Lead Sinkers - Use & Misuse

LEAD SINKERS – USE & MISUSE

In all my years of hanging around places to fish, I think the Number One misuse of anything must be lead. I can’t imagine the time when a few people are fishing the same area and it looks like some kind of contest to see who can pull in the most seaweed.

There are two reasons for seeing this much weed. First of all, they’re there at the wrong time, and the weed is unavoidable. The second reason is that they are using too much lead and the fishing area is wrong.

There is a vast difference between fishing the surf, where I want my rig to stay where I put it, but I’m talking mostly of fishing in the bay. The deepest water is only forty feet at the bridge, where a few ounces of lead is sometimes necessary. But most of the fishing is close in, about eight to fifteen feet deep. Even with a big chunk of clams or a lot of mackerel you can reach and hold bottom without any lead.

I am fishing without lead for two reasons. Number one, I want a fish to feel as little resistance as possible when it takes the bait. Number two, as the most grass will be rolling along the bottom, a lot of time the grass will roll right under my bait, pushing them up and out of the way.

Sticking a bait to the bottom is not a good idea anywhere inside the inlets. The grass factor done, sticking a bait on the bottom also invites the whole lower echelon of lower life forms such a crabs, eels, oyster crackers and sakes to a free meal.

The whole object of running a good con on a worthwhile fish is to make it think its getting a natural, quality meal for nothing. A bait drifting through an area is more visual than one that is anchored there.