Okay. When trolling for Lakers using my favorite spoon, my line has a tendency to get all twisted up. I mean the line is FUBAR'd. The motion of the spoon must cause the line to twist up which really causes some serious problems on the spool. So I tried a leader with a built in swivel to prevent getting bitten off by Pike and to prevent line twisting. My line still got tangled with the barrel type swivel. So I recently learned that the ball bearings type swivels are better.

I went to Fleet Farm and picked up some leaders with ball bearings swivels. The swivels from Fleet Farm don't swivel. They're locked up and the swivel doesn't turn freely. There is no way I'm putting that Fleet Farm leader and swivel on my line.

Can someone recommend a good quality leader with a swivel that actually works to prevent my line from twisting up while trolling a spoon??

I use a quality SPRO ball bearing swivel with heavy fluorocarbon leader if I'm worried about being bitten off by pike. Works great and don't have problems with line twist. I have heard some people like titanium wire for leaders too, but I've never tried it and never felt I need to.

Are you using a wire leader?

I'd drop the leader altogether. Lakers and Northerns usually don't roam the same water, except in cold water in the Spring. Then, northerns are pretty slow on the attack. The risk of losing a laker trolling spoon to a northern is small.

But a leader will definitely affect adversely the action on your trolling spoon. And it won't work as well as a good ball-bearing snap swivel to prevent line twist. Keep your swivel free of weeds and aspen fuzz. Even then, some line twist is inevitable, but that's what you bring spare line for on a trip.

Spro and AFW (American Fishing Wire) both make quality BB swivels, swivels with snaps and complete leaders. I like to tie my own leaders with either AFW micro supreme tieable leaders, or titanium tieable leaders from AFW or Knot2Kinky, or heavy fluorocarbon depending on conditions, etc.

I'll run a snap swivel and then another in-line swivel about 18" up when that spoon is really spinning. It works pretty good.

lundojam: "I'll run a snap swivel and then another in-line swivel about 18" up when that spoon is really spinning. It works pretty good."

This is very good advice. I’ve never had problems with line twist using 2 swivels.

Excellent advice everyone. I think my solution will be to try a Spro snap swivel with a heavy flourocarbon leader attached with a in-line swivel. That should solve the problem with twist and also give me some protection against the Pike. I knew I could count on y'all.

This is exactly what I do on Leech Lake when trolling for walleyes and in Iowa when fishing smallie streams. I use a roughly 18-24 inch length of 6 or 8 lb fluorocarbon attached to my braided main line with a bb swivel, and another bb snap swivel at the terminal end. The Spro ball bearing swivels are great, just make sure you use the ones with welded rings, not split rings. Your line can be cut by the raw point of the split ring after prolonged use.