Fishing Tackle: How to Choose the Fishing Sinkers?

As one of the most important tackles of fishing, fishing sinker is a weight used in conjunction with a fishing lure or fishing hook to increase its rate of sink, anchoring ability, and/or casting distance. Fishing sinkers may be as small as 1 gram for applications in shallow water, and even smaller for fly fishing applications, or as large as several pounds or considerably more for deep sea fishing. They are formed into nearly innumerable shapes for diverse fishing applications.

Many people don’t think much about the fishing sinkers. They believe that fish are attracted by the food they provide instead of the fishing sinkers, and pay much attention to the fishing sinkers is not necessary. So, they just choose a fishing sinker at random and put it on the line. But actually speaking, fishing with a proper sinker can help people catch more fish. Now, let’s have a brief introduction of sinkers.

1. The material of fishing sinkers

In ancient times, fishing sinkers are usually made by stones, rocks, or bone. Later, most sinkers are made of lead due to its low cost, ease of production and casting, chemical inertness (resistance to corrosion), and density. But sinkers with lead can lead to a pollution of the environment, and even poison the fisherman, so please be careful when using them.

Some producer used the bismuth or tungsten as the main material of fishing sinkers, and they did it. But this kind of fishing sinkers are quiet expensive, and the melting points are much higher than lead.

2. The types of fishing sinkers

There are several factors which can influence you choice of sinker, so, the fishing sinkers are different in all kinds of conditions:

The type of bottom (Is the bottom covered with rock, sand, weeds, or timber?)
What do you want your bait or lure to do? (If the bait or lure has to cover a large amount of water, you need one kind of rig. If not, you use another.)
The current (The less current, the less weight you need.)

We have 4 most common types of sinkers:

Bank sinker

Bank sinkers are long and ovate and have a small hole at the top for the fishing line to thread through. Bank sinkers are usually used to put the bait close to the bottom.

Egg sinker

Egg sinkers are rounded and often bead-like with a narrow hole through which fishing

line is threaded. These sinkers are desirable on rock or debris covered substrates. Sometimes these are called slip sinkers because the design is for these sinkers to be placed above the swivel and on the actual fishing line.

Pyramid sinkers

P Pyramid sinkers are shaped like a pyramid and are used when it is desirable to anchor on the bottom of water bodies. They are attached to the terminal end of fishing line by loops of brass.

Split-shot sinkers

Split-shot sinkers are small and round with a split cutting halfway through the sinker. The split can be placed on a piece of fishing line and then crimped closed. Split-shot sinkers work best with small baits, light line or low current.

Fishing is a simple activity, everyone can go fishing as long as you have a set of fishing tackles. But fishing is complicated at the same time, you should pay attention to each small details if you want to catch more fish. So, trying to learn more knowledge about fishing and fishing tackles, and it will be helpful for you.