Author Topic: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.  (Read 10936 times)

Offline RipSlider

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Hello all.

Sometimes I go fishing - and I make most of my own tackle.

There is a lake with some monster fish in it, but it is nearly impossible to fish. You need to cast the bait 100+ yards to get to the fish, but the bottom is maybe 4 feet deep in silt, so a heavy weight sinks immediately - and hence no fish.

I have been experimenting with making weights partly out of lead, and partly out of wood - the lead at the front and the wood behind it, with the idea being that the the mass is present, but the bouyance of the wood retards the sinking rate. Even with balsa wood though, this is not working out very well. I need the ledger to weight at least 3 ounces, but balancing that out in Balsa wood either needs a huge piece of wood, which is so chunky it becomes hard to cast, or not enough balsa wood is present to slow the sinking rate well enough. It needs to slowly float down the water column - as slow as is possible.

I have also tried blue foam, which makes for a better sized ledger, but doesn't last more than a few casts.

Does anyone know of any other materials which are heavy in air, but sink only slowly in water? I'm wondering if there is some type of plastic that might do the job, but not sure which.

Does anyone have any information that may help? Or any other idea's?

Many thanks indeed.

Steve

Offline jim

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2009, 07:15:30 AM »
what about a small plastic container filled with water?
you'd have your weight and its mass may work??????? :scratch: :scratch:

i'm thinking maybe them small clear plastic tubes with bungs in that little carbide tools come in?

maybe a small piece of lead would give it near the bouyancy you want????
if i'd thought it through, i'd have never tried it

Offline Bluechip

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2009, 07:30:40 AM »
Spot on Jimmy o c

HDPE has a relative density circa 0.96.

So, get a HDPE container, fill with water, this should just float.

Trim with bits of summat heavy ..

If you have another polymer container, look on the Matweb site for it's spec..

BTW Sainsburys sell fish without all the angling malarky   :D

Dave BC

Edit I think polypropylene floats, so, a bit of PP bar with a metal slug in it ?

Try Direct plastics online site , they sell it, got some t'other week
« Last Edit: September 09, 2009, 07:42:08 AM by Bluechip »
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Offline No1_sonuk

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2009, 07:43:45 AM »
Nylon has a density of 1.15 g/cm³  That might be enough to sink slowly.  If it's too fast, drill a hole for foam or cork to lighten it a bit.

Offline arnoldb

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2009, 07:58:47 AM »
3 Ounces = ~ 90 grams... Not much lead needed to get that weight. How about one of those thicker plastic drinking straws. Seal one end over an open flame, drop in lead pellets to make up the weight, and seal the other end to trap air inside.  You might have to play around with the length.  Will make casting easy, as the lead will go to the front and keep tube aerodynamic while in flight.  Air trapped inside will cause buoyancy once in water...

 

Offline Darren

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2009, 08:20:00 AM »
Could you not have the bait on a runner so the weight sinks fast but the bait floats/sinks slowly?
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Offline Stefan Pynappels

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2009, 08:31:12 AM »
You could just try a clear bubble float with the right amount of weight added and then the rest filled with enough water to give very slight negative bouyancy. You may already have some of these.....

Offline rleete

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2009, 08:41:34 AM »
Tubing, sealed at both ends.  Weighted slightly at one end, and both ends sealed.  Drill a tiny hole in each endcap.  The water bubbles in slowly, causing it to sink.

It might be a drawback that it releases a stream of bubbles as it sinks; since I don't fish, I don't know.
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Offline kvom

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2009, 12:42:50 PM »
Quote
You need to cast the bait 100+ yards

How do you do that?  Catapult?   :offtopic:

Offline RipSlider

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2009, 12:59:17 PM »
Quote
You need to cast the bait 100+ yards

How do you do that?  Catapult?   :offtopic:

Cast it with a rod - just like normal, but with a bit more "oomph". 100 yards is no big deal - fairly common distance to fish at in the UK. 175 yards is where it starts getting tricky.


Thank you all for your advice. I can see that Mrs Steve is soon to become very annoyed with me while I drop various pieces of plastic and differently sealed and weighted tubes into a bucket of water to see what happens. I expect my seven month old will love it though!

I will report back what works well.

Steve

Offline arnoldb

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2009, 01:17:11 PM »
Please DO report back Steve - I like a bit of carp fishing - and in the one dam where I go regularly, this could be helpful to get one of those elusive 10kg+ ones!  And good fishing season is now starting here in old NAM  :thumbup:

kvom, like Steve said, common rod, and a bit of oomph, and one needs to develop a good casting technique.  And that is also why I also mentioned aerodynamics in my earlier post; when you try for distance the size of your weight & bait do become an issue...

Cheers, Arnold

Offline sbwhart

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2009, 03:57:15 PM »
In my fishing days we had a similar problem with thick bottom weed, started injecting worms with air so that they floated on top of the weeds, caught some monsters that way.

Cheers

Stew

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Offline John Stevenson

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2009, 04:05:13 PM »
Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.

Titanic ?

John S
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Offline No1_sonuk

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2009, 04:47:40 PM »
Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.

Titanic ?

John S
He said "sinks slowly"...

Offline steve

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #14 on: September 10, 2009, 05:18:48 AM »
how about a small  bag full of one pound coins.all they ever do is sink slowly.


  steve

Offline Bernd

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Re: assistance requested - I need a heavy thing which only sinks slowly.
« Reply #15 on: September 10, 2009, 09:16:35 AM »
Perhaps what you need is a flat bottom boat to get to were the fish are?  :scratch:

Bernd
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