If you're like me, you enjoy building things yourself and if you surf fish, you know that surf sinkers, the ones with the wire legs, are not cheap these days. The larger ones cost nearly $2.00 at even the discount type stores.

Well, I can beat that.....all it takes is a little time and just a little effort. First thing you will need is lead to melt.....If no lead is available, visit your local tire store and ask for old used wheel weights....not pure lead, but they melt down just fine. I have a small cast iron pot made for melting lead and a small dipper I got from Cabelas intended for pouring bullets.....

My latest discovery to aid in making surf sinkers is my homemade mold.....in the past I've tried holes bored in wood, old sockets, tire tool end socket, etc. to pour the lead into for a mold....Actually used flour and found it worked just great but it tends to burn and stick to the sinker when sinker is removed from the flour. But now, I've found a material for the mold that is GREAT.....Bondo body filler.....just mix up a container full of this stuff, and push a store bought pyramid sinker down into it.....when it finally sets up, remove the sinker and you have a mold to pour lead into. I sprayed the sinker with cooking oil(Pam) before inserting it into the bondo just to make sure it didn't get stuck.

For the wire legs, I like to use #12 copper wire.....You can buy it without any insulation and you won't have to waste time and effort stripping the insulation off of it. Bending the wires may take a little practice but you will soon get the hang of it......

You will need about 24 inches of #12 bare copper electrical wire....bend as in photo to the left. I've shown wire kinda flat in order to show bends better....actually you can group the wires together much tighter before inserting them into the melted lead. Note: the lead sets up pretty fast so be ready with the wires. Also, don't insert the wires using your bare hands as the heat quickly transfers from the lead to the wires and it will burn you. I wear a heavy leather glove or use pliers to hold wires with.

Insert wire about one half inch into lead. Once the lead sets, remove it from the bondo mold and after it cools, you can cut the leg wires at points indicated.

The sinkers are not difficult to make and will do a great job hold against a strong current. Here's the finished product......