The cheaper alternative - DIY grip leads

Being an avid landbased fisherman one thing I find is the places I fish can be really snaggy and account for alot of lost gear. Using grip sinkers from local tackle shops allows me to hold my bait out there nicely but usually gets lost in the rocks or snagged in reef and when they can be as much as $7 AUD it can become a costly exercise.

So it got me thinking that these mustn't be hard to make. After a recent shark fishing trip and turning 20ounce snapper leads into grips for paddling out I started scouring over the net looking for ways to do them, with finding a few different ways on doing them I thought I'd give it a try at some smaller ones for beach casting. These were the best way I could find and after a bit if tweaking the design i think it's the easiest way to make them.

What you will need is the following:

• 3mm drill bit

• a roll of small diameter  galv wire 

• vice grips

• file

• snapper sinkers (6-8 ounce)

First thing to do it use the vice grips or a vice if you have one, holding the lead sinker drill a hole near the end of the sinker. Care should be taken to not break the drill a good way to tackle this is to have the drill on a low setting and constantly clean the drill bit of swarf.

Using the file clean up the holes drilled and use the edge of the file to put a groove in the edge in the sinker to allow the wire to sit neatly.

Grab a strip of wire cut around 20-30cm (depending on size if sinker used) and push it through two holes on one side until they go thought to the other.

Repeat on the other side and once you have you should have something that starts to resemble a grapnel.

 Using plies, grab the ends of the wire and pull it tight locking the wire into the groove on the sinker. Trim the ends to the length you desire.

These will work on most fishing trips where you'd use normal grip sinkers and being quite simple to make you can knock up a few in to time. If your after that bit of extra distance in your casts then just cut a small strip of wire, go through the eye of the sinker and wrap the end around it locking it down. Use the pliers and put a nice kink on the wire. 

With this you can clip it onto your end hook allowing you to get more distance in a cast. With these only being round 1/4 of the price of buying grip leads you'll be able to spend the coin on the much more needed fishing gear. Hope this helps you out and ill see you out there fishing.

Tight lines

Reece