Beach combed sinkers.

[flappy]

Or fishing in the right place but doing it wrong

 

[Casker]

Rough ground =weak lead link and a rotten bottom
Keep lead use down by using spark plugs,nuts and bolts,stones wi holes in,etc

Vehicle spark plugs becoming rarer, but my garden machinery offers-up quite a few plugs (circa 1oz) which I've started saving. (Not for much longer though as I'm fed up fiddling with small petrol engines - planning to go electric.)

 

[blakdog is back]

Breakout/breakaway leads are actually very vulnerable to snagging in some circumstances ... they jam in small gullies and cannot breakout and they are more difficult to free than a plain lead if they bury in the bottom in rough weather. Their biggest nemesis though is line snags ... land one in a birds nest of line and you are not getting them out even if the grips breakout - bendy nosewires are much more recoverable from a line snag.

I am 60 now and started fishing at 6 and have never bought a sea lead to use (except for the Dvices). A few specialist types I have moulded myself (though that is rare) but the rest have been recovered from various local marks ... I literally have thousands of the things in the garage, have lost god knows how many myself over the years but one scavenging trip a year usually tops things up (assuming I can be bothered). You also soon learn that the older 1970/80s breakaways, which used high quality stainless wire last much longer ... I have tons of the things ... they don't rot like the modern ones.

If you are drilling leads to put wire loops in don't be tempted to cast hard on them as they are prone to cutting up through the lead and losing the loop - the stresses on the wire loop are different to a moulded in top loop (and some of those are poop too f they are not done right).

 

[Dutchman]

Breakout/breakaway leads are actually very vulnerable to snagging in some circumstances ... they jam in small gullies and cannot breakout and they are more difficult to free than a plain lead if they bury in the bottom in rough weather. Their biggest nemesis though is line snags ... land one in a birds nest of line and you are not getting them out even if the grips breakout - bendy nosewires are much more recoverable from a line snag.

I am 60 now and started fishing at 6 and have never bought a sea lead to use (except for the Dvices). A few specialist types I have moulded myself (though that is rare) but the rest have been recovered from various local marks ... I literally have thousands of the things in the garage, have lost god knows how many myself over the years but one scavenging trip a year usually tops things up (assuming I can be bothered). You also soon learn that the older 1970/80s breakaways, which used high quality stainless wire last much longer ... I have tons of the things ... they don't rot like the modern ones.

If you are drilling leads to put wire loops in don't be tempted to cast hard on them as they are prone to cutting up through the lead and losing the loop - the stresses on the wire loop are different to a moulded in top loop (and some of those are poop too f they are not done right).

I myself started fishing around that age and hardly ever fished "snags" that would loose your weights and now as a 60+ the area i fish is snag free, all sand but on one mark have lost leads due to being buried on the incoming tide and line snapped.

 

[blakdog is back]

I myself started fishing around that age and hardly ever fished "snags" that would loose your weights and now as a 60+ the area i fish is snag free, all sand but on one mark have lost leads due to being buried on the incoming tide and line snapped.

The worst snags are often on "clean" beaches ... other peoples lost gear. Myself and a mate used to use a device we built at the local piers to recover the massive line snags that used to build up on those about 40 or 50 yards out and that was very profitable indeed (I'm talking hundreds of rigs per snag). It is mostly clean sand or mud round here but small gullies in shallow water and the large gullies that have formed just off the fish tail breakwaters that are fashionable these days can be tackle graveyards ... a 2 inch gully in clay is almost the perfect design to get your leads stuck.

I find scavenging really tiring these days but its still really enjoyable getting a pile of gear for nothing and have found tons of other stuff over the years, everything from a discarded (and loaded) 9mm, to 50 cal ammo, roman coins, cod bottles and even human bones!

 

[Dutchman]

The worst snags are often on "clean" beaches ... other peoples lost gear. Myself and a mate used to use a device we built at the local piers to recover the massive line snags that used to build up on those about 40 or 50 yards out and that was very profitable indeed (I'm talking hundreds of rigs per snag). It is mostly clean sand or mud round here but small gullies in shallow water and the large gullies that have formed just off the fish tail breakwaters that are fashionable these days can be tackle graveyards ... a 2 inch gully in clay is almost the perfect design to get your leads stuck.

