Lead moulds and how I found them.

Hi every one,

Here's a write up on the lead moulds I used all the time and ones I should have not wasted my money on.

The majority of moulds are excellent and will save you a fortune over the life time of the mould.

I have one mould which I have had the last 21 years and I still use it and it has no signs of it giving up yet.

 

The bomb weight 2.5oz, 3.5oz. 4.5oz and 5.5oz

I'll start this off with my oldest mould it is an Adjusti-mould and it makes bomb leads from 2.5 to 5.5oz.

 

 

 

 I bought this mould in the ABC fishing tackle shop on Caple street  in Dublin. It's a great shop and from memory, it was an Aladdin's Cave of fishing tackle. I think I paid 18 punts for it at the time.

With this mould you make the wire loops and set them in place and put the mould together and then just pour the lead.

You can also make grip leads by adding wire strands to the holes you can see at the base of the lead.

This mould is easy to pour into with a generous opening it's hard to miss. The lead does not have to be super hot just molten is enough. You can get about 12 pours before this mould gets very hot.

I find this an excellent all round lead that can be used from shore, boat and kayak in many areas and situations, I would highly recommend this style of lead. It drops quick with no much flutter on the way down. Also it is a good lead on the drift with it's slim design it is less likely to get stuck.

 

The dumb bell weight from 1oz to 2kg

 Another old classic,
This style of lead is really only suited to boats and kayak angling, I find this an excellent mould for making a huge range of leads weights, with a massive opening for pouring, it's a breeze to use.

I find it excellent for fishing at anchor as it holds very well and doesn't catch the tide. Also it's excellent for trolling feathers for bait fish from your kayak, it stays down with out having to have a huge lump of lead on.

 

 

But on the bad side it can be a catchy lead for drifting on hard ground and seems to find those sticky spots more than other slimmer lead patterns.

 

Bank weights 4oz,8oz and 12oz

These are handy a handy mould when your stuck for time this mould all you have to do is melt and pour. No wire needed as it makes the eye as you pour the lead. This mould was an ebay job and only cost about £10.00 a bargain

Although the mould quality was not great it does the job. The eyes where the most annoying part as some where open when taken out of the mould. An easy solution was to add a bead of blue tack

where the eye should be. It does the job easily. 

This mould makes 4oz, 8oz, and 12oz leads.

This is a trickier mould to use as the pouring hole is where the eye ends up. so your pouring lead on to the eye stud. So you need the lead to be very hot or the pouring hole blocks very easily. But very hot lead sorts that problem. 

This is an excellent lead for fishing at anchor or on the drift with it's slim design. Unfortunately it is brutal for trolling feathers and jigging as it flutters and shoots off to one side a lot when dropped. When trolled at a reasonable pace it spins like a helicopter blade and can hinder fish hitting your feathers. So at anchor and drifting it's a good lead trolling no good at all.

 

Bank weight leads 1oz to 3oz

This another mould fast becoming one of my favourites, no wire need and an excellent design.

The only problem is they are harder to tie on but it's a minor problem and easy sorted with a loop of line. They are a little small for my use but I would rather a mould with more 3oz spaces in it.

 

This mould is easy to pour with the eye at the bottom and a large pouring hole that's is easy to use.

 These leads are of use to us all from shore, kayak or boat.

 

 

Articulated jig head mould.

 This mould makes 4 sizes from about 25g to 106g

I came across this mould while watching Jim Cloughesy's video's from the Bella Vista self drive boats where they where catching fine bass, cod and Pollack with them.

Jim told us where he got them and I had one bought as soon as possible lol.

The mould landed and I was not overly happy to be honest. the head seemed very big.

I prefer to fish as light as possible. But as I went along I found more and more uses for them and also wanted to catch a tope on one for some real sport. Thankfully I did it on my first try and I had a great scrap from a tope of about 23lb. It was so good I will be doing it all summer.

This mould also has a handy pouring holes. They look small but I have no problem pouring them.

At the moment I am using galvanised tying wire to good effect.

The only problem I had was getting the eye to stay in place the wire was hard to get in shape. so I drilled the eyelets bigger and to stop any blocked eyes I added some blue tack. They are perfect every time.

 

Jighead mould 9g to 26g.

This is an excellent mould an it opens a world of lure fishing for many many species, from perch in the fresh water to pollack, bass, codling and even flatties on the smaller ones.

I picked this up on ebay, my most exspensive one to date at £31.00 including postage.

The only draw back was the hook eye holes where large, but a dab of blue tack sorts that and the heavier hooks don't need the blue tack.

You can see above the mould was tight for some hooks so a rub of the grinder with a sanding disc sorted that. 

 This mould comes with wooden handles and can be used even when very hot. So be careful not open it before the lead goes hard. The eye holes on this mould are good and easy to use.

 

Pirk moulds 3.5oz and 4.5oz

This mould was an impulse buy as I couldn't get the one I really wanted.

It also was an ebay job and was a poor choice. I was very difficult to pour so I had to bore the pouring hole out a bit bigger. They did come out well after that but on a few try's I had no luck at all, I tried them on Pollack, coalies and ling with not a fish to show for it.

It may very well work for you but I won't be a hurry to make any more soon. It could work on the wrecks so if you get a chance try it but you where warned.

 

Another pirk mould.

This was another mould I bought from the same place as the mould above. Again the pouring hole was very small and difficult to use, again the pouring holes needed to be drilled to make it useable.

These perks where really to big for me and I never gave them a proper go for ling and Pollack on the wrecks. some day I'll give them ago.