I use a long release, 5 feet total (4 feet of nylon seine twine and a foot of coated steel wire that comes with the Offshore Heavy), but I also use a sensitive slow action graphite rod and Power Pro line. This stuff has no streatch and so telegraphs everything, and I can tell if I have a shaker, or even snag a squid, no prob. I do agree with the long leash/long movement theory, but that's not why I use a long release, it's pretty much for the dual purposes of safety and keeping my lure off the bottom when I ring the dinner bell with the ball.

Now the other DR fishing I do a lot of is for kokanee, and for that I use a short release with the Offshore Light, and 2 pound diameter power pro on a 3 weight soft glass fly rod. I use a 12 inch snubber to connect my release to the ball for this work, because kokes have paper thin mouths and pretty much tear themselves off the hooks before they pull the line off the release unless they are big ones or hit it going away. I use a light 6 inch snubber between the line and the flasher too - even with that soft glass rod kokes can jump around, get violent, and get off. I used this similar release setup for sockeye this year and had an excellent bite to hook up ratio.