Almost all angling involves losing mainline, leaders,
and terminal gear. Ironically, in almost all cases, as it applies
to riverbeds and lakes, using slinkies eliminates the loss of the
gear.
I’ve seen it countless times. Anglers truly excited about getting
to the water. They cast out, drift downriver, and snag up on substructure
or rocks. What usually happens next is predictable. Anglers pull on
the rod hard enough to risk snapping the tip, lose the entire leader-terminal-gear
setup, or lose all that plus many yards of the mainline. The loss
of gear adds up, not to mention the money spent making it. It starts
out as losing nickels and dimes but think about this: Leader line
as six feet long costs about .03 cents. A single hook costs about
.20 cents. Individual corkies, eggs, or shrimp cost no less than .15
cents. Swivels cost about .05 cents. Weights (pencil lead, slinkies,
or bouncing betties) cost at least one to two dollars. The absolute
lowest any leader setup with weights costs $ 1.43 cents. This does
not include the cost of any mainline, yarn, scent, bobbers, and spinners.
Now imagine losing about thirty leaders on a single fishing trip.
The combined loss of the gear is $42.90 cents. It absolutely adds
up. Not only does it cost money to lose gear but time too. Did you
know that it takes about three minutes to make a single leader? It’s
true. Under optimal conditions at home, with all the necessary gear
neatly laid out on a table it takes three minutes to make a single
leader. Now imagine that you’re in the field without the benefit
of the comfort of a chair and table. Making leaders on the water adds
another two minutes per leader. 30 Leaders at five minutes apiece
is one and-a-half hours of nothing but putting gear together, which
should be spent fishing. Used correctly, a single slinky can last
hours at a time where other types of weights fail within five or fewer
casts.
Using my double-rig swivels anglers can fish snag riddled waters virtually
fearless with these slinky setups.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2004/09
