Trolling worm harnesses

[Shellback]

I usually don't troll worm harnesses, but last fall I bought a few at a local bait and tackle near Kinzua. These harnesses are built on wire with a blade and beads. After trolling them, my lines were all twisted. As it was the end of the day I put them away for the season. Now yesterday I decided to give them another try and noticed that I had clipped a Sampo ball bearing snap swivel to each lead. Unfortunately I couldn't remember if I ran them with a swivel last fall, or just put a swivel on them when I put them away so I wouldn't have the twisting problem when using them again. Anyhow I ran them with the ball bearing snap swivel and big time line twist again. How are you supposed to rig these, or should I just pitch them. Most worm harnesses I've seen were built on mono, not wire, is that the problem? Thanks!

[FreeByrd]

We've used the double or single willow blade harnesses made up on wire for several years. They are very popular in the Fairport Harbor, Geneva, OH area. We run them behind dipseys and jet divers with a florcarbon leader of 20 or 25 pound test. Leader length anywhere from 6 - 12 feet with ballbearing sampo snapswivels on each end. I've not had a problem with them twisting. These type of harnesses will tolerate faster speeds than the conventional speeds associated with the colorado blade harnesses of a max of around 1.5 to 1.7. Most guys fish harnesses much slower.

Speed may have been your issue if you were going faster than 2.3 to 2.5 - just a guess.

The ones I have used are made by Weldon Tackle Company in Cleveland.
Good Luck,
Steve

[gatz]

You won't get any twisting behind a dipsy obviously, but running spinners with in line weights will spin up your lines. I haven't found the ball bearing swivel that can always prevent it from happening. What will help is using a bottom bouncer for your weight, or a keel shaped in-line weight which will provide a stable surface which will resist the twisting. Using snap weights and long leads has been troublesome for me too, so if somebody has a ball bearing swivel that they swear by, let us know.

I don't think the wire is the problem, mono leaders will do the same.

[SUPERTROLLER]

SAMPO is generally regarded as the top of the line ball bearing swivels. If you are getting line twist with these then the problem would seem to be caused by something even they can not handle. What speeds are you guys trolling? Do you keep tension on the lines when reeling them in? This helps the swivel keep the twisting to a minimum. I don't use spinners much so I'm not in a good position to figure this out. I also use level wind linecounters to set lines exactly the same after catching fish so I don't have a spinning reel involved. What are you guys using?

[Miss Adventure Guest]

Here is what I do with no problem what so ever.
My harnesses are home made out of fire line. I use a modified bottom bouncer sinker (also home made) I make the sinkers out of Safety pin type (bass) spinner wires. I use a Cabelas ball bearing swivel on the top wire for the sinker. The sinkers are just like botton bouncers you buy except without the wire below the weight I have them in weight from 3/4 oz to 2 oz. each weight is powder painted it's own color.

I have never had a leader twist from this setup. A keel trolling sinker should do the same but my set up the weight is slightly lower so definetly no twists.

Miss Adventure II

[Tom S.]

I troll mostly harnesses in the Geneva - Ashtabula area on Erie. I use 20/6 power pro, big jon diver discs, and seguar 20 lb. leaders about 6 - 8 ft. long with good swivels on both ends of the leader. I run them back anywhere from 50 to 300 ft. back and never have a line twist problem (even with a corkscrewing sheepshead). Same basic set-up on dipsies. Never had luck with jets, so I can't comment on them.

[gatz]

I understand what you guys are saying about not having twisting problems if you've got a dipsy, jet, bottom bouncer etc. in your set up. The fact that you've got a dipsy there (for example) keeps the spinner from having any chance to twist the main line going back from your rod. The trouble starts when you take and tie your main line directly to a swivel which the harness is tied to and use a snap weight to get the bait down. If the snap weight is close to the spinner you probably won't have trouble, because the snap weight holds the line from spinning at the point it's attached and keeps the main line above it from twisting.

It's when you let out 50 feet or so of line before attaching a snap weight, the line between the snap weight and the swivel has no resistance to twisting. The force required to make the ball bearing swivel spin must be less than the force required to spin up the main line. At some point the main line will get so twisted that the swivel will start working, but the damage is done by that time.

I do agree with the idea that speed and colorado blades compound the problem.

I wonder if using a heavier pound test main line would increase the resistance to twisting, but that changes the dive curves.

[Shellback]

I'm not using a dipsey or any weight at all, just flatlining the worm harness on the main line and probably have in the area of 100 feet of line out. Also running around 1.7MPH. I did notice that the Sampo swivel got twisted up enough that it was no longer able to work. I wonder if I had a 6 foot or so piece of heavy mono with a snap swivel at each end just before the worm harness would work?

[Crow]

Run a trolling rudder, in-line above your spinner where you attach your spinner leader, line twist problem should dissappear.They are plastic and very durable, will help your spinner track well, and eliminate any twist.
You can find them at Cabelas, they come in clear and several different colors.

Crow

[Terroreyes]

You are absolutely correct about the different types of in-line weights. Standard in-lines twist the line real bad no matter what swivel you use. The keel-type definitely solve he problem.
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[Shellback]

Thanks for all the info fellows, if I'm not using any weight, I guess the trolling rudder might be the way to go.

[Terroreyes]

Another thing is that if the clevis is too small and tight to the wire, it will cause the whole rig to spin. When I tie wire harnesses, I use a much bigger clevis that gives the blade plenty of slack to spin freely.
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[Olyolson]

Try using a bead chain type swivel.

[SUPERTROLLER]

I also think your idea with the heavy mono would at least help reduce twisting. I run added lines with snapswivels at both ends of the line with spoons as the slider. I've never noticed any extra twisting. Another thought came to me too. Maybe you could use a larger swivel. Maybe you're using a small swivel to lessen the weight and it's partially fouling with debris and not allowing it to remain spinning to stop the twist. After the twisting starts and the swivel fails to work, it will really twist up quickly, no matter what size lines or swivels you're using.

[Pas Lures-Pa]

Many years ago we made our Crawler Harnesses with wire and also a metal clevis,we had some problems. Our harnesses were made with a No#5 Colorado bbade. After many hours of use we found that the metal clevis actually wore into the wire line and stoped the blade from turning free, and even wore right thru the wire at times. We solved all our problems by going to a mono line and a plastic quick change clevic. Problem solved.

Pa Rudy
Pas Fishing Lures

[Terroreyes]

I've found that the folded-type metal clevises work great. The ones with the drilled or cast holes definitely wear right through. Bad thing about the folded ones it that they're real prone to bending if you drag them across structure or get a snag. Haven't tried it, but I'll bet the right size quick change on nylon-coated wire would work fine.

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