Breakaway on the rocks

[luds]

You're going to have failures if you continue to bank plugs off the rocks on purpose. Coaslocks will be less likely to fail but your plug might still crack in half or the through wire could get reallly bent. It's happened to me.

[DZ]

Bigfish,
Good point about user error. I know we all hate to admit it but we all make mistakes. For example with knots – there probably isn’t anyone here that hasn’t regretted tying a bad knot(and paying for it) once or twice. And in all fairness to Breakaway clips – I’ve also had failures with Coastlock snaps. Coastlocks get “soft” over time – experienced casters can feel the difference. If your black Coastlock snap is losing its paint - it has long past its time to be replaced. If it is unusually easy to change your plugs – change your snap.

All gear fails from time to time during periods of high stress – when gear fails without stress – a red flag should appear to the user.

One of the unique advantages of these online threads is being able to learn from the experiences (and mistakes) of others.

DZ

[Mike P]

Coastlocks on plugs, Breakaways on jigs

[JohnR]

I've had the least amount of failures with Breakaway 80# links and they are pretty reliable to me...

I can easily see flipping the plug against a rock just right (or wrong I suppose) would cause the plug to pop off when you consider the ease of putting them on or off to being with...

[stripadan]

Originally Posted by Mike P

Coastlocks on plugs, Breakaways on jigs

Breakaways for plugging and split rings and improved clinch for jigging. I have had too many snaps open from the fishes mouth when jigging, you get the fish in and the hooked end of snap is stuck in jig eye. Never lost a fish but gave up tempting fate.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by stripadan

Breakaways for plugging and split rings and improved clinch for jigging. I have had too many snaps open from the fishes mouth when jigging, you get the fish in and the hooked end of snap is stuck in jig eye. Never lost a fish but gave up tempting fate.

I started using the clips on jigs in the Canal last year and am still batting 1.000. And, I know guys with more than a few 30 and 40 pounders from the Canal, without clip failure. These are guys who fish 65# braid on All Star 1209s with 15 pounds of drag on the reel. I'm convinced. It's a clip--it can't open. And it's strong enough not to bend and straighten, even with all that pressure on it.

The clip is the least of my worries when a fish is peeling drag. Mostly, I worry about my leader. That's still the weak link between me and the fish.

[stripadan]

Originally Posted by Mike P

I started using the clips on jigs in the Canal last year and am still batting 1.000. And, I know guys with more than a few 30 and 40 pounders from the Canal, without clip failure. These are guys who fish 65# braid on All Star 1209s with 15 pounds of drag on the reel. I'm convinced. It's a clip--it can't open. And it's strong enough not to bend and straighten, even with all that pressure on it.

The clip is the least of my worries when a fish is peeling drag. Mostly, I worry about my leader. That's still the weak link between me and the fish.

I agree, just got in the habit of split rings long before breakaways were around. All my jigs are already rigged with rings so I just haven't tried the breakaways jigging. Funny, I just got off the phone with a buddy and we had this same conversation.
I'm waiting for Flaptail to tell how he uses the breakaways, and he has no problems with them.

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by Mike P

I started using the clips on jigs in the Canal last year and am still batting 1.000. And, I know guys with more than a few 30 and 40 pounders from the Canal, without clip failure. These are guys who fish 65# braid on All Star 1209s with 15 pounds of drag on the reel. I'm convinced. It's a clip--it can't open. And it's strong enough not to bend and straighten, even with all that pressure on it.

The clip is the least of my worries when a fish is peeling drag. Mostly, I worry about my leader. That's still the weak link between me and the fish.

yep, 5 years now using them jigging, never a problem


try the 80 lb clips, the 50's are for fresh like Bigfish said

[BigFish]

Oh....and I don't know about the rest of you....I re-use the breakaways over and over! They don't seem to fatigue! Over the winter I will put them in a small zip lock bag and put a spray of WD-40 in there!