Here is my complete guide to making your own leads and how to coat them. I will show you the easiest way to do it, plus I’ll tell you my secrets on how to make and use special coatings that don’t cost a penny!

My Homemade 4oz Inline Flat Pear Leads in Speckled Brown

Introduction
Ever since I was a young lad, (that’s many years ago now) I have been interested in making fishing tackle for my own personal use.
This started way back in the late 1970’s before the introduction of electronic bite alarms, illuminating swingers, bait boats and all this new fandangled equipment that is on the market today. We had a tackle box, a rod holdall and a multicoloured deckchair. If you were lucky you had a 45” umbrella, a luxury item for a 9 year old boy in the 70’s and it was worth its weight in gold!
Of course only being 8 or 9 years old I never had any money to buy any fishing equipment, so, either my father bought it for me, I borrowed it from my father, or I made it myself.
Sometimes Santa Clause would bring me something, jolly nice man he was.
To this day I still have no clue how he got that bedchair down the chimney!

Chris Age: Errrrrmmmmm YOUNG! :)

Chris Age: Errrrrmmmmmm OLD! :)

Back in those days there weren’t any computers, Internet, Playstations and so on, as there is today. So we had to find other things to keep us occupied.
And as I have said, one of those things was making fishing tackle. I used to sit for hours making fishing tackle and I even tried my hand at tying flies! (My father tied all his own flies.)
Probably the first thing I started making was floats. I made them from Drinking straws and quills from the poultry birds from the local farm where I fished.
I used these for years and they worked a treat. I still have some in my tackle box today, 30 years later!!
We had washing up liquid bottle tops clipped on our line for bite indicators that were painted in fluorescent colours. If it was windy we used to fix a small lead weight to it with some blue-tack!
We also made our own float and tackle boxes out of wood. If we could make it, we would.

My First Carp Fishing Set Up!!!

My father taught me how to make all these things and I still do it 30 years later.
On a Saturday afternoon my father and I would go into the garage at home and make sea-fishing leads. He had moulds for these and also we had a mould for small arseley bombs that weighed about ¼ oz to 1oz for course fishing. This was great fun and my father used to save a lot of money by making his own leads.
All the moulds that my father had were too big for my carp fishing, about 6oz – 20oz, so I had to buy all my leads at the beginning.
Then in 2003 I was surfing the Internet, looking at tackle shops, when I came across a lead mould for carp fishing. It was a double mould that would make 2 different sized leads. They were 2.5oz and 3.5oz flat pear leads. I also saw that there were plastic coatings indifferent colours for camouflaging the leads.
I thought Great! I will order one of those and some coating as well.
I stole one of my father’s homemade lead pouring ladles and collected everything else I needed to make the leads. I also managed to get my hands on some lead as well.
When the mould arrived I immediately set about making some leads and it worked perfectly.

Over the next few months I bought some more lead moulds in different shapes and sizes. So now I had 4 different moulds to play with.

Flat Pear Leads 2.5oz & 3.5oz
Distance Zip Leads 2oz, 2.5oz, 3.5oz & 4.5oz
Dumpy Pear Leads 2oz, 2.5oz, 3oz & 4oz
Gripper Leads 2oz & 3oz

So now my lead making factory was in full swing. Any spare time I had I was making leads, soon fishing friends were coming round to help me and in return I gave them some leads.
Then I started experimenting with the colour coatings by mixing them to make new colours.
This went really well and now I thought my leads were as good as the ones in the shops and some were actually better!!!
So I ordered larger quantities of the powder coating and began mixing and experimenting with new colours.
Now I have a range of about 20 different coloured and textured coatings for the leads plus some other Special coatings that I will come on to later.
Here is a list of my normal plastic coatings and mixing quantities:

Plain Coating Colours

Brown, Black, Dark Green, Olive green and Light Green are 5 unmixed colours that I have in my range:

Brown- Brown 100%
Black- Black 100%
Dark Green- Dark Green 100%
Olive Green- Olive Green 100%
Light Green- Light Green 100%
White- White 100%
Yellow- Yellow 100%

