Should You Use A Swivel With A Spoon? (Interesting Test Results)

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Should you use a swivel when you use a spoon?

Most fishermen use them to decrease line twists.

But do swivels actually help stop your line from twisting?

For 20+ years, I believed that swivels were essential whenever using spoons or any other lure that was prone to twist up the line.

But after switching over to braid for my main lines, I started noticing a lot of twists forming on my line when using spoons.

So I finally decided to do an experiment to find out why that was happening.

In this experiment, I rigged up a swivel and did a test to demonstrate how swivels handle line twists in real life.

I used mono and braid line as the main line and put them under some tests to see what actually happens.

Check out the video below to see the surprising results.

Should You Use A Swivel With A Spoon? [VIDEO]

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Since braid line is so flexible, it doesn’t give the swivel enough feedback to start unwinding twists until a significant amount of twists are on the line.

In this experiment, the count was 6+ twists per inch of braid before the swivel added any benefit to the line twists…

That equates to 72+ twists per ft of line, which is a LOT of twists (for fishermen who have a 150 ft cast, that’s 10,800 twists in the full length of your casting line).

However, if you’re using monofilament as your main line, then there is a really good reason to use a swivel.

Because in this experiment, you can see that mono is stiff enough to cause the swivel to twist… it didn’t allow for a single twist in an inch of line before it provided enough feedback to the swivel to twist.

Conclusion

big redfish on weedless spoon

If you’re using braid line, it doesn’t seem necessary to use a swivel because the braid is just too flexible for the swivel to do much good until significant twisting has already occurred.

However, if you’re using monofilament as your main line, then it’s a very good idea to use a swivel when fishing with a spoon or any other lure that is prone to twist up your line.

Either way, I recommend clearing the twists from your lines using this method after using swivels to make sure your line is as twist-free as possible.

Do you use a swivel when you use a spoon?

Have you experienced anything different than what I found here?

Let me know in the comments below!

And if you know someone who uses swivels, please TAG or SHARE this with them!

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Fred mcCarty
7 months ago

Do you use swivels with Floral carbon leaders and mono as your main line?

Chris
2 years ago

If you attach the braid running line to say 18 inches of floor then attach a swivel to another smaller length of floor which you tie onto the spoon you get the best result.

Simon Frazier
3 years ago

What your test proves to me. Throwing a spoon on monofilament is better with a swivel. Throwing a spoon on braided lines is not the best idea. I use braid and fluorocarbon or monofilament tied together with a uni to uni not with a swivel at the end of the fluorocarbon or mono split ring or snap clip to the spoon.

Richard W. Brockhoff
3 years ago

You put the swivel on the spoon, with floro leader and have no twist. Check put the C. a. video.

Bob Persan
3 years ago

Thanks for all your testing Luke, but after trolling a johnson weedless spoon on 30 # braid for spanish , I came up with so much line twisting , that I changed out my Avet reels for some conventional reels with 30# mono line with a couple of Clark spoons with a swivel supplied. much better results. and fish caught . thanks again for all you do .

Steven Free
3 years ago

I do use swivels on my spoons and have found them to work but unlike the way you seem to rig them by putting the swivel between the braid and the leader I put the swivel directly to the spoon and since the swivel isn’t even near or attached to the braid like your rig is maybe since the flouro leader is it works better for me I have not found a problem with the line twisting while using a swivel but did when I first used spoons without one but hey everyone’s experience can and probably will be different I’m just saying what
I experienced and what works for me

Cullen York
3 years ago

What about a swivel with a clip directly to the lure? So braid to flouro with a a double Albright and swivel with a clip to lure?

Dave F.
3 years ago
Reply to  Cullen York

I suspect that doing that would change the balance of the spoon and affect its action

Steve Meadows
3 years ago

Interesting, however that is not how I rig a swivel, nor is it the way some spoon suppliers rig the swivels. After losing several spoons due to leader fracture at the spoon eye, I have been using a split ring in the spoon eye with a swivel attached to the split ring. Several spoon manufacturers also use this technique. Johnson Spoons does not supply a swivel or split ring with either the weedless hook or the treble hook. I also use a uni to uni knot for leader to main line.
I have also seen people use a snap swivel in the eve of the spoon but I am not a fan of snap swivels.

Steven Free
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve Meadows

Agree i also apply my swivels to my spoons with a split ring as well but instead of a snap swivel i use a bill normans speed clip its strong hold is great for any hard lure usage and makes ot easy to change out lures in seconds

Rick Bertram
3 years ago

Great video Luke, But what IF you were to put the Swivel after the FG knot a few inches onto the Leader. So that the swivel is actually connected to Floro at both connections?

James Worth
3 years ago

Have you done braid, swivel, mono

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