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I had this posted in one of the comments section on the blog from a fellow boat angler.

“You have an excellent website with good information, unfortunately I cannot say excellent information, in my opinion you are suggesting the use of clips and some other accessories that are a complete no no when wrecking.

As you are well aware, most boat anglers use braid, lines invariably cross  each other, when a clip is used e.g. the type that you suggest and all others, the braid locks itself in the clips and can cause catastrophic tangles. Likewise by clipping one of your Lumi  Tubes to the mainline will have a similar effect, braid from another angler could lock itself between the Lumi Tube and the line”

Ok fair points so let me reply why I like to use an interlock swivel and our lumi tubes over many of the conventional options and BTW I’m not advocating the use of the open style hook on trace clips. First off why an interlock swivel ? purely for speed and setting up rigs when drifting a wreck. Many times have I seen anglers lose one even two drifts because of the time it takes them to tie new knots. The design of the interlock swivel and why this angler condems them, take a look at this image of the Interlock Swivel and you will see two angled bends in the clip these are approx 3mm max on a size 1/0 and smaller on the size 2.

There is a 3:1 chance the braid on another anglers rig will slide down the side were the clip angles are also take into account the clip angles are not exactly hooked in shape to trap line braid and hold it locked in place. Here is an image of my simple Wreck Rig it shows one of our bullet head jigs but it could be one of our pirks, shads or jellies. You can also see where I position one of our Lumi tubes on the lower part of the trace by the lure and it’s not on the main line as suggested. The No No comment says the braid line could become trapped either side of the tube, yes it could but again a 3;1 chance of that happening and on the lure trace itself, what is the chance of that happening ?.

As I have used this rig for some years without it being a boat anglers nightmare fishing near me, infact it has been quite the opposite in helping to quickly break down the rig to release a tangle without cutting lines. But if an angler is really anal about this rig causing tangles and the said user being made to walk the plank you have options to solve both No No issues.

We use silicone tubing and have sizes to A: slide over the two clip angles on the interlock swivel and easy slide back when you want to open the clip. B: the lumi tube is supplied with two sizes of silicone tube and there are 10 in a pack of 5 tubes, simply apply two sleeves one for each end of the tube so there is no gaps to trap line.

Now look at the other rig options that are likey to snag up on other anglers braid. This image of the Zip Slider ledger rig quite often used, take out the interlock swivel and tie knots onto the swivel but you still have substantially more chance of this rig sliding down another anglers braid and causing a tangle as the physical size if far larger that a size 1/0 interlock swivel.

Look at the boom options often used example the Heavy Sea Boom even with using knots to attach this to your traces again a hell of a lot more options to snag a tangle on the guy next door on the boat, same with French booms or even the most used tube booms that create the flying collar rigs.

So I appreciate the comment that has prompted this post and hopefully offered some justification as to why I like my simple wreck rig. I expect someone will come back as to why I don’t fall foul of tangles when the rig drops down to the wreck/reef, well that is down to technique and controlling the drop and not just allowing a free fall. All you have to do is set your spool drag on your reel as you would to stop over runs when casting.

You will also notice No Rubbing/Shock leader on my Simple Wreck Rig as I use an easy quick to tie double loop onto the braid and attach the interlock swivel to it and make sure my star drag is correctly setup ready for the snatch. Ok what about abrasion issues, yes could be a problem but for the time it takes to check for any braid failure or fraying and cut back and re-attch the interlock swivel and the fact that the rig is far more sensative to bites I’ll stick to my way for the present time. Failure rates NIL, tangle issues far less than conventional rigs.

Oh and when you’re taking good sized Cod from drifting the wrecks with my simple rig I must be doing something right.