The leader thread got me thinking. I tend to lose everything about 1/2 the time when drift fishing, and I use 12lb. main and 8lb. leader, or sometimes a 10 and 6 combo in the summer. I use home made tubing snubbers (black) on a 3-way swivel.

What have you guys found hangs up least? Slinkies on a snap swivel, lead in a snubber, pinched lead on a snap?

Slinkys probably hang up less but the feel to me is just not the same. I like my hole punched lead on a snap personally or split shots when pitching bait.

I like to watch were others are hanging up and try to work the hole at maybe a different angle to avoid those unforegiving natives or simply lift over them or even use line drag accomplished by dropping the rod tip low allowing the gear to glide thru those sticky spots.

How much lead do you think gets deposited during higher flows at B.C. While doing a Sanford and Son
Salvage operation there during the summer at say 2,000 to 3,000cfs. I was amazed at the lead gardens that I picked. We are talking 5-8" long pieces of 1/4" behind every boulder, bank sinkers in any weight not to mention the hardware.

I figure if it's that easy retrieve I'm getting some of mine back.

FJ out

Pencil lead, 1/4" or 3/16" solid core. Also use 12# mainline or 17 # mainline if there's chinook in the river.

[ 11-04-2001: Message edited by: Steelheadman ]

I fish either 1/4" in the heavy flows of late fall, winter and spring. And in the summer I fish 3/16". The 1/4" gets down much faster then the 3/16" but hangs up more and thus becomes a pain in the ass during the low flows of summer.

All my rigs are with solid lead slid into a small piece of ruber tubing.

In the summer I rig sliding unless I am fishing with eggs and then I run fixed. All other times I run fixed.

I have never liked the soft spongy feel of slinkies as the hard taps of lead transmit the the contour and structure of the bottom much better. Plus whenever you hang up with slinkies, you are pretty much screwed where as lead will pop loose from your rubber tubing and you can geat your gear back. Plus lead gets down so much faster then slinkies do and you dont have to spend hours upon hours making them.

I use hollow core lead and crimp it on the tail hangin from where I tie my swivel on. Woks alot better than rubber tubing for getting your gear back. Didn't work any better on the Nisqually but it's full of logs and sticks, but on the rockier rivers it works great.

know this mightsound like a pain in the b***
I have a lot of time on my hands @ work so what I do is make up a bunch of slinkies (cheaper then pencil lead in the loooooonnnngggg run)with a 2lbs. test lead then out in the field I use a 3 way and tie up usually the slinky will com free butt if it does'nt then i'm only out the .5 cent it cost me and I can tie back on a new slinky in seconds

That's what I do too. Saves gear.

Skywalker and others:

Been doing the slinky bit for over 14 yrs., the following will give you an example of why I use them....

Rivers were the Hoh and the Satsop....

Driftboat

Both rigged the same way, level wind, 12# line, etc.

Pardner----100% lead, me 100% slinky's

Hoh---Slinky's lost during day----3
Lead------------------------18

Satsop--Slinky's------------------2
Lead----------------------11

I have stayed with slinky's for MOST of my fishing but not all.....

"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working".........

I use the hollow core method myself. Used surgical tubing way back when. Saw the leadmasters at a sporsman show in the 80's and never used the solid core again. Too much extra stuff to keep in my vest to run solid core.

I like slinkies too. I just don't use them aas much. It's much easier to me to adjust my weight on my rigs with the holow core then a slinky. I remember I'd have about 4 lbs's of slinkies ii my vest so I was prepared for diferent styles of fishng and water conditions.

Hmmmm, Ii fish the same riers you do Drifter. I rarely hang up on the Satsop o the Hoh. Do you drift the lower sections of both rivers??? I normally fish the Morgan's Crossing to Oxbow on the Hoh and Schaefer down on th Sop. I rarely ever lost gear on either. My loss rate with slinkies vs. lead was about the same.

Dumb question, do you mean leadmaster pliers or what is the setup you are talking about?

dumb question on my part, not yours

I use both. Slower water I will go with a slinkie and in faster water I will use lead. Lead works alot better if you need to get your rig down fast.

I have a box that is numbered and that is how I keep tract of my slinkie's
I use vacuum line from an auto parts store for my lead it only takes about 1/2 in. of tubing.and the lead comes out easy when hung up.I just run my snap swivel through one side of the tubing and it holds well with the thicker tubing.

I think a light strike is alot easier to detect with slinkies but some water you just cant fish slinkies unless you want to fish a 4in. piece.But slinkies do tend to not hang up as bad..

TM

Hey bentpole, glad to see you made it over to the board. I'm not sure if I understand your setup though. You're using a 3-way swivel and somehow fixing your slinkies onto another piece of 2 lb line to put on the 3-way??

Aren't you guys that use the 3-ways (fixed, and not sliding) worried that a lot of the fish that pick up your setup will feel the weight of the lead and drop it??

Yes, I mean the leadmaaster pliers. Saw them demostrated years ago. I still have my original pair. They have blue handles instead of the black. Still work great.