Freshwater Bank Fishing

Publisher’s Note: This is a reprint from the Sept. 2003 Vol. 29 No. 8 of HAWAII FISHING NEWS.

Part One

Sinkers for Beginners

Why use a sinker? Basically lead sinkers have one single purpose: to get the bait down to the level where the fish are holding. As a result, there have been numerous inventions and attempts to make sinkers that will more or less meet any situation.

Because sinkers, for the most part, are to be in direct contact with the bottom of the fishing venue, there are many factors to take into consideration. The most important is the topography of the bottom: whether it is rocky, silty, gravelly or sandy. However, when you go to the store to buy sinkers, you will not find much of an array apart from the common “drop” sinker, so-called more because of its shape than its ability to drop.

Take a situation like the Nu‘uanu catfish fishery: the bottom is mostly rocky with deep crevices, so therefore a drop sinker is really not a good choice. The “shoulders” of the sinker hang up almost everywhere. Previously showed, the preferred place where an angler may position a bait in such a manner is to be situated in the only silty area where there