Brown - Black - Dark Green

Mixed Colours and Quantities

Speckled Brown- Brown 50%, Black 25%, Dark Green 25%

Speckled Green- Dark Green 50%, Brown 25%, Black 25%

Light Gravel- Brown 15%, Black 15%, Dark Green 15%,
Light Green 15%, White 30%, Yellow 10%

Dark Gravel- Brown 20%, Black 20%, Dark Green 20%,
Light Green 20%, White 15%, Yellow 5%

Camo- Brown 50%, Olive Green 50%

Speckled Black- Black 85%, White 15%

Light Sand- Yellow 40%, White 10%, Brown 25%,Dark Green 25%

Dark Sand- Yellow 20%, White 10%, Brown 40%, Black 15%, Dark green 15%

Sandstone- Brown 90%, White 10%

Weed Green- Dark Green 50%, Olive Green 50%

Silt- Black 80% Light Green 10%, Dark Green 10%

My Speckled Brown Mix

Various Coloured Leads

Just for your info, my Speckled Brown Colour is the exact same colour as what is used on the “Korda” Leads

All of these colours can be made with a smooth glossy finish (that will dullen over time in your lead bag) or rough dull textured finish. I will show you how to do that later.

The Secrets

Special Coatings
These are the special coatings that I add over the top of the plastic to create a totally different coating that makes your leads very well camouflaged indeed. Of course each one is to be used on a specific lakebed for the best concealment of your lead.

Rough Sand
My rough sand coated leads are actually coated in real sand. There are different sized grains I use. The roughest sand I use is from the beach in Härlanda Tjärn in Gothenburg. This is dried in the oven first and then sivved to get all the big lumps out………. And it’s FREE!
The smaller sand grains are from the pet shop and it is really cheap to buy.
1kg of sand will coat 1000’s of leads and costs about 10 Swedish Kronor (80 pence)
Depending on which colour coating you use under the sand, will determine the colour of the finished sand coating.
For Example:
If you use White as the base colour, the colour will be a light sand finish.
If you use Black you will have a dark sand finish.
Green will give you a weedy sand finish and so on
I call these leads “Total Stealth” as they are very well camouflaged on a sandy lakebed.

3 Dark Rough Sand Coated Leads

Smooth Sand
I think this sand gives an excellent finish to the leads. It is very fine sand that can be bought in certain pet shops. It is called ‘Chinchilla sand’ and it’s excellent for lead coatings. This is also very cheap and you can coat 1000’s of leads with 1kg!
Again the finished colour of the lead all depends on the plastic coating colour you use underneath.
This sand dullens the plastic coating but you can still see the colours underneath the sand
For example:
If you use just normal brown as the base colour, the finished lead will look like a stone when you coat it in this fine sand.
This coating works really well on Gravel coloured leads as it takes away the shine off the plastic but still leaves the camo effect of a gravel lakebed.

Smooth Sand Finish

Dung Coating
This is by far my best invention to date. This coating can be used on any lead and is very well camouflaged on any lakebed.
Again this coating is applied over the top of the plastic coating underneath, however the colour of the coating underneath that you use doesn’t really matter, as you won’t see it through the dung coating. Saying this, it is best to use a dark coating for the base coat, i.e. either black or brown.
What is it made of?? Well I came up with this coating after a few experiments…………….
It is made out of dead leaves that I collected in autumn when they had fell from the trees.
What I did was fill a sack full of leaves so I had plenty for the next year and stored them on the balcony at home.
I took a few handfuls and put them in the oven to dry them out until they were brittle. Making sure to mix them around to dry them all thoroughly.
Once I thought they were ready I put them through the blender to chop them into small pieces.
When they were done I sivved them through a culinder to remove the larger pieces. I put the larger pieces back into the blender and gave them another blast.
The dung coating is now ready for use and doesn’t cost a penny!!

Drying and chopping Leaves for the Dung Coating.

So now my SECRET is on the Internet :)

Just store it in a plastic tub, job done!
You can also dip these leads into flavourings and dips for that added attraction. The coating soaks in the flavour and is released slowly in the water
The best thing about this coating is what I found out by accident after using them.
If you are fishing a silty or muddy lakebed, the coating begins to soak in the bottom sediment of that lake, thus changing the colour of the lead to the exact same colour of that lakebed. The lead only has to be submerged in the sediment for a few hours for this to happen. Once it is in, it wont come out again!
Now you can’t get better camo than that!

