How To Make Fishing Sinkers At Home

Purchasing fishing weights can cost you upwards of $3 per pound. With the cost of inflation, the cost of sinkers can rise going forward.

By finding extra materials at scrap yards or other places throughout your community, you can make your fishing weights for a fraction of the cost.

Learning how to make homemade fishing weights can become a new skill as you explore different variations on how to do it. Once you start making fishing sinkers, you may never turn back to purchasing them from the shop.

If you are on a tight budget, utilizing your resources to make them will make your hobby as an angler is much more enjoyable.

You can’t make your fishing sinkers without first having a mold. Making your improvised fishing weights does not need a fancy mold. You can make your mold or purchase one if you choose.

Create Your Own Fishing Molds

Creating your fishing molds can reduce expenses by crafting your fishing weights. However, you can also repurpose mold-like structures throughout your home for the same purpose.

How to Make a Fishing Weight Mold

You can make a fishing weight mold in a variety of ways.

Try using a sinker you already have and pushing it into the playground sand to create your mold. Learn more information about this method in the aluminum fishing weights section.

Take two pieces of wood and use an oval or other shapes to create 4-6 molds on each piece. Reassure both pieces measure the same size and that both sides of the molds line up.

If all else fails, you do not have to make your mold to create fishing sinkers. Utilize a mold you may already have. Silicone molds that are the proper fishing sinker size will work well. You can also use an old regular or mini muffin tin to fashion your fishing weights.

Lead Fishing Weights Molds

Use epoxy putty, Play-Doh, or some other form of moldable clay product. Grab a Do-It casting mold in the type of fishing weight that you want. They come in the bass, jig head, crescent sinker, trolling sinker, and other shapes.

Press your chosen mold into the clay to make divots. Once you have melted the lead, pour the solution into the divots and let them set. Once they set, you have yourself some lead fishing weights.

Create Your Own Fishing Weights

To get started on learning how to make fishing weights at home, refer to this video from Northwoods Angling.

If you are making fishing weights for the first time at home, this longer comprehensive video is a great tutorial for you to begin! Luke shows beginners how to make lead fishing weights in different molds.

Lead Fishing Weights

Market Insider indicates that lead currently costs about $2,417.85 per ton. Hence, it is about $1.20 per pound. Fishing retailers may double the base cost of lead per pound to sell their lead sinkers up to $3 per pound.

Source your lead from extra wheel weights or ask if any is up for grabs at a shooting range so that you can mold them into lead fishing weights. If you find lead batteries at a local junkyard that have been abandoned, these can be turned into lead sinkers as well.

Here is how you can make lead weights for fishing:

Shave the lead down so that it is easier to melt.
Place it in the pot in which you will melt it.
Gather your fishing weight-making supplies.
- Heavy-duty heat protection gloves, your chosen mold, etcetera
Melt the lead on a burner in a pot of your choice.
Pour it into the mold and let it dry for at least 24 hours.

Concrete Fishing Weights

If you lay down a new cement driveway, you can use the old cement from your prior driveway to make concrete fishing weights. Source concrete from a local scrapyard or construction site.

If you do not have access to these options, grab a bag of cement mix from your local hardware store. Home Advisor states that 50-lb to 80-lb bags of cement mix range from $3 to $6 depending on the strength or whether it is fast or slow acting.

Aluminum Fishing Weights

Aluminum fishing weights are easy to make because you more than likely already have aluminum soda or other drink cans at home in your recycling bin. Accumulate about 24 cans to be sure that you have enough cans to make a good amount of sinkers.

Animal Man Survivor shows how to make fishing sinkers by melting aluminum cans.

Follow these steps to make aluminum fishing weights:

Melt your aluminum in a fire-safe metal container.
Fill up two plastic containers with playground sand.
Grab some pyramid sinkers or whatever type you have on hand.
Push the sinkers down into the sand to make holes in the sand. Do about 3 per container.
Prep your hooks. Open a paper clip and use pliers to cut it down to size to form a hook. Repeat this process 5 times to get a total of 6 hooks
Remove your melted aluminum and gently pour it into the holes you made in the sand. Be sure to have safety goggles on for this step.
Quickly place the hooks into the crevices so they can turn into a sinker.
Let the sinkers set and then remove them from the sand.

Stone Fishing Weights

Stone fishing weights are a great way to use the resources you already have to make fishing weights. Just gather some large rocks in your local environment. That’s completely free material using this method. If you cannot find stones large enough for this project, you can buy large landscaping rocks from your local hardware store.

The Handmade Fisherman on YouTube shows an innovative way to create your stone fishing weights.

Follow these steps:

Place your stone in between two softwood scraps.
Use a masonry drill to make a hole at the top of the stone.
Place welding wire on a drill driver.
Using two pin nails as a guide, place the welding wire over it to twist it uniformly using the drill driver.
Shape this into a hook.
Roll out epoxy putty into thin strips to put into the rock’s hole.
Place the looped end of the hook sticking out of the epoxy putty.
Attach swivels with welding wire to complete the hook.

Cement Fishing Weights

Cement is an ingredient in concrete. Use the same figures from the concrete section when figuring out the cost of making your fishing weights.

Northwest Open Season shows in a comprehensive video tutorial how to make cheap and affordable cement fishing weights.

Create your own concrete fishing weights by:

Gather your fishing weight-making supplies.
- Cement mix.
- Water.
- Silicone molds of your choice.
- Paper clips.
- Rubber gloves.
- Funnel (if needed).
Mix cement and the recommended amount of water in a bowl. Follow the package instructions on the cement mix to find out how much water you need.
Quickly pour the cement into your chosen molds. Find ones in the shape of large spheres. You can also use popsicle molds for a larger fishing weight.
Give each mold a few taps against the table to help it evenly set.
Place a paperclip into the top of the exposed cement. This will act as your makeshift hook.
Check on your mold within an hour. Remove the weights from the molds and enjoy them on your next fishing trip.

Weight and Sinker Making Kits

Weight and sinker-making kits help you to make your fishing weights without so many extra steps in creating your own molds.

If you would rather make your own fishing weights without having to also make your own mold, consider Do-It molds. Watch this tutorial on how to properly use these molds to create your own fishing sinkers.

Consider making your own fishing weights with lead sinker making kits such as:

When you search for sinker molds on Amazon, mostly Adygil and Do-It brand molds pop up in the search. Do-It is the most popular of the two brands. You see Do-It products featured at most fishing retailers.

Use Your Resources As An Angler

Making homemade fishing weights does not have to be a complicated process. Being an angler is all about utilizing your resources so you can get the catch of the day. Especially if you lose all the sinkers you have, you may want to keep some fishing weight-making supplies on hand.

If you would prefer to pack light, you can make fishing weights using what you see in the wild with a couple of things you have on hand. Be sure to have a small travel drill and some paper clips with you so you can create stone fishing weights when you are in a pinch.

Happy Fishing & Tight Lines