For inshore fishing we always tie line to leader with fluorocarbon. We never use swivels unless we’re offshore. If you’re fishing for snook, tarpon, redfish, etc. you want as natural a presentation as possible. A swivel is just another piece of hardware for a fish to see and spook it, or make it shy away from your bait.
Additionally, you literally HAVE to tie line to line if you’re throwing fly, you actually can’t use a swivel with a fly setup.
Barrel swivels like the one above are useful in offshore situations, but not for inshore fishing.
In this video my good friend Jarek is going to demonstrate how to tie braided line to a fluorocarbon leader. I usually use a double uni knot, but I feel that Jarek’s method is a stronger knot. Jarek’s knot is essentially a modified Bimini Twist.
I personally like to use Seaguar fluorocarbon as can be seen in the featured image. That being said, you can use whatever you like.
Note**: I wasn’t paid to say that, it’s just my personal preference, again, as I said, you can use whatever leader you like and are comfortable with.
Until next time, Tight Lines.