Before choosing one type of sinker over another, it's important to know the main characteristics of each category. Lead is an important part of the line and must be adapted to current fishing conditions.
Lead therefore plays a vital role in the overall mechanics of the assembly. Let's take a look at the different types of lead and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.
For carp fishing, I consider there to be three types of sinkers, each of which, it should be remembered, gives numerous models with very different characteristics.
In-line fuses
With this type of sinker, the line body (leadcore, fluorocarbon...) passes through the sinker from the inside along its length before being connected to the leader. The swivel is locked or unlocked in the insert provided, depending on the desired action (locked or sliding).
This type of sinker remains more effective on hard bottoms, as the self-shoeing is better. This is because the leader is on the more solid side of the sinker. On soft bottoms, however, this type of lead loses all its advantages. The mechanics of the sinker are then compromised by the mud (poor sliding) and the leader is partially sunken, thus compromising the presentation.
Swivel sinkers
As the name suggests, a lead of this type has a swivel for attachment to the lead clip on your anti-fender. The lead is then shunted in relation to your line body. This lead is very versatile (all substrates) and casts very well for most models.
It has the enormous advantage of being quick to change or remove at the end of a fishing trip. We can also adjust the depth of the clip sleeve so that the lead is ejected in the event of an untimely hook-up.
Some would stop there to categorize lead sinkers for carp fishing, but I'd add one more, and not the least.
Mahin lead
When the fish bites, it takes all the inertia of the sinker. This sinker has a clip positioned at its center of gravity. Note that this clip is safe as the fish can get rid of it in case of breakage.
Like swivel sinkers, Mahin sinkers are easy to remove after a fishing trip. Very effective on hard bottoms, it is certainly the most successful type of sinker.
The choice of lead type is not insignificant, nor is the choice of model. In a forthcoming article, we'll look at the different swivel models compatible with the clip-lead antijammer.
