Camouflaging leads

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Oscar The Grouch

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I apologise if this topic has been covered previously. I have started fishing a water that is gin clear and i wanted to make the whole rig to be as invisible as possible. Does anyone have any tips on how to alter leads? The shop bought dung leads are pretty good but can get quite pricy and I was hoping someone might have a more cost effective way of doing this?
Thank you in advance!
 
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David Naylor 3

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Shape, Shine, Shadow, Silohette and movement - that's what i was taught in the army. Sort them out and it'll go a long way to camoflaging anything.

Use a permenant marker to add colour and help brake up the shape, if it's a gravel bottom use irregular dots. It it's weedy use streaks but make sure that nothing is in straight lines as this wouldn't look natural.

I've seen some shiney bombs, roughing this down with sand paper may help take the shine off and make it look more stone like.

Just an idea, i've never actually done this by the way

lol
 
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BAZ (Angel of the North) aka Fester

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Last year I collected a handfull of sand from the rivers that I fished, I put a smear of araldite on the leads and then poured the dry sand onto them, I find this works a treat.
 
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Bob Watson

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I've been messing about with plasti-coat, not too happy with the shiny finish it produces but if you let the lead cool a bit before dipping you can get a dull grainy/sandy effect. I like Bazs' idea though, I'll try that one myself.
 
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Bryan Baron 2

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I coated the leads in patching plaster used for filling in the holes in the wall. comes in a nic dark grey just looks like a stone. You can also add some aquarium grave if fishing on a gravel patch.
 
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Oscar The Grouch

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Thanks for the comments guys, some things worth a try there. Im probably opening up another can of worms but would any glue type substance be off putting to the carp or is that just too paranoid?
 
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NottmDon

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similar idea to Baz & Bryan I buy aquarium gravel,it comes in many colours from natural to bright blues and reds, slap araldite on the leads attach gravel then dip in kiln dried sand. Use em for barbel and carp fishing and they work well.
 
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BAZ (Angel of the North) aka Fester

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I don't think it will harm the fish oscar Hahaha, oscar=fish get it? eerm, it was said in another thread that the poisons or whatever wear off when they come into contact with water. You could even stick bits of weed on the leads.
 
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christian tyroll

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also another alterative if you want an inline lead. take a few stones the right weight from where your fishing and get some rig tubing of the subtible colour! using a masonary drill just drill an appropiate size hole (same ish diameter as the rig tubing) and put the tubing in to stop any rough edges on the line! ive got a few stones but still havent got round to doing this!
 
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Big Rik

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very difficult to do Christian.

Stonze only use some kind of sanstone and the drill has to be on very low rpm from my memory.

If you try it, be VERY careful, as a shattering stone could very well blind you.
 
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christian tyroll

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hmmm thanks Ric could have saved me or someone else an accident there , il see what sort of rpm the drill in the garage is and find out what the stone it is before even considering it!
 
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Bob Watson

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If you try it Christian, don't try doing it with a handheld drill, you'll need a vice and table top drill and proper safety goggles are a must. I'd leave well alone. I drill concrete quite a lot at work and hitting a certain type of aggregate (stone/pebble/gravel) in the concrete can have unpredictable consequences. Stick with the glue and sand ideas for now.
 
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Frothey

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so where would they go baz?

can the fish tell the difference between a "camo" lead and pebble anyway?
 
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christian tyroll

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sounds like a safer alternative bob, il stick to the simple stuff. btw how do you attach the swivel to the stone, just glue it to the side?
 
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Bob Watson

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I'd assume that some type of epoxy is used to glue the swivel into the drilled hole. An accident waiting to happen in my opinion, but I'm not positive, there should be a safe method. Personally, if I was to make one I'd drill a second hole at 90 degrees to and through the first hole and hold the swivel through the eye with some stainless wire and epoxy the lot in. Too much trouble for the end result, as Frothey says above "can the fish tell the difference between a "camo" lead and pebble anyway?" Remember the brightly coloured "attractor" leads, blue, pink, orange etc, people caught when using them. If you leave your new leads outside in the weather they'll soon look like a grey pebble.
 
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Bryan Baron 2

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Where from Malc.

I tried drilling a few of the Ribble's stones this year. Not a chance of the drill going in. It would have cost more in drill bits than i would have saved on leads. If you live near a sandstone beech great otherwise as been said above stick with the alternatives.
 
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