I always use a snap when plugging... as my surf- bag is my palette & I'm always painting as I cast my various different color & shape offerings!
That is, starting out at least! IF the bite on a certain night on a certain plug or lure is hot-- then I'll cut off the snap & direct- attach that plug to my 50 lb. leader... that's why ALL my plugs get a split- ring on the front loop/ eye! You don't want to direct- attach most plugs to leader minus that split as it can & will hurt most lures' action usually if you do...
Too... I eschew the highly- popular Breakaways (man, does that name scare me!)... for a much bigger/ over- sized Crosslock- type! A MUCH bigger size snap than I see 99.5% of other guys use!
The bottom line: I've found absolutely NO evidence that X- largish (black!) snaps turn off Bass, esp. night- time (but not even daytime really-- esp. when the water is roiled / cloudy as it should be if you're pluggin' daytime!)
AND: whereas early on I lost 1- 3 big fish per year to snap- failure/ openings with "common size/ type" snaps... Now I'm going on 8 years or so since I made the switch to oversized-- and I've not lost one fish to a snap opening/ failing since! (And yes, I still do manage to land-- & release!-- my share of Large every year!)
