Two barrel swivels are sometimes better than a three-way swivel

Go the double route when fishing for big fish

Three-way swivels are great for setting up a number of different fishing rigs. One of the most popular is tying the main line to one eye, a short leader with a lure to another and a longer leader with a second lure to a third eye. This puts two lures in the same vicinity, increasing your chance at hooking a fish, but when fishing in the middle of schooling fish, this can cause a problem.

Guide Maynard Edwards of Lexington’s Extreme Fishing Concepts (336-249-6782) stopped rigging three-way swivels with two lures because he learned when he hooks up two stripers at the same time, they will often swim hard directly away from each other, which can break the line.

“If you hook two stripers at once and they don’t like each other, they’re going to run hard in opposite directions,” Edwards said. “Those short leaders, no matter how strong they are, can only take so much. It’s not like the main line, which is much longer and has the advantage of the reel’s drag working for it. But the solution is easy.”

Edwards runs the main line through an egg sinker, then through one eye of a normal barrel swivel. He leaves that swivel free to slide up and down with the weight, adds a bead, then ties the main line onto one eye of another two-way swivel. The bead ensures the swivels don’t get tangled.

He then ties leaders onto the remaining eyes of both swivels, then finishes them off with hooks or lures.

“Now if I hook two fish at once and they don’t like each other, the fish on the top swivel can swim as hard as he wants against the other fish. His line will simply slide up the main line along with the weight.