Does anyone else here use a swivel/snap on their line so they don't have to re-tie a knot every time you wanna change lures?

 

Was on the phone with a buddy the other day (lives in missouri, fishes a lot) who told me it's not smart to use those as it causes more fish to be lost. Is this true?

If it is true I'm an outlier because I've never had a snap fail on me in over two decades of fishing and I haven't ever felt a lost fish was due to a snap. It's usually a mechanical failure (hook) or more commonly operator error (me).

It depends on the quality of the snaps. 

Never had a snap fail.

 

I don't use the swivel snaps, Eagle Claw dual lock snaps.

 

You do have to retie the snap after a few fish just as you would tying directly to the hook.

 

Snaps do not interfere with the bait's action and they make changing out baits fast, quiet and easy.

Plain snaps are just fine. Snap-swivels (the combination of a snap attached to a swivel) however are a horse of a different color. I would never put that much hardware ahead of any hard lure I'd use. But I never use cranks or hard baits without a snap. Some folks advocate the use of a loop knot instead. I doubt that is as safe as a steel snap though.

The only thing I use a snap swivel for is inline spinners. Those will twist up and make your fishing very difficult.

 

Otherwise I use snaps on blade baits (sonars) and sometimes cranks if I am switching baits often. I use size #2 duo-lock. 

Look up Norman speed clips, that should solve everything.