Northwest Fishing Reports

So, I feel a little stupid asking this question...
But periodicaly I run into the issue of having mega amounts of line twist when I'm trolling.
A few examples are recently this week I was trolling Coho. Of course Coho are traditionally trolled a little fast, like 3.0 - 3.5 mph. So, yeah, I did that.
I'll admit that I like to mix it up a little, and back off the speed for just a second, and then come up on a little gas burst, so maybe I hit 4.2 mph for a split second, heck I don't know..

I will say I am fishing brand new virgin flashers, or else I put brand new Sampo flasher swivels on any flasher that isn't new.

Now, I don't want to turn this into a debate about fishing line brands, but for the record I am currently fishing 20lb Maxima.
Plenty of people fish Green Maxima. I can't believe it is all the lines fault.

I have had this happen when trolling 200' deep plugs for Mackinaw as well, and that was on different line as well.
If I catch the issue soon enough, I will cut out most of the highly twisted, and then do the trick of running a good 3/4 of the spool out the back of the boat, just bare line, to release any line twist.
I even carry an extra level wind in the boat, just so I don't have a line twist emergency that sends me home.

Do you feel like those occaisonal switch ups in speed will trigger a line twist fiasco? I am a firm believer in changing the presentation whem trolling. Don't fish in straight lines at same exact speed.
Thoughts??

Are you tying the flashers directly to the mainline or are you using a swivel to connect them? I use a bead(to prevent the swivel from being reeled to the top guide and damaging it) and a snap swivel(Owner Hyperswivels lately) and clip to the swivel on the flasher and have never had an instance of line twist that I can recall.

db340 wrote:Are you tying the flashers directly to the mainline or are you using a swivel to connect them? I use a bead(to prevent the swivel from being reeled to the top guide and damaging it) and a snap swivel(Owner Hyperswivels lately) and clip to the swivel on the flasher and have never had an instance of line twist that I can recall.

I tie directly to the swivel that comes with the flasher.

I kind of expect the swivel that comes already attached to the top of the flasher would be enough swivel.
So you are saying that you attach your own 2nd swivel AND a bead above the 2nd swivel?
I am not too concerned about realing the flasher into the top eyelet, being that I don't ever reel my flashers up that high.

But the 2nd added swivel is interesting.

Hey Quad,
We tie a good sized snap swivel to our mainline which we use to hook to the flasher swivel. We also use a snap swivel to connect out leaders to the downstream side of the flasher too for quick tear down. The only time we've had line twist (rare) is when the terminal gear fouled rendering the swivel useless. I think the combination of swivels keeps the line twist from occurring.
FWIW.

I tie a swivel to the mainline before the flasher and I randomly get line twist. I just figured it is poor quality swivels that don't swivel very well.

2 things:

Use a good quality swivel on your mainline. I generally run a stainless ball bearing swivel with a coastlock snap on it on my mainline, then clip that snap to my flasher. I mainly do this for easy gear change-outs. I frequently change whole setups if I can't find what the fish want, and it's easy to just unclip the coastlock and clip on the new flasher.

Second, I would say if you are trolling AGAINST the current and trying to maintain a 3-3.5mph trolling speed you are pushing the limits of your gear too far. Have you ever put your flasher overboard alongside the boat when bucking the current? How about bucking the current and going 3 mph? That thing will be whipping around quicker than sh#..... Slow down your troll if your bucking into the current and maintain proper line angles on your DR.

Another vote for a good mainline swivel, it makes life easier. Sometimes jellyfish slime can cause some issues so make sure you keep you gear clean from it. Just dont use bare hands to remove the red ones, ask me how i know

Thanks Matt, and others.
That was some very good advice. I am always extremely careful to flashers with pristine "Original" swivels, but I had not considered adding additional swivels to either end, and also the stuff about pushing against tide flow/force on flasher.

I will double up

Another thing to keep in mind is the type of flasher being used. The plastic style flashers tend not to rotate around a point, front swivel on the flasher, like the metal flashers and dodgers do. Instead they tend to move in a large circular pattern which will start the line twist where the line attaches to the clip. Once the line has been twisted up enough from the clip end, the swivel at the flasher will keep it from twisting further. I also use a ball bearing snap swivel for my terminal tackle for all of my trolling. The only time I run into line twist issues is if something fouls my swivels, like seaweed or jellies.

I also use a golf tee bead ahead of the mainline snap swivel to theoretically prevent the swivel from getting fouled up. I fish braid now and haven't noticed any twist (or maybe its just not as obvious as with mono).

All good stuff mentioned above. Ball bearing swivel on mainline--check. Good quality swivel on both ends of flasher--check, then I use a quality barrel swivel on all of my leaders where they attach to the flasher--check. I will not use a swivel or snap swivel that uses a split ring--got to be welded. Snap swivels must have "positive" closed position latching. I learned all of this the hard way :-/

When I was chartering I figured that equipment failure was inexcusable, when people were paying good money for a trip. Why treat ourselves and our equipment any differently.

Matt wrote:2 things:

Use a good quality swivel on your mainline. I generally run a stainless ball bearing swivel with a coastlock snap on it on my mainline, then clip that snap to my flasher. I mainly do this for easy gear change-outs. I frequently change whole setups if I can't find what the fish want, and it's easy to just unclip the coastlock and clip on the new flasher.

Second, I would say if you are trolling AGAINST the current and trying to maintain a 3-3.5mph trolling speed you are pushing the limits of your gear too far. Have you ever put your flasher overboard alongside the boat when bucking the current? How about bucking the current and going 3 mph? That thing will be whipping around quicker than sh#..... Slow down your troll if your bucking into the current and maintain proper line angles on your DR.

Yes, the Matt's concur. Worry less about speed and more about DR line angle. That gives you water speed. Don't care what the GPS says. Run with your DR cables at about 60 degree angle and you'll be good.

I use a Sampo on the main line also and I've never had twist problems. 30 pound mono main line and 40 pound FC lure line. I've had no trouble with FC knots.

Be sure to check the swivels on the flasher. Hot Spot flashers have a nice big Sampo on the front but a real whimpy barrel swivel and crummy snaplock on the back that looks like 25 pound test. I get rid of that before I use it and replace with either a large barrel swivel or Sampo. If I use a spoon, I use a small Sampo attached to the spoon. Even the small Sampos are pretty strong and I've never had one break.

Ditto on the cable angle. It looks like the cable angle is so acute you lose a lot of depth but not really. The cable goes down in a teardrop getting more straight up an down as it gets closer to the ball. Last Friday the out tide was strong. Trolling with the tide I was doing 3.9 to 4.2 and against it 2.3 or so, with 70-90 feet of cable out. Water speed is what counts, not the GPS speed. If you have one of the fish finder speedometers, the little water wheel thingy, those show water speed.