During my 2018-2019 fishing seasons, I had a big problem.  Almost every trip I was losing gear due to some sort of break off.   I’d hook up on fish and as quick as can be, snap, the fish and my tackle were gone.  I would go to pull a dipsy and in the process of getting the dipsy to release, snap line would break at the dipsy.

Needless to say, I was getting extremely frustrated.  So, me being what I thought of as a reasonably intelligent person, I thought I could figure this problem out.  First, I replaced all the line on all of my reels.  All 3,000+ yards worth of line.  The bulk of which I changed out to Power Pro Braid.  Did it work? Unfortunately, no!

Next, several friends suggested I change my leaders to a better-quality leader.  So I changed to  Seaguar Blue Label Flourocarbon.  Still I was having trouble with break offs.

Finally.  Maybe it’s bad knot tying?  I admit, I was a bit old school and used a modified cinch knot.  So, I researched knots and tried a bunch of different knots.  Still I was experiencing break offs.  

It wasn’t until a late April 2019 trip out of St. Joseph Michigan that I finally got a clue as to what was going on.  I was fishing alone on a cold, blustery spring day.  I tied into my first fish around 8:00 a.m.  a small 8 lb. king.   Around 9:30 a.m.  I tied into a much bigger fish on a high diver, I hadn’t had the fish on for more than a few seconds when snap the fish was gone.  Followed by lots of cursing, of course.   When I brought the line in, I got a little bit of a surprise and a clue.   The swivel had failed.   Within fifteen minutes, another big fish hit.  I grabbed the rod and set the hook.   The line screamed and then snap, again the swivel failed.  Fish gone!  Dipsy, flasher and fly gone too!   Needless to say, there was more cursing.

The two failed swivels cost me at least $62.00 that day.   However, it finally gave me the clue I needed to solve my problem.  While it wasn’t always the swivel that was failing,  it was the swivel that was causing the bulk of my problems.  I had only had the swivels fail twice that I recall, but when I looked closer, I noticed that not only were the swivels not up to the task they were also made of such cheap material that they were actually causing the line to wear at the knot.

It’s easy to forget the lowly swivel.  However, it is a key component in the integrity of your line.  I had spent a lot of money on quality fishing tackle but I skimped on swivels.  Needless to say, I won’t do that again.

There are plenty of good quality swivels out there.  Some of the more common brands are Torpedo Brand Swivels, SPRO Brand Swivels, Owner Brand Swivels, P-Line Brand Swivels and  Dr. Fish Brand Swivels.    Yeah, you’re going to pay a little more for them but in the end, they will save you money in lost gear.  Since started using Dr. Fish Brand Swivels.   But I have to say, since I switched, I haven’t had a break off due to bad swivel.