3 Dung Coated Zip Leads - 2 are dry and one is wet!

A Dung Lead After a Few Hours in a Silt Lakebed!!
The Lead has taken on the exact same colour as the silt!

Other Coatings
I have found a few other coatings to the leads in pet shops. They do work but are not as good as the sand or Dung coatings.
The first one is Very small pebbles that you use in an aquarium but you must put a couple of thick coatings of plastic powder coating underneath for the pebbles to stick to it.
Very well camouflaged at the bottom of a fish tank ha ha.

The Fish Tank Lead :)

Another coating is crushed seashells, but this coating is usually made of white seashells so is not very practical. Also the shells can be quite sharp, so not very, line and hooklength friendly.
Another coating I have, but have not yet tried yet is sawdust, you can apply this to the lead and then dye it whatever colour you like. You can even roll them in mud to stain them brown. Again these can be dipped in flavours for added attraction.

You can experiment with all kinds of stuff to coat your leads. It’s entirely up to you. I remember when I used to paint my leads to camouflage them, but eventually it would peel and chip off. The plastic coating I use now does not.

Where to buy Plastic lead powder coating: Trafford Angling, Salford, Manchester, England. “Google Trafford Angling”. Or Ebay.co.uk

Making Leads

What you need:
Lead
A lead mould
Lead loops and Swivels (not needed for inlines)
A lead melting pot (A small stainless steel pan will work fine)
A ladle / scoop (for pouring molten lead)
A burner (for melting the lead)
A Metal clamp (not plastic it will melt)
Long nose pliers
A Knife
A Metal pan
A Spoon
Wire Cutters
A metal file
A Pan of Cold Water

Safety Equipment
Thick Gloves (Welding gloves are the best)
Safety Glasses
Facemask

 

How to Make Leads
Making leads is fun but can also be dangerous if you are not careful, so safety precautions must be taken. Always use gloves and safety glasses when working with molten lead and it is advisable to wear a facemask to protect you from the fumes and the room must be well ventilated.

Safety First!!!
(Note the gloves: "The Englishman") hee hee

Put your lead into the melting pot and prepare your work surface while you wait for it to melt (Lead melts at 330 degrees Celsius)
Also you need to heat the mould as well, so put in your loops and swivels, clamp it together with the metal clamp and then put it on the burner along with the melting pot.
Keep turning the mould occasionally (not forgetting to put your gloves on) so the whole mould is heated equally on all sides. Don’t heat the mould too much or the molten lead will run through the joint crack in the mould.
If you don’t heat it enough, the lead will solidify too quickly and you will end up with half a lead.
So it is important to get it right. It will take a few attempts when you first start, but you will get it right eventually.
Once the lead has melted, take your spoon and leave it in the molten lead to heat up for a couple of minutes.
Then use the spoon to scoop all the swarfe off the top of the molten lead. If you don’t heat the spoon the lead will stick to it.
Swarfe is the crap that comes off and out of the lead when it is melted. The dirtier the lead, the more swarfe you will get
Drop it in some cold water to cool off before you throw it away.

Then you need to get the Ladle / scoop the same temperature as the lead, so put it in the molten lead for 5 – 10 minutes to heat it up. This is what you will be pouring the lead into the mould with. If it is cold it will solidify the lead as soon as you put it in.
Once you are ready to pour, take the mould off the burner and place it on your prepared work surface. Make sure the work surface is metal and not wood, as the hot mould will burn it.
Take a scoop full of lead and pour it into the mould until the lead fills the mould and the lead can be seen in the pouring hole of the mould. Wait for it to solidify which will take a couple of seconds. You will see it solidify by going from very shiny to quite dull. When it has set, take off the clamp and split the mould with your knife.
The lead will probably be stuck in one side of the mould, so hold the mould down with the knife and grab the lead either by the loop or the excess lead with the long nose pliers.
Remove it from the mould and place it directly in the pan full of cold water.
You can continue doing this until you have the amount of leads you want.
If you are making a lot of leads, the mould may start to cool down after a while so you will need to reheat it on the burner.
Half a lead is a good sign that the mould has cooled down.
Once you have made your required amount you can turn the burner off and let everything cool slowly. If you have lead left over pour it out into the mould to make small ingots of lead. This is so it is easier to melt next time rather than leaving it in the melting pot.
You don’t need to clamp the mould together to do this. Just pour the lead in both sides of the mould until you have small lumps of lead ready to melt for next time.
Take your new leads out of the water and lay them on a towel. Give them a quick wipe over to dry them off.
Now you need to clip off the excess lead with the wire cutters and file them smooth with the metal file.

