The laurvick ones are nice looking and decent releasing but the long ones with the colored plastic float piece in the center are too long and their design length and center of gravity allows them to spin around your planer board line in rough water.
The day last year when you and i and slipknot and kenny g fished was the last day i ever used the laurvick releases i have 30 of them in a bucket now. that day alone we lost 2 fish and a 3 color section set up of leadcore because of those releases.
Now that i am using the offshore release or-10 yellow releases it has never happened again.
There is also an odd catch point on the laurvick's that if you put the release on upside down will catch and cut your other lines if they contact it.
I don't like the rubber jaws on the laurvick's either they are not uniform depending how deep the line is and they all release a little bit different and it gets a bit annoying.
If you want to try the laurvicks i will loan you a half dozen if you want.
laurvick also makes a short model without the colored float piece without the weight and a shorter center of gravity and probably won't spin around as bad as the longer ones. Drawback being they are small and hard to see and like the bigger ones if they are upside down they will catch and cut other lines if they contact and they are somewhat sharp in general.
I have only ever used my home made releases for planer boards. Shower curtain clips, alligator clips and aquarium tubing. Granted I don't get the time on the water that many of you do but they have always worked fine for me.
Throbbin Rods
Thanks for the replies, I have the Offshore yellow ones now, I think I used the others (like Adrien described) on Forry's boat and they seemed OK, that day anyhow. So I guess I'll stick with the Offshores.
yellow offshores is what i use, you can slide the sping for a softer release. its all i have ever used and dont see any reason to change it for fishing around here.
John, I'd stick with those OR-10 (yellow) -- I got a bunch from FishUSA with a link provided by Grey Ghost. Adrien's post late last year on the problems with the Lauvericks cinched it for me. Like Fishless said, I like the fact you can adjust the tension easily.
Cal - unfortunately I won't make the gathering as I'm leaving for France the saturday before to give a paper at a conference...of course the family "volunteered" to join me.
So my guess for ice out? April 13th. Feeling a global warming trend coming on.
Of course down here in NY I may have a couple open lakes close to April 1st, ready to be attacked when I get home.
