Thanks for all the advice, all. For the record, these were not brand -X bargain chains... they were the Luhr Jensen LUXON chains.

I did not want to trash them all ( I have about 40-50 of them) so I decided to do a stress test on each and every one, including the ones I already tied. I used a pair of my homemade de-hookers and pulled as hard as my bare hands could muster (38-40# on a spring scale).


Bottom line.... the rest of the batch all passed the test. Thanks DriftWood

I did come to an unexpected moment of enlightenment while doing this stress test. While suspending one de-hooker from the bead chain with the other, I gave the bottom one a quick spin.

WOW! Not quite like a ball-bearing swivel, but boy did that thing twirl! Just for comparison, I put one of my premium Berkeley barrel swivels thru the spin test as well. What an absolute dog... the barrel stopped twirling almost immediately. Never realized there was such a marked difference!

Bottom line: Barrels will eventually be retired from troll herring duty. I'll continue to use the chains, but only after they have passed the double de-hooker test prior to tying.