I find scavenging really tiring these days but its still really enjoyable getting a pile of gear for nothing and have found tons of other stuff over the years, everything from a discarded (and loaded) 9mm, to 50 cal ammo, roman coins, cod bottles and even human bones!

At one mark i fished, i pulled on some odd looking line (just to tidy it up to bin) and i pulled and pulled!

It was only a full length of fly line!

On that location was not a place for fly, so some holiday person must have been using it with bait all i can think of.

 

[Casker]

If you are drilling leads to put wire loops in don't be tempted to cast hard on them as they are prone to cutting up through the lead and losing the loop - the stresses on the wire loop are different to a moulded in top loop (and some of those are poop too f they are not done right).

Yes, I get that - it was going thro' my mind actually. So some extra care required with any sideways drilled scavenged weights as to their subsequent deployment.

Some sort of multi-wire arrangement, maybe even some sort of cage, would be better (versus cross-drilling with say a single wire loop), BUT an efficient means of doing that without undue effort yet to be worked out. I do, however, have some ideas already.

 

[blakdog is back]

Yes, I get that - it was going thro' my mind actually. So some extra care required with any sideways drilled scavenged weights as to their subsequent deployment.

Some sort of multi-wire arrangement, maybe even some sort of cage, would be better (versus cross-drilling with say a single wire loop), BUT an efficient means of doing that without undue effort yet to be worked out. I do, however, have some ideas already.

Drill down from top through the bottom ... then bolt through the centre with the hex head at the bottom. Grind a flat on the other end just enough to drill through and then attach a split ring. If you are worried the hex head doesn't spread the load enough stick a washer on there. Safe as houses to cast as hard as you like

 

[Casker]

Drill down from top through the bottom ... then bolt through the centre with the hex head at the bottom. Grind a flat on the other end just enough to drill through and then attach a split ring. If you are worried the hex head doesn't spread the load enough stick a washer on there. Safe as houses to cast as hard as you like

Thanks !

 

[flappy]

Or just spend a quid and buy a new one..

 

[Valleyboy]

Or just spend a quid and buy a new one..

It's not just one though is it? I'd expect to lose up to a dozen leads in one session on some of the nastiest marks' especially pre-braid

 

[flappy]

It's not just one though is it? I'd expect to lose up to a dozen leads in one session on some of the nastiest marks' especially pre-braid

Bloody heck.. if I lose a lead I move spot..

 

[Valleyboy]

Bloody heck.. if I lose a lead I move spot..

Depends what I am fishing for, but sometimes the rough stuff is where the fish are, you can't avoid it so gear up for it. With 70lb braid and 40lb hook lengths and rotten bottom it's surprising how much you do get back, dependent on ground

 

[flappy]

Depends what I am fishing for, but sometimes the rough stuff is where the fish are, you can't avoid it so gear up for it. With 70lb braid and 40lb hook lengths and rotten bottom it's surprising how much you do get back, dependent on ground

Sod that.. how on earth do you pull for a break with that heavy line.?

 

[Valleyboy]

Sod that.. how on earth do you pull for a break with that heavy line.?

Broom handle/priest point your tip towards the snag and walk back,

 

[JLD]

I do about the same. Braid doesn't stretch. Might lose a sinker or bend out a hook but get most of my gear back most of the time.

 

[Dutchman]

I would move if i started loosing rigs.

Even lure fishing if i feel a snag i will not cast that way again.

 

[Casker]

Or just spend a quid and buy a new one..

I'm sure that was said "tongue in cheek" and it's not actually about cost: it's about not wasting something that has been produced as a result of ravaging some part of the World and can actually be re-used with a little bit of application.

 

[Valleyboy]

I'm sure that was said "tongue in cheek" and it's not actually about cost: it's about not wasting something that has been produced as a result of ravaging some part of the World, but can actually be re-used with a little bit of application.

And then chucked back in the sea. A toxic element that is increasing the lead in the marine food chain. Seems a bit paradoxical to say the least

 

[Goatfish]

I know I havnt lost more than 10 leads in the last 20 years. Still got almost all the ones I bought off Dustybin 10 years ago. I’m the sort of customer he hates!