barrel swivels or 3 ways swivels? which ones work best for you?

[DeepPR]

Im building 10 hook rigs with 400 pound mono for mainline and for the droppers. Have worked like a champ and have not lost a single fish due to bite offs (sharks too!). Im building one with wire as main and 400 piund mono as droppers off barrel swivels. Tried barrel swivels as you dont need to break the mainline and add a ton of crimps. Sometimes, on the way up, I get line twist and it creates a mess when bringing the rig inside the boat. Wonder if the 3 ways swivels will solve the problem. Just hate all those connections!! What are you all using???

[wearevermx]

3 Way Swivels Are The Best, You Can Rig 10 - 15 Hooks And No Problem.....even When Rig Comes Loaded.....no Tangle Or Twist...what Are You Catching Lately??...i Caugth A Decent Size Misty....unfortunally Wind Dont Give Me A Chance, We Will Wait.

Saludos Puerto Rico!!!

[kyle]

If it was me these are the only two things that I'd use.











This one you can also get the swivel without the snap, but personally I like the snap. When a shark hits it instead of re-crimping a new dropper just snap another one on. So far I have caught many a big fish on both these swivels with no problems.

Hope this helps,

Kyle

[DeepPR]

Kyle, do you put the hooks directly on the swivel???!

Weaver..same here with the wind. Its howling right now and my wife is about to have a baby so we have the bags ready for the hospital at any time now!

I wonder what she would say if I tell her Im going fishing.!

Anyways, just bought two packs of 1/0 3 ways. Ill give those a try now!

[DIRTYFOOT2]

As usual Kyle is on the money. Your dropper leader attaches to the snap.
If it gets chomped or is gutted in a fish you just unclip and clip on a new hook and leader....Done deal

[kyle]

Originally Posted by DIRTYFOOT2

As usual Kyle is on the money. Your dropper leader attaches to the snap.

No I'm sure it could be done but I wouldn't do it. You snap the dropper loop on the swivel. Also depending on the target species you should adjust the length of the dropper. I.E for a fish that chews the bait, I like a dropper thats 3-5 inches long, also do this with smaller baits like 1 squid.

For a fish that slurps the bait (grouper) I like alitte bit longer dropper 5-7 inches. That way when the fish takes the bait, it's far enough in to be properly set.

Also with the wire mainline, I only use them were there are lots of sharks, and only in real deep water more than 1300'. You wouldn't think so but anything less than that the bite is not as fast with the wire as compared to the mono. Also another problem with the wire is when the fish are coming they spin which separates the strands of wire ruining the rig. I don't know if it would work but you could try to use coated wire, but then the crimps might not hold.

The wire really does save alot of rigs though, in some places I drop I've had bite marks on the wire as wide as 16", which is a bigger cridder then I want to mess with.

I would say the best thing for you to do is experiment with stuff till you find what you like.

Kyle

[miamiangler1]

I use 3 way swivels ... it`s a pain with all the connections ... but I make them when I can`t fish or watching T V

[Yellowfinhunter1]

The less moving parts the better- less to break off...

[DeepPR]

Im hoping the strands on the main wire line dont come apart on the way up!!! Right now the winds are howling over here.. 12 to 14 foot seas???!!!

[Boboe]

Explaining how we make our bandit gear for snapper season may be a bit difficult, but I'll try......

Take heavy ass mainline...300 does fine. You're going to slide onto it, in this order:

sleeve(round, barely big enough to fit over the line), bead, barrel swivel, bead, sleeve

repeat for as many hooks as you want to run.

So you tighten down the sleeve as a stopper, then you have two beads sandwiching a barrel swivel, and another sleeve crimped down to hold it all in place. Go about 10" between swivels.

At the bottom and top of your rig crimp on a snap swivel for the weight and to attach to your line.

As for droppers, we make twisted snoots. They stay pretty rigid and hold out away from the mainline so they don't get tangled with each other. Also, since the barrel swivels can spin around the line freely, your droppers don't get all twisted up around the mainline.

The easiest way to make them is with a power drill. Crimp the barb on a ~2/0 hook and put the eye into the drill's bite, like it was a drill bit. Take about 18" of 80# mono and loop it on the hook bend. I hold the drill between my knees to do this. The drill will be pointing up at you. Hold the line just above the hook and turn on the drill. As it twists the line, run your fingers up the line. Pinch the two tag ends and tie them in an overhand knot. Pull them very very tight with some pliers.

Stick the "eye" of your snoot through the eye of the hook you're using, loop it over the back, and pull tight. Attach it to your barrel swivel in the same fashion.

Some times we fish 'stack gear,' which means you have two snoots coming off each barrel swivel. One will be long, and one will be short. Some guys even go super nuts and run triples. Usually the gear has 30 hooks on it for red snapper.

For grouper we make the mainline the same way, but use snelled circle hooks on ~1.5' leaders. They aren't twisted, and we usually just fish 10 hooks.

Hopefully somebody could actually follow some of that.

[Gaitor]

Thanks Bob ... I'll give the snootys a try

[CAPTAIN RON]

We Use 3 Ways Up Here. Not The Female Type The Tackel Type.

[BOTTOMFISH]

Boboe would love to see a pic of that rig.

[Boboe]

Originally Posted by BOTTOMFISH

Boboe would love to see a pic of that rig.

I haven't bandit fished in 3 or 4 years now, and I don't have any pics of our gear that I know of. Sorry, but I'm not going to go out and buy all the gear, put it together, and take a pic just for this. Heh heh.

[ian cameron]

I used to use the rig Bandit describes but find those double crane swivells pictured stop the gear getting twisted to destruction even when fish spin all the way up from 200 fathoms. I use the 4/0x3/0 ( 418lb/350lb ) swivells with a metre of 600lb mono crimped between and hook traces about 18" of 200lb mono so the inhaling fishes like groupers and wreckfish can suck the bait in easily.No twist offs since changing rigs. Sinker trace about 3ft of 120lb. I crimp a 2ft piece of 600lb at both ends of the rig with a 6" loop crimped in the end for connecting to. I use 20-30ft of 230lb mono connected to the braid with a good swivel to give a bit of stretch and also a warning that the gear is nearly up with a commercial shark or longline clip to attach the bottom gear. This means that when you get snagged , the sinker busts of first, then the hook leader and last the leader/fuse so you don't break expensive braid .