DO NOT put the excess lead back in to molten lead as it may still be wet and could explode. Wait for it to dry completely!!!!

That’s your job done……… your new leads are ready for coating!

Its worth noting that Coated leads are also better for the environment than uncoated, as the lead is sealed in with the plastic coating, thus protecting against pollution should you lose them.
It is much easier to have someone to help you when making leads. One person can pour the lead while the other person inserts the loop and swivel. If you are doing it by yourself you have to keep taking your gloves off, as inserting the loop and swivel is a very fiddly job.

I have since added more lead moulds to my collection including a back lead mould and 4 different inline moulds.

Coating Leads

What you will need
Plastic Powder Coating (in various colours if you wish to mix them)
A Gas burner Gun (plus extra butane gas canister to refill the gun)
Forceps
A Spoon
A Pan of Cold Water
A Knife
Optional
Sand
Special Dung Coating

How to Coat Leads
This is the fun part where you can concoct different colours to suit your fishing.
I gave you a list of what colours I use and the mixing quantities earlier in the article.
This is a guideline, but obviously you can mix the colours however you want them.
The first thing to do is have everything ready including your pan of cold water.
Then take your forceps and clamp them on to the lead loop between the swivel and the lead.
You want to get the forceps as close to the swivel as possible.
If the forceps are touching the lead, there is the possibility of the coating covering the forceps as well. What happens now is when you cool the lead and the coating hardens, the forceps are attached to the lead. If you try to pull them off a big chunk of lead coating will come with it, resulting in a botched lead.
If this does happen (sometimes it is unavoidable) take your knife and cut round the top of the lead between the lead and forceps before trying to remove them.
Once you have clamped your lead, take the burner gun and heat up the lead. Heat it evenly on all sides. If you see the lead become shiny, it is about to melt so remove the burner gun immediately!!!! Not only will this deform the lead it will drip molten lead, burning anything it touches!
Now dip the lead into your chosen powder coating and cover the lead with powder using the spoon. Leave it there for a couple of seconds then remove the lead.
It will start to melt onto the hot lead by its self, but to speed this up use the burner to melt it quicker. Don’t hold the burner in the same place too long, as it will burn the plastic coating making the lead smell of burnt plastic. Flick the burner over the lead from side to side until the coating has melted evenly on to the lead.
Once you are happy with your coating, submerge the lead in to the cold water for about 20 – 30 seconds, stirring the water to cool it quicker. If you drop the lead into the water straight away it will deform the plastic when it hits the bottom of the pan.
That is your lead complete with what I call the standard coating.

Lead Coating Session

Rough Textured Coating
This is easy enough to do and it is done in exactly the same way as the standard coating. But before you put the lead in the water to cool it, dip the lead back into the coating and cover it again with coating using the spoon. Remove the lead from the coating, wait 3 seconds and then submerge the lead straight in the water. Again stirring it in the water for 20 – 30 seconds before releasing it.
Don’t let the second coat melt onto the lead or it will ruin the rough textured finish and also become shiny.
You must put a standard coating on first when making the rough textured coating. If you don’t, the coating will easily peel off after a couple of casts (as I found out).

Sandstone Rough Textured Chunky Gripper Leads

Sand Coating
Again, coat your lead as normal with your standard coating, but this time before cooling it in the water, dip it in your sand coating and cover the whole lead with sand using the spoon. Push down gently on the sand so that the sand embeds itself in to the hot plastic coating.
Leave it in the sand for a few seconds and then remove it. Check the lead is fully coated with sand and when you are happy submerge it in the water.
Hold the lead there again for 20 – 30 seconds to let it cool before releasing it.
Be careful not to push down to hard on the lead when coating it with sand as this can deform the plastic on the lead, leaving you with an odd shaped lead.

