Paints for leads

I bought some leads the other day that are advertised as sea fishing leads - the reason being they're cheap! Anyway, they're kind of bare and a bit shiny... what sort of paint could I use to colour them? I was thinking something matt green or dark brown, but wasn't exactly sure what sort of paint I should get...

Any ideas?

[Paul H]

I would say enamel. You should be able to get something like Hammerite (spelling might be wrong) in a big tin that'll do hundreds of leads. Tough paint and I'm sure it'll come in black or dark green.

I wouldnt bother mate, if you`ve ever swam out and examines what your leads look like under water, they usually appear black or sink in the silt

humbrol or airfix paints will usually do

[Graham Whatmore]

Small tube of students acrylic paint in the colour of your choice about £2. great for floats too because it is waterproof.

Cheers folks

Monk - I did wonder if I might be making a fuss over nothing, so in the interest of science (!) i may try doing a couple of "one rod painted lead, one rod bear lead" tests over the next couple of months. I'll let you know if I come to any conclusive results...

I must admit that particularly when using a lead clip, I smart a bit at paying £1.20 a lead... am I being tight?

[Matt Brown]

Jim, I'm a bit tight too and what I do is tie a load onto a loop of line and leave the lot in the margins when I'm next out fishing. They'll soon dull off.

I can remeber Jim once leaving some leads outside the shed for about 12 months and lichen grew all over them, they were great and really looked the part, I also went through a spell of coating my leads with then plastic coating you can buy in a variety of colours, I think however these things catch more anglers than fish. When I used to swim out with my baits I would position them nice and neat in visible spots, I`ve also checked so called anty tangle rigs after they have been casted out and a lot of them don`t appear to work how they are suppose to do, other baits I`ve cast out have landed in silt yet the carp have still found them, but the leads if you can see them often just look black

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

Jim,

For a really pukka finish try smearing the leads with a little waterproof glue and then rolling them in sand or very fine gravel/grit. This alone gives an extremely natural look, but you could always do a camou job with a couple of the little tins of matt enamell paint afterwards if you want.

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

If you just want too dull leads down quickly, soaking them overnight in vinegar is the old tried and tested method.