I shared a photo of a perch on a jerkbait on social media and got feedback from an eagle-eyed friend that my knot was too big, I shouldn’t be using a swivel and a flourocarbon leader would lead to more success. All true facts.
Why was I not taking the time to tie the bait directly to a leader and tie the leader to my braided line with a tight, small knot?
It was more about the fishing than the catching that afternoon. I was being lazy. Time on the water was my meditation. If I caught something, it was a bonus.
Do you have days like that? I am pretty sure my fishing mentors, especially my grandfather, fished more for the fishing than the catching much of the time. Whether a quiet, solo outing or time with a good friend or fortunate grandson, being in the boat was an escape from the stresses of everyday that he valued more than we all realized when he was alive.
It wasn’t just laziness
I had another reason for using a snap swivel. A relative gifted me a huge batch of cheaply made lures recently and I wanted to give a bunch of them a try. Tying those on one-by-one would’ve slowed the fishing way more than I wanted. I did not get the full, proper action from each lure with a swivel. But I did get to learn a bit about whether its colors worked or not, on this lake, in this weather, at this time of year.
