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Decoy Egg Snap Fail


MattGbaz
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I use 4 & 5 Decoys a lot.  However I never switch baits with them.  After I put one on I use a pair of pliers to lightly crimp it lightly so it can't be opened and I've left them on for years that way without issue. I should add I haven't had the PROBLEM of dealing with many DD bass up here in New England. 

Whenever I get a new bait I always test swim it with both direct tie versus split ring/snap.  Most baits swim better one way or the other.

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I may just be over dramatic, but I never use snaps or split rings to tie to. Like @azsouthsaid above, it’ll fail at some point. I run straight 20lb fluoro all the way to the bait and use a uni knot on all baits. Sure I may not get as much action out of the bait but I sure have confidence having a direct connection without any interruption from the reel all the way to the bait. That’s just my take on it and j know a lot of guys disagree but that’s what I have confidence in

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39 minutes ago, Streamer said:

I may just be over dramatic, but I never use snaps or split rings to tie to. Like @azsouthsaid above, it’ll fail at some point. I run straight 20lb fluoro all the way to the bait and use a uni knot on all baits. Sure I may not get as much action out of the bait but I sure have confidence having a direct connection without any interruption from the reel all the way to the bait. That’s just my take on it and j know a lot of guys disagree but that’s what I have confidence in

from my experience there's only a few baits that swim better on a snap, the others just swim a tad different. All preference I guess

Edited by MattGbaz
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Just conducted a quick test as I was very surprised to see this. Maybe nothing ground breaking but sharing for more data.

I just tied 100 lb braid -> Size 3 (70 lb) Decoy Egg Snap -> Size 4 Owner Hyper Wire (45 lb) spit ring -> 100 lb braid  tied on to a 50 lb kettle bell. Everything was new.

Lifting and swinging the 50 lb kettle bell did nothing. Then I gave short 6" tugs up and down to let the weight drop. After about 4 or 5 drops the line snapped at a knot.

Inspecting the hardware:

-The split ring bent slightly but held up in a functional state. I had to compare it to a fresh ring to notice any difference.

-The egg snap bent but the 2 hooked ends caught each other and prevented a failure. Both loop ends elongated a bit until the hooked ends made contact with each other.

-The line break occurred on the lead end of a palomar knot. The knot remained otherwise intact.

 

Some observations of the original post:

The loop where the line ties on doesn't look bent at all. In my test, both loops elongated, sliding the hooked ends against each other. If they went on to fail from there, as soon as one of those hooks passed the other it would stop bending. I am struggling with how the wire and the hooked end is so completely straightened out in the picture. It also looks abraded?

Most regular strength hooks seem more likely to bend out before any other part of the chain would fail. Butch Brown uses regular light wire gamakatsu round bends to manhandle 10 lbers to the boat and says he doesn't have issues with them bending out. I've only bent out a hook on a rock, log, or one time on a very large pike. Hard to imagine a hook wire holding up to that kind of force but the snap failing. What kind of hooks were on the bait? 

I have had fish dive into cover, shake a hook, and leave my line and lure wedged between rocks or limbs. I just can't imagine a fish, even a big fish, creating enough force by swimming to snap 20 lb line, let alone bend out hardware rated for multiples of that. Is it possible the fish dragged you into a different kind of snag?

 

 

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How long is the 25lb Big Game leader? A 908 is a pretty stout rod and it can pick up a lot of slack fast. With braid there’s not a lot of give in that system. Shock load is a lot different than a continuous pull. I’m really surprised that the snap let go, is there any way that it wasn’t closed all the way? Did you travel with the bait already tied on?

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11 minutes ago, Dirty Diesel said:

It’s hard to tell in these photos, is the hook part of the snap still attached or did it break off? 

Hook part is still attached but bent up a little. My leader was around 9-10 feet long. My only reasoning is that it must’ve been a defective one. I know they are very strong I just don’t have a lot of confidence in them because to me they look like a big failure point

Edited by MattGbaz
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  • 7 months later...

this is a old post but im bored in school so yeah, when i fish soft baits never a snap i dont think anyone would think about using on a soft bait. on hard baits though i use snap or split rings on everything on my JC 178 i run a size 5 decoy egg its still a small snap so i dont care for it the only problem that i had was on a 3 trip snap and 3 fish on it i was ripping it out of grass and casting and banged it on a dock and then i was cleaning it off and i had seen that it opened up on me but not completely and im pretty sure i had been casting like that for sometime. but like mike gilbert says always switch your gear once it looks beat up and if it gets bent or misshapen. its a tool but then remember there is a right tool for the job. your not gonna use a sledge hammer to do delicate body work on a car.

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I have used decoy egg snaps size 4 and 5 in the past, although I've had them open up without any force applied which put me off for a while. After that happened I started to take a pliers and cinch the crap out of the little hooks that interlock so that they could never open again. The only way to take them off is with a wire cutter which I feel much more comfortable with. As far as action being better I haven't tested split rings vs direct vs snaps, although after reading this I probably will next time I go out. The 250 is definitely better with some kind of freely moving attachment point so I am going to assume that direct will suck, although I'm interested to see if there actually is a difference between a snap and split ring. I'll have to try them on some of my other hard baits as well.

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I am a firm believer in direct tie, but I still want the action of a snap without the worry of the split in the splitring.  I started using these solid steel rings, which are applicable to 95% of garage made baits.  Just open the eye up and slide one of the 150lb or 300lb solid steels and don't look back.  150's give less action than 300's.  I've had a single bad experience with a snap, lost a wood bait I made.

By choosing a snap, you also accept that you have increased your chance of failure.  With direct tie you have a knot and line consistency (ignoring small things like a improper rod), any other factor between this only raises the chance of failure on one of the 3 places.  

Solid Ring.jpg

Edited by SacPig916
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5 minutes ago, SacPig916 said:

I am a firm believer in direct tie, but I still want the action of a snap without the worry of the split in the splitring.  I started using these solid steel rings, which are applicable to 95% of garage made baits.  Just open the eye up and slide one of the 150lb or 300lb solid steels and don't look back.  150's give less action than 300's.  I've had a single bad experience with a snap, lost a wood bait I made.

Solid Ring.jpg

Is there an easy way to put those on to a retail made bait like a 250? If not do you think I could cut it and then weld it back together?

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