Sinker sizes...........

[theoldlegend]

Was at my fishing mate's place earlier today and after the usual political issues were solved, we got to talking tactics for our next foray to Iluka.

He showed me a ball sinker mould he's had for many years and it holds 4 x size 3, 4 x size 4 and 4 x size 5.

Then he showed me another mould he bought recently that holds size 6 sinkers.

We noticed that there's a very big difference between the size 5 in one mould and the size 6 in the other mould.

Then we got to thinking:

How were ball sinker sizes determined (probably many years ago) and;

Why would there be such a large difference between the 5 and 6 sizes?

I'm hoping that somebody might be able to answer both of these questions.

Many thanks,

TOL

[Brent_P]

At some point, someone must have decided to assign numbers to the standard ball sinker sizes - 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 1 ounce etc - who knows why. I'm not sure, but I think Australia might be the only country to use this system.

I don't have any size 6 ball sinkers still in their packets handy, but the size 5 ball sinker I have weighs 1 1/4 ounces. Maybe the next "standard size" weighs 2 ounces - does that sound right? I mainly use 1-5 ounce glow egg sinkers offshore, and they all have the weight in ounces on the sides. Many snapper leads have the weight in ounces on the side, even when the packet uses the other, pretty pointless, snapper lead numbering system (eg. a no.4 snapper lead weighs 8 ounces or approx. 227 grams).

Brent.