then reel in . pull up reel down.
I find Maxima is less prone to twisting then some others I'v used.

[halsey]

I always use a ball bearing swivel and a chain swivel when casting metal lures or herring. No serious problems with twist in the main line.

[pinelakeperch]

I simply use swivels to reduce the time between changing lures.

[huntsfurfish]

I simply use swivels to reduce the time between changing lures.

Swivels wont reduce your time changing lures.:);)

[pinelakeperch]

Swivels wont reduce your time changing lures.:);)

Ah, I was referring to snap swivels. I've always simply called them "swivels".