Hello All - am new to this board, so bear with me. For you Steelie plug pullers out there, do you prefer tying a barrel swivel 5-6 ft. up from your plug, or tying your plug directly to your mainline? Thanks for any thoughts.

i will only use a swivel durring fall if the rivers are full of leaves or algea that is getting washed off the rocks. other than that i will never pull plugs with high vis line and those are usually the folks that use a swivel. a swivel provides two more weak links between you and the fish. hope that helps

I always use an appropriately sized duo-lock snap with no swivel. This gives the best action and it's easy to change plugs.

I tie on a size 7 barrel to my hi-vis main line then run a 4' to 5' maxima ultra green extender to a dou-lock plug swivel.I also run a black 5mm bead above the barrel.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I tie directly to a duo lock snap as well, gives good pluf action and only 1 knot can fail.

When using braid, I'll either tie in a 4-5' mono or fluoro leader with uni-knots or use a small swivel, then a duolock snap at the lure. When using mono, it's straight to the duolock.

I like to tie directly to the duosnap. Just like Skydriftin said less nots and don't have to worry about the swivel in the guides.

I have been tying directly to the Duolock as well...but then, being a rookie I don't know any better...

Has anyone lost a fish because that snap broke or bent out? From what I can tell, they are pretty robust...but then again..I have had a couple Chum just thrash standard (locking) swivel snaps.

Mike

Starfish, why do you use a leader?

Skydriftin, I use a leader with braids for a couple of reasons, but all are debatable and you can certainly go without it. I like to use a fairly heavy (20 lb for steelhead and 20 or 30 lb for chinook) mono leader because it tears me up to lose a toothmarked plug. I find that fluoro or good mono in those weights is more resistant to getting cut on a fish's teeth, or from getting caught in the vee of a treble hook, than 30 lb or 50 lb braid. Also, the leader adds a slight amount of shock absorber-- admittedly very slight-- to a system that otherwise isn't very forgiving. And despite the fact that fish aren't all that leader-shy, I feel better knowing that the high-vis line ends before the plug. Finally, the knot or swivel helps keep weeds off the plug.

By using the 30 lb braid and 20 lb leader I find that my plugs run deeper than I used to get running 12 lb mono straight to the plug, and with no stretch I can run them a long way back without adversely impacting rod action or hooksets. I mostly fish bigger water-- Columbia and Snake-- and this rig seems especially effective when flatlining mag warts for chinook. We had several days where we pulled four to six fish among a crowd of a half dozen boats that got one or two hookups total, partly because we're getting a few extra feet of depth and partly because I have some really good plugs (that I can't bear to lose).

I used to run through two or three respools of mono on each of a dozen reels each year. Since I switched to braids for flatlining, I've been two years without losing more than a few yards of line on those rigs (I still use mono for downrigging and chew up a few spools of line that way). I'll start with a 6' leader and occasionally clip it back to retie-- not nearly as often since it's 20 lb instead of 8 or 12 lb-- and when it gets down to 2 or 3 feet I'll clip back a few feet of braid and start over.

In answer to another question about failures of the snaps... I've seen some fish lost on standard snap swivels, but only very rarely on duolocks. The most agonizing was last year during the salmon derby, my 12-year old daughter fought a hawg for about 45 minutes and then the duolock straightened out. My fault, I had left a walleye-sized one on that rig instead of swapping it for the right size. She was a trooper, though... no tears... and half an hour later she hooked up again and landed a smaller one, (only!) 34.84 lbs, good for third place in the derby overall and 1st place for the kids. Good thing, she won a rod to replace the one she broke by high-sticking the 34.84-pounder.