Does ANYONE Tie Direct when.............

[DZ]

Originally Posted by BassDawg

attaching their eel leaders, or


do most people use a barrel swivel to lessen the
chances of eel hari kari?

i may be over reacting, but i could've sworn that the 3 p-ups
that got SPIT OUT this am after 1.6 seconds were due to my quarry feeling the barrel of the swivel.
is there any reason WHY i can't tie directly to my mono shock???

thanks, gentlemen, in advance for any suggestions

Bassdawg,
In my previous post I neglected to address the barrel swivel issue in your question. I’d be hard pressed to think the barrel swivel on your leader spooks bass – but consider this – there was a time when we were getting phantom strikes at night but couldn’t hookup. We tied direct with no leader and the strikes stopped. Now we were stumped, finally we attached a small bare hook onto our black barrel swivels and immediately started catching harbor pollock on the swivels. If the pollock could see the barrels in the dead of night I suspect that bass can.

One other scenario I’ve witnessed on a few occasions: a night with flat calm conditions – at the point my running line hits the surface of the water it creates a dimple on the surface sheen. Bass keep hitting my line at the dimple even though there is nothing to hit but the disturbance of the water. Bass can sense and see everything.

Both good reasons for surfcasters to pay attention to what is happening.

Try tying direct, or if you use braid downsize the leader strength to 20 lb test

DZ