Fox safelok links

[Dave Smith]

I've been using the fox safelok links to attach traces for the past few seasons without problem. for the past 12months I've also been using them to attach my hooklengths when C*rp fishing. not had a problem then either except on wednesday I caught 3 17lbers, and all of them opened up the clip. they where all landed safely though I'm not sure how as the clips where all open and bent.

problem is my confidence in them has taken a battering, really don't want to think about a link opening up and leaving a trace in a pike....

I use a lot of Fox gear for piking and while I know that some have had problems I've been quite happy with it... I'm not anti Fox gear in anyway shape or form.

Bad batch? or has anyone else had problems?
any suggestions for an alternative?

 

[keora]

Sounds like a bad batch, I've used them for some years and found them reliable.

Once I found the link had opened up when I removed the fish from the net. I'm sure I had clipped it correctly. My theory is that the end of the link got caught in the net while the pike was wriggling in the net, and this put enough pressure on the link to open it.

It's not stopped me from using them.

 

[Dave Smith]

Could well be Keith, just seems strange that three opened up. I thought I'd trodden on the first while moving the rod out of the way... but the others opened up too...

could be a bad batch but I've got about 5 packets tipped into a small tackle box compartment.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Dave,

Not had a problem spinning using the Fox Safelok clips, just don't use them too many times. Opening and closing them does weaken them quite a lot at the bend.

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Re: for carp fishing - <u>NO!</u>

Get some of these.

Tie your rigs as normal with a #8s swivel on the end. The Gemini snood clip is tied to your mainline and is normally hidden in a sleeve of 3mm silicone tubing.

Push tubing back and insert the rig's swivel onto the Gemini, push back the tubing and insert into the inline lead or lead release clip.

The only problem being, they won't tolerate long, heavy casting and the lead release clip comes away from the snood clip and silicone tubing. Its tsill seems to fish ok, even though it's kind of disjointed.

Otherwise, these are a much better clip to use for carp fishing.

 

[Dave Smith]

Jeff they where brand new, only opened to attach the hooklength I'd never had any sign of a problem before.

I use the gemini mini clips for paternoster links for my Piking (will be using them for eeling this year too)... never thought of using them for Carp, thanks for that, got some thinking to do now.

 

[pete the levelspiker(pac)]

i`ve been using these for all my piking for several years now,without any problems at all.
i always check the ring end(where the line or trace is fixed) , some of them have a smallgap in them,so i close them with pliers to ensure that the line\trace can`t slip out.

 

[stephen cotton]

I've used the fox links and although I've never had any problems I find them very fiddly with wet cold hands. What I used now are STAY-LOK? POWER SNAPS as sold by Dave Lumb Specialist Tackle http://www.dlst.co.uk/swivels.html. They are much better and I've been using some of the snaps for years with no problems.

 

[Dave Smith]

I've never had a problem with them before either, strange that three fish where to damage them one after the other.

I've switched to using kwik links on my carp set up, and will be using the Dave Lumb ones when I get the Pike gear out again.

Dave
www.PredatorAngling.co.uk

 

[Wolfman Woody]

The swivels look impressive on those OWNER BALL BEARING SNAP SWIVELS. Got to look into those sometime. The clip is similar to Fox's though.