When I was in high school, I broke a bead chain swivel while fighting a silver on 12# Stren. I vowed NEVER to use them again, opting instead for premium barrel swivels ever since.

Well in the last couple of years, I have let that ban slide now and then, especially since I've been doing more and more trolling with herring. While re-stocking leader rolls tonight, I depleted my stash of standard barrels, and tied an entire roll of leaders with bead chains instead. While tying the very last one, I went to tighten up my clinch knot and..... POP!



So what would you do? Is this just a fluke? Do I re-tie the entire roll of leaders when I get a new stash of barrels? Or do I take my chances? You know I hate second-guessing myself on the water.... no one can fish worth a damn without confidence.

Anyone out there with a bead chain failure horror story?

I've fished with bead chain swivels for years and never had one break. I use them on my Silver Horde plugs and have caught many a large chinook with no failure. I do prefer good ball bearing swivels for most fishing but have never experienced what you show in your picture. I would probably re-tie as if one broke just pulling your knot tight then you might have got a bad batch. I know there's been more than once in my life where I thought "gee I should probably re-tie or fix that" only to not do it and then lose a nice fish shortly thereafter and kick myself all the way home.

It's probably a fluke. I would give them all a good stress test and call it good. Now if another one pops I would get rid of the lot.

you are correct..if in the back of your mind if you are worrying about something you are pulling around it does affect how you fish....How I rate them is I will pull them around Puget Sound and feel they work fine for the fish here.... and have had I think one pull out like yours did but never had one tear in half...now if I head into the straights or Canada where you likely will be in some decent fish..ball bearing swivels for me only......

It's not worth it to have that sick-gut/worry feeling when your out to have a good time fishing. I'd toss em. Premium gear is worth every penny in confidence & performance!

FF

I'd re-tie with good barrels.I dis like bead chains all together.I had lot's of problems with the one's that used to come with the fish-flash.
They have since solved that problem,how ever I still change them out with large plug snaps and sampo ball bearing swivels.I just don't trust them.The only bead chain's that I run are the one's that come with the delta or eazy divers that I use @ bouy-10 and the ocean.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I had a bead chain fail on one fish at Odlum Pt at Hakai Pass. I was trying to drag a pig spring that was thrashing on the surface, down wind and down tide in rough water. I still prefer bead chains because they spin more consistantly than BB's do. BB's are fine if you only use them once. They don't spin well once those bearings get a little corrosion in them. I do test every swivel before I tie it to a leader. I just grab each end with a pair of pliers and give it a steady pull.

Toss 'em!!! I landed a 21# coho at Astoria this fall (clipped ), and while checking the gear afterwards, I had a chain swivel that looked just like your picture. Except the eye was straightenend out, and the knot was hung up on the burr caused by the kink/crimp at the end. A lucky one no doubt :p . No more cheap stuff for me. It's a 330 mile trip (one way) and I make about 10 trips over a year, so whats a few more $$$$$!!!

Thanks for all the advice, all. For the record, these were not brand -X bargain chains... they were the Luhr Jensen LUXON chains.

I did not want to trash them all ( I have about 40-50 of them) so I decided to do a stress test on each and every one, including the ones I already tied. I used a pair of my homemade de-hookers and pulled as hard as my bare hands could muster (38-40# on a spring scale).


Bottom line.... the rest of the batch all passed the test. Thanks DriftWood

I did come to an unexpected moment of enlightenment while doing this stress test. While suspending one de-hooker from the bead chain with the other, I gave the bottom one a quick spin.

WOW! Not quite like a ball-bearing swivel, but boy did that thing twirl! Just for comparison, I put one of my premium Berkeley barrel swivels thru the spin test as well. What an absolute dog... the barrel stopped twirling almost immediately. Never realized there was such a marked difference!

Bottom line: Barrels will eventually be retired from troll herring duty. I'll continue to use the chains, but only after they have passed the double de-hooker test prior to tying.

I have a ton of them and don't use them much. I caught a high teens silver at Westport this year with a mini hootchie, 5/0 hook, and a leader with a broken bead chain in its mouth. I went and bought a bunch of Sampo ball bearing swivels to replace them. These will out spin anything out there. But make sure they are Sampos only. The other ones look the same but are NOT.

Try this test. Get a couple of 24" stiff leaders. Get two identical 1-2 oz round ball weights and tie one on each. Then tie on a Sampo ball bearing swivel on one and a look alike ball bearing swivel on the other ends of the leaders. Now give them a spin by the ball. No comparison. The Sampo will spin for minutes while the other one will stop very quickly. Replace the cheapie with your other favorite swivel and spin again. I bet the Sampo out spins everything by 25-1. You will be amazed. I even look for the commercial version of the flashers with the Sampos on each end for putting spoons on them. When a flasher is shot I cut the Sampo off before throwing it away and keep it for other uses.

I use bead chain swivels alot and the only ones I've seen break were attached to crescent sinkers, just my .02 worth.

Sampo ball bearing swivels are the best BB swivels out there. That said, once they are used in the salt their performance starts to degrade. If you soak them in fresh water after every use they will perform longer. I always use a Sampo with a scissors snap on it attached to the end of my line on my salt specific gear. It makes for easy hardware changes. When I have bait spinning (hopefully) on the end I always have a bead chain in line to avoid tangles.

fNp, don't be discouraged just because of the one. This is my "go to swivel" on the salts, cept' I use the ones made in the USA label on them. They're great especially where you'd get alot of eel grass and screw up some of the other swivels, but if not rinsed thoroughly enough, you'll end up with failure due to corrosion and had that happen to me once. MAHLO

Robert

Funny you should mention that AK. The first-ever failure I had 25 yrs ago was on one attached to a 3 oz crescent weight. I never did like the chains because they were made with a terminal ring that had a "squared off" profile that would ruin your knots as you tightened them.... had to tie in a round profile snap to prevent a weak spot in the line.

Never dreamed the weak spot would end up in the bead chain itself! After that happened, I took a pair of wire cutters and replaced all the chains with snap swivels.

As I think back now, I can't remember when I finally gave up on crescent sinkers altogether. I much prefer cannonballs on a dropper nowadays.

I had a bead fail on springers and also this a on the Rogue.I have been using beasd for 30+ years .Now 2 fail in one year and these were the high end bead swivel.BALL BEARING only now. OP people eat your heart out 74 clear and 5 fish to 12lb. Merry Christmas