Thanks for the replies. I was in fact doing just as you all suggested. I had about 18" of 40# mono leader with an extra 2oz egg sinker above the swivel-basically a heavy duty CRig. It was the end of the day and I had just lost my swimbait (with a leader) to the bottom. I was in a hurry to get a new bait on, so I skipped using the leader, and that is when I hooked up with a really nice fish. It broke- off just as I wrote before. I was asking to see what you all do in these situations as I thought maybe you would have some advice I didn't think about... guess I'll stick to the 40# leaders.