Various Sand Coated Leads

Special Dung Coating
Once again, coat your lead as normal with your standard coating, but this time before cooling it in the water, dip it in your dung coating and cover the whole lead with dung using the spoon. Push down gently on the dung coating so that the leaves embeds itself in to the hot plastic coating.
Leave it in the dung for a few seconds and then remove it. Check the lead is fully coated with your dung coating and when you are happy submerge it in the water.
This may take a couple of times to coat it completely. Before cooling the lead squeeze it gently in the palm of your hand ensuring the dung is well embedded in the plastic. Be careful not to burn yourself doing this. Take your time coating these leads so that the lead is completely coated. Just keep pushing the lead in to the coating until you are happy before cooling it in the water.

A Wet Dung Coated Distance Zip Lead

Lead Moulds

Lead moulds are really cheap to buy and they will save you a lot of money in the long run, if you make your own leads.
They are usually made out of cast iron and come in different shapes, sizes and various cavities, ranging from singular leads to 4 leads. There are moulds on the market with more that 4 cavities in them, but the most cavities that I have in one mould is 4.
A mould for making 2 - 4 different sized leads costs about £16 (200:-) in England and there are quite a few different ones on the market now. So when you have made yourself 20 leads you have got your money back.
To make one lead costs roughly between 1 – 5kr depending on the size of the lead and how much you pay for your scrap lead.
If you can get your scrap lead for free then it is very cheap to produce your own leads.
10kg of lead will make roughly 100 x 3.5oz (100g) leads.
If you are just making leads for your own personal use, then 10kg lead will last you a long time. If you make leads for your mates aswell (which you probably will do if you are like me) then you may need more scrap lead.
So if you pay 20kr for your leads in the shop, you will save yourself 2000kr by making 100 leads.
Of course we all lose leads at some point in our fishing and some rigs are actually designed to eject the lead on the strike (as used in Rainbow Lake in France for example).
So you will save money and won’t feel so bad when you lose a lead. You lose 1kr instead of 20kr.
I have been collecting lead moulds now for about 5 years and have bought mine from England, France and Austria.
You can make lead moulds yourself, which I have done. My “Disc Leads” are made in moulds I made myself, ranging from 50g to 120g and I also have a 5oz triangular mould that is homemade. Actually my grandfather made this back in the 1960’s. I also have a homemade 6oz Flat Pear mould aswell, which I use mainly for holding down marker floats that are taken out using a boat.
Here is a list of my moulds that I have at the moment.
* = Homemade mould

Loop & Swivel Moulds
Flat Pear Leads 2.5oz & 3.5oz
Distance Zip Leads 2oz, 2.5oz, 3.5oz & 4.5oz
Dumpy Pear Leads 2oz, 2.5oz, 3oz & 4oz
Gripper Leads 2oz & 3oz
Chunky Gripper Leads 60g, 80g, 120g & 170g
Mega Gripper Lead 300g (10oz)
Sidewinder Lead 100g (3.5oz)
Cannonball Leads 80g & 100g
*Disc Leads 50g – 120g
*Triangular Lead 5oz
*Flat Pear Lead 6oz

Inline Moulds
Inline Flat Pear Leads 3oz & 4oz
Inline Dumpy Pear Lead 3oz
Inline Sidewinder Leads 40g, 50g, 60g, & 80g

Other Moulds
Back Leads 20 – 40g

Dumpy Pear - Distance Zip - Flat Pear Moulds

There are many more Carp fishing lead moulds on the market now, these are just a few that I have bought over the last few years.

So there you have it, this article tells you everything you need to know on how to make and coat your own leads ……… with a few of my secrets thrown in for good measure.
There is also my video guide to making and coating leads on our website in the “Videos” section, where you can watch me make and coat leads as per this article. There are also lots of photos of my leads throughout the website and a few pages dedicated to my leads called “Excalibur Leads”. Here you can see all the colours and coatings that I have talked about in this article.

SAFETY

Chris Thornhill
chris@screamingdelkims.com
www.screamingdelkims.com

But do the Leads Do the Job???

ENOUGH SAID!!!

Lead Making and Coating Videos

Excalibur Leads