I see of lot of you guys on both boards are fans of bead chains. Has anyone ever had a bead chain failure while fighting a big fish? I remember someone posting that he had a barrel swivel failure once and decided to go to 200# barrels on his K-16's. I know chains come in different lengths (4 bead, 6 bead, etc), but do they come in different "tests" like swivels?

I remember as a kid plunking eggs from the bank for silvers at Eagle Rock (Kenai) when the bead chain on a banana weight came apart during the fight.... and that was only 10-12# test! I swore never to use a bead chain "in-line" ever again.... from then on we rigged that type of sinker free-sliding. That was almost 30 yrs ago.

Time has a way of helping you to forget, though, since the past few years I've been using chains "in-line" again for salmon in the bay/ocean here in Washington.