Boat Lead Shapes and Anchoring on a Wreck?

Graham B

Graham B

Well-known member
Before I start the annual lead melting day I was wondering how people on here got on with different leads. Normally I just use the standard Adjusti Bell mould or a standard sinker shape 6 or 8 oz which have served me well but I see a lot of people using the cannonball type leads. Are there any advantages of these before I splash out on another mould?
On another note has anyone tried anchoring over a wreck up here with a big mackeral flapper? Just another thing I fancy a go at this year to try to add a conger to the species list on Growler.

Cheers, Graham.
 
The torpedo type leads are supposed to be the most efficient for less drag etc , so I just stick to those , can't see much advantage in changing shapes.
Anchoring over a wreck would be great I reckon , them ling seem to like the bait quite static , don't know about conger though , are there any here? I've never heard of one coming off a north east boat since I started taking an interest in boat sea fishing 3 years ago. Maybe that's because no one ever anchors up though?
I took the plunge and bought some downriggers ....... so watch out pollack :D, I think I'll give them a couple of trial runs up on a big lake or loch for pike or ferox before I try them out at sea in swells and tide though .
It's getting so close I can almost taste it :D

Ray
 
As a layman (or should I say the lacky that hoiks the anchor up and down :D) it seems quite tricky getting positioning right for a successful drop over a wreck...we tried a few times last year and I imagine after a few more attempts we'd have nailed the theory - hard graft though :D


...I'm sure the skipper will chip in with a more technical explanamation
 
Aqua zoom 10oz is one of the best all round leads for the boat, failing that a torpedo lead.

I normally avoid the cone shaped ones as they are comparatively slow to sink as they desend with a side to side wobble.

I use the cannon ball ones for drifting or gilling sometimes but have switched to a mould based on the Norwegian kidney lead.
 
We use 10oz DCA Supazoom shape most of the time.

Not sure about anchoring over wrecks, I'm guessing you'd stand a good chance of loosing your anchor. Pretty sure there'll be some conger out there, how many times do you feel a fish take then instant snag, could be conger.

I've also heard of divers spotting them.
 
yes we tried a few anchoring techniques last season, fine over rough ground when the tide was fairly hard and produced a few more fish if I remember rightly.

Only problems with anchoring over a wreck is in finding a cabin boy fast and strong enough to keep up anchoring as the tide changed :)

best wrecks around tyne lie in 150 to 200 ft of water therefore to have a decent hold you must pay out 450 to 600 ft of anchor warp, now thats a lot of distance to hinge on (and by that I mean the anchor is the hinge point or centre of the swing arc) when your trying to get over a wreck that may not be spread more than 20 ft in width.
Add to this the time it will take to find the drop spot up tide up wind, get the anchor to bite, then pay out warp till you see the wreck on sounder (or calculate the uptide spot) then tie off....... then the wind alters 10 degrees and you miss :mad:, or the tide which is probably cross wind will pick up and again you miss.
Thats when your at the point when the problems occur when you call for the cabin boy to haul and he's not up to it! :D

but seriously, I think we'll give it another try this season after Tonys spent some time in the gym......... :rolleyes:

remember, unlike catching a big fish, its not the depth of water you have to pull the anchor through its the lay out of warp which is, on average, three times the depth.

norm
 
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Yer i tried it once Norman in 90ft and it almost killed me, also by the time the anchor got gripped i had over shot the wreck but some how never got the anchor snagged.

I wont be doing it again for wrecks but rough ground is great fun for a change when the tide is blasting past.
 
anka yanka

anka yanka

theres a lot to be said for winches, but a big buoy with a stainless ring to put the rope thru helps
 
Yes your right Lingking, you do need a pot hauler for that type of fishing. I used to fish out of Plymouth on Artilliarymani 2 with Geordie Dickinson. On the way over to Gurnsey, and he would drop 1 anchor well uptide of a wreck then pay out the warp across the tide and drop another anchor. He would then adjust the length of both warps until he was in a position to fish the wreck for that state of the tide. We were in 60 fathoms, so bringing any fish up with that tonnage of water above it was hard work . the biggest conger i got aboard was from Sea breeze lll out of Newhaven en route to Fe Camp, it was never weighed but Terry Lee estimated it at 86 lb, and that was at a similar depth. Bearing in mind that anywhere in the north sea you drop anchor it is not that deep, and engine noise (scare zone) plays a big part in what ends up in the fish box. It would not be hard to try this on the N/E coast because most of the wrecks lie North/ South, unless you are right inshore, it might take a few goes maybe just targetting one wreck with this method and you never know, but you might need to cut the engine. :)
 
We like the torpedo shaped leads as they get down quick and don't spin and tangle your gear.

It is possible (though difficult) to combat the pendulum effect that one anchor has by using 2 anchors at 30 degree angles uptide of the wreck.

We did this over the namorado field jacket (rig wreck) last year and the boat didn't move an inch. YouTube - wildcard gold 3

Alan
 
going into the science I guess the most aerodynamic shape for straight down would be the "standard" almost tear drop shaped leads...but I would also say that the cannonball leads must have an advantage when it comes to linear drag (IE from the drift) as there is no real flat surface for the pressure to build against

I prefer the cannonball leads just coz they look and feel good in the hand :red:
 
Yer not bad, just ready to wet a line and make the most of my days off, seems such a waste of a day off in the winter when the west wind is blowng and sea flat.

Set my targets for this year but got a feeling its not going to be a good season..hope am wrong.
 
RICH ....... haway ... only you could come up with a line like that in early March _________ Quote ... got a feeling its not going to be a good season. .... Unquote ....


:confused::confused::confused:

norm
 
I must admit Tony it was the cannonball type leads I had seen on slinky's photo's that spurred the thought process, they looked the business. The main advantage on the adjusti bell ones I found was perfect leads every time with no rejects. I am probobly just being lazy!
With regards to anchoring I was thinking along the lines of two anchors as well, kind of a running moor straight over the wreck up and down the tide and shorten one up or lengthen to keep position right over the top?
Ray I bet those two downriggers were almost as much as the marina fees or did you find them somewhere cheaper?
Micky took care of the engine service at the weekend so a couple of little jobs to do twhen I get home then out of the piers and turn right! Until about late May anyway!

Graham
 
Yeah Tone, look forward to trying the ball leads, especially with the fixed in swivel, they look and feel "Right" :) not long now ........

norm
 
anything that requires less than 12oz i use ball leads in either 10, 8 or 6 oz - you can normally knock off about 4oz in weight if you use the cannons ie 16oz normal lead = 12oz cannon. They drop just as fast as bopedoes, have less drift due to the shape and seem to loose less as using less lead.
 
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