That brings up a favorite topic of mine: swivels do not stop line twist. There’s nothing to stop the line above the swivel from twisting. Try this…suspend a weight with a swivel in the line and spin the weight. You’ll notice that the entire swivel rotates, and so does the line above it.
To actually stop line twist, you’d have to have something that held the top half of the swivel stationary. When fishing, that can and should be a hanging weight tied to the top loop of the swivel. Otherwise, you’re just fooling yourself about line twist.
Rocky you are pretty much correct on the line twist and swivels, most “swivels” don’t do much or even swivel. A true high quality ball bearing swivel does actually “swivel” and will help with some line twist. Try casting a mepps or panther martin “spinner” tied directly to line without swivel you can’t make a lot of casts without twisting your line. Do the same thing with a true ball bearing swivel you will have much less line twist, so in certain situations a good quality ball bearing swivel will help. Cheap swivels do very little. Also there are several other factors that twist fishing line that the swivel, even the best ball bearing won’t help very much. Twists in line often occur during every cast, many lures twist or rotate in the air many revolutions during the casts, many jigs will twist a lot during casts, after a long day of casting and retrieving you will have a lot of Line twists. The worst culprit is with a spinning reel, cranking the handle while the drag is slipping, on a high speed retrieve spin reel that’s 5-7 twists for every turn of the handle while the drag slips. Many people do it when reeling in fish.
A good help for line twist if in a boat is to let line out while trolling or moving the boat with nothing attached let out a fair amount more than you longest cast, then let it drag behind the boat for a few minutes then reel it in with a bit of tension and reattach your lure. The Line will handle much better with a lot less twist in it.
Excellent points all.
I respectfully disagree Rocky.
Of course swivels help stop line twist above and below the swivel.
Picture the swivel working in reverse from spool back to swivel.
That is science, not just a theory.
As I mentioned earlier Good quality swivels will help a lot, cheap ones not so much. Some swivels are so poorly made they don’t really “swivel” much. Quality Ball bearing swivels will make a difference.
Try tying a cheap swivel on some line with a lure and hold a length of line hanging down spin the lure quickly for a while see what happens , do the same thing with a good ball bearing swivel, you will see a big difference. We used to play around with various types and brands back when I worked at the fishing shop , quite a difference! I’m just saying if seivelnis important to your set up buy good ones !
Mildog is correct. The “science” involved is simple. For a swivel to prevent twist, there has to be some braking force applied to one side of the swivel, or else internal friction keeps both ends of the swivel rotating. So, just a swivel tied into the line does almost nothing. Well, until the line to the reel gets so twisted that it can’t be twisted any further, and that supplies the needed braking force.
Do the hanging lure experiment yourself and see.
“Help” may be the operative word there. But I bet you’ve never tested it, right?
To prevent line twist, the “upper” side of the swivel has to be held stationary. Soooo, what does that holding?
If the reel does the twisting, and the reel holds 90+% of the line that’s out, then a swivel is totally irrelevant.
Now tell me what holds the line still when you’re trolling.
This is splitting hairs but the resistance on the line in the water and the existing “twists” in your line provide enough or more resistance than the amount needed for the “quality” swivel to do its job. Good quality ball bearing swivels will do that, cheap swivels will not. The hanging lure “test” isn’t flawed, All the lure hanging swivel test shows how is little resistance/friction a ball bearing swivel has vs std swivels that have a lot of friction/resistence.
Everybody is right to a degree, the act of simply casting and reeling ( on spinning reels, not casting or level-wind reels) puts line twist into the equation. And again this is very common twist problem, reeling while the drag is slipping 5/7 twists for every turn on spin reel depending on gear ratio. ( novice fisherman do it a lot hence lots of line problems, and during the course of fishing it happens to some degree to all of us . Bottom line is good swivels do help! Period!
For a visualization of line twist wind an extension cord around your hand and elbow wind up a 50 foot cord it will be twisted a ton. Not sure they make a swivel to stop that. If you had a big round spool and could roll it in one direction as you take the cord up no twist. Same as casting revolving spool
Reel vs spinning reels on which the bail spins the line onto the spool creating line twist.?
Fun discussion when it’s cold out and no fishing! ??
Here is my conclusion:
If Rocky is fishing with me in my boat he can choose to run a swivel or not.
As long as he is having fun then so am I!
Exactly! Hope this thread was fun, entertaining and maybe informative ! Now just need weather to settle a bit I’m ready to get out again!
Both would be welcome in my boat, with or without swivel!! lol ?
The worst combination is mono line on a spinning reel, but most of the twisting happens not while fishing but when the line is first put onto the reel. Mono takes a “set” to the diameter of the spool it is shipped on. When it’s put on a mush smaller reel spool, that set turns into twists. Doubly so if the direction of turn is opposite between the two spools. It helps a LOT if you soak the spool of new mono in warm water for 15 minutes before you load it onto a spinning reel, and be sure to have both spools set to the same direction of turn.
As to fishing, I do use swivels, because every little bit helps. But I’m not fooling myself that ANY swivel “prevents line twist.”
And for most situations, I use braid on spinning reels, and mono or coplymer on casting reels.
Getting the fishing itch bad. Ordered a bunch of bottom bouncer rig components from Northland Tackle and made a Walmart run to pick up a new 1000-size reel for a crappie rig.
Time to tinker, clean, sort, re-rig, change line, and just mess around with tackle.
Anybody else got the twitchies?