The Skinny On Swivels & Snaps

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Part 2 I’m not the only one who wants you to have the straight skinny on swivels and snaps.

“Who,” you say, “could that possibly be? It sounds like nonsense to me.” Well, it’s not. Think about it for a minute. The owner of the store where you buy your gear wants you to know what you’re doing. And so does the designer of the lure you’ve got hanging out there on the end of your line.

Nobody wants you or me to catch fish more than the guys who make or market the gear we use to catch ‘em with. It’s the only way they’re going to stay in business over the long haul. A beginning angler rarely has all the answers. They are especially unlikely to be knowledgeable about something as seemingly insignificant as swivels or snaps.

When you get a dandy little Mack's Lure Promise Keeper® spinner you'll find it already is equipped with a barrel swivel up front. No need to worry. You can tie direct to the swivel. I like to occasionally use Mack's Lure components to come up wih my own version of the Promise Keeper as you can see at the top of the photo. I'll tie a small barrel snap swivel to the end of line to fish with it. For a number of years when I still lived in Washington State I used to have coffee every morning with a good guy who owned a sporting goods store. Being at that store often provided an opportunity to observe what a customer did with the box or the printed material that came with whatever he’d just purchased. Oftentimes it went into the nearest trash container before the customer even left the store.

What a mistake that was and is. Again---if you want to get satisfactory performance out of whatever tackle you buy, get into the habit of reading and studying every darn thing you can get your hands on that might help.

I’ve been fishing and writing about it as well as demonstrating and showing folks how to use some of it at outdoor shows around a sizeable chunk of the world for a long, long time. This experience provided me the rare good fortune to get to know more than my share of the people involved in tackle building and marketing. Quite often over the years I’ve even had a chance to actually fish with some of them.

Bob Schmidt, the president of Mack’s Lures, provides an excellent example of what I’m talking about. I’ve shared a boat with Bob on a number of occasions. I’m aware of the keen interest he has in all of us knowing more about the products he makes and markets. It’s something we’ve actually discussed on numerous occasions.

Sometimes this can be dynamite for both large and smallmouth bass. I'll tie my line to that barrel swivel you see on the top end of the leader that's attached to the lure.

Have you ever taken time to study the monthly “Mack Attack” publication Bob makes available at no charge to anyone who visits this website?

Every article in this on line presentation is written by experts. Some are written by are men who have designed prize winning baits for Bob’s company. Nobody knows more about getting these products to produce. You’re missing one heck of an opportunity if you fail to take advantage of this information yourself.

A whole lot of folks, as Bob Schmidt will tell you, already have. The number of “Mack Attack” readers has been growing steadily ever since it was introduced. Anglers are learning from it and undoubtedly it’s one of the reasons for the soaring sales of tournament winning Mack’s Lure fish clobbering products. And yes---some of the information in past articles has dealt with swivels and snaps.

In my previous column I mentioned a called a . This lure is probably the single most popular strictly surface lure ever made. It entered the fishing scene before most of those anglers who will be reading this were old enough to do any fishin’. Learn how to really use this old beauty---lots of anglers never do, and you’ll find when conditions are right bass just can’t resist trying to smash her.

In that previous article I also mentioned what a famous bassin’ man from Missouri had to say about attaching a Spook to his line. It was his ability to handle a Spook that had made this guy, his name was Charlie Campbell, known all over the country. And most of this had taken place before professional bass fishing as we know it today had even got going.

I interviewed Campbell once for a national fishing magazine. It didn’t take long when I visited with him to find out how he felt about the use of snaps. “I never tie direct to the Zara Spook,” Charlie told me. “With a Spook I use a stainless steel number two or three interlocking snap. If you don't have a snap, use a split ring, but under no circumstance do you want to tie direct to the lure."

Charlie had another reason for using the snap. Having it there on the end of your line makes changing lures and lure colors so much easier. Just unpin one lure and attach another. You don't have to fool around cutting lines or leaders and retying knots.

“I’ve always felt it’s a major mistake,” Campbell continued, “to keep using the same lure hour after hour if the fish show no interest in it.” If you’ve read my features or columns dealing with bass fishing over the years you already know I share Charlie’s views about those snaps making it easier to change lures.

Many lures do come equipped with a split ring for a line tie. Like Charlie said, you can use the split ring to attach your line if you choose. I don’t. The first thing I do with a new lure so equipped is remove the split ring. I always tie a snap on the end of my line. All I need do when I want to change lures is unsnap the one I have on and replace it with something else. It only takes seconds to do so. No need to worry about snaps or swivels when you rig your lure the way this expert does. The expert is Bob Schmidt, president or Mack's Lures. As I've pointed in my column, nobody wants you and me to know how to use Mack's Lure products successfully more than Bob does. That's why he has launched aids like the "Mack Attack." You're missing one heck of a chance to increase your own angling knowledge if you're not reading that monthly presentation.

Don’t, as I’ve seen some newcomers to bass fishing do, hook a snap into the split ring on the lure. Use one or the other. Don’t use both.

Some crankbaits come with a snap attached. Why do you suppose these fast wobbling little beauties come with a stainless steel snap attached to their line? I can tell you. It's because that little snap lets the lure wiggle the way it must to catch fish consistently. It isn't as effective without it and the people who are marketing those lures know it. Sometimes little things can and do often make a big difference in how many fish we put into the boat. As I’ve mentioned many times before, about 10 per cent of fishermen catch 90 per of the fish. I guarantee the anglers who fall into that 10 per cent know when it's best to use a snap. You're not likely to get into that group until you do also.

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