If you fish, and of course you do, then you have dealt with twists and tangles in your line. Often this leads to a “birds nest” of line jammed up between your reel and the fish you want to catch. Casting spoons and trolling typically lead to the line twisting between the reel and the lure. When any slack is introduced, the line simply coils and turns into a mess. My old solution for this mess was simply to cut the line and start over. I wasted a bunch of otherwise perfectly good fishing line but I saved time not attempting to unravel the unravelable.
The years on the water have made me smarter, or was that the rum? I don’t claim to be any smarter than the next guy with a rod and reel, but i claim to pay attention to good ideas, just a little better than others. So I started using a 20 cent swivel on all my trolling and casting rods and virtually eliminated the problem of twisting unmanageable line. Yes, this 20 cent part makes me smarter.
I tie the swivel to the end of my line, then tie on another 2 feet of line and attach that to the lure, whether it be a spoon, or jig head, or wally diver style crank bait. An extra step, a couple extra knots, yes, but the time and effort spent to prepare my line this way far outweighs the time spent untangling.
But then I wanted to get event smarter. How? Switch to Bourbon? Yes, but that’s not the only way to get smarter. I have spent a few evening in front of the TV, NHL playoffs on screen, and my tackle box on the table. I have now rigged up a couple dozen lures, including my “Big 3″ with a 2 foot piece of fishing line, tied in the traditional manner to the lure, but with a snap swivel at the other end. Now the time to change over from a wally diver to a 5 of diamonds to a neon jig head and plastic worm is about 20 seconds.
Sure I can tie a fisherman’s knot in less than a minute, but when the bite is on, every second is precious. So when my fishing buddies (a.k.a. “enemies”) are struggling in the low light, or they fumble for their reading glasses to tie a knot, I’m back in the water catching their fish for them.
See you on the water!