Fixed sinkers

A fixed sinker is anchored to the line — pinched on, tied on, or carried on a dropper. A fish that takes the bait comes up against its weight at once, and that is not a fault of the rig but its defining property.

Self-hooking is design, not luck

The fish pulls the bait, meets an unmoving weight and drives the hook home itself. The heavier the sinker, the more reliably that happens — and the less a strike by hand is needed.

So the fixed rig suits tackle left in a rest: what would have been a missed bite becomes a hooked fish.

The price of the same property

A cautious fish that meets the weight drops the bait — and there is simply no bite at all. The very mechanism that hooks an active fish scares off a passive one, and choosing between fixed and sliding rigs is choosing which sort of fish you are dealing with today.

Shapes that hold the bottom

A flat sinker and one with grips hold in current; a round one rolls. In a fixed rig that matters more than in a sliding one: the weight cannot shift, and if the flow moves it, it moves the whole rig.

So in current a fixed rig is chosen by shape rather than by mass: a sinker that holds bottom works lighter than one that rolls. Adding grams instead of changing shape is the commonest mistake on flowing water.

Split shot is the smallest case

The simplest fixed sinker is a split shot pinched onto the line with fingers or pliers. It is also the most dangerous: pinched too hard it crushes the line, and the break comes at that point rather than at the knot.

The dropper is a link of its own

The neatest way is to hang the sinker on its own short length of line to one side of the main. The bait then lies free while the weight holds bottom separately from it.

And on a snag it is the dropper that parts — so the sacrificial link comes about by itself, with no extra effort. The procedure is under how not to lose your sinker.

Why in a rest rather than in your hands

Self-hooking makes sense when the tackle is left. You can hold a fixed rig, but then the weight works against you twice: the fish feels it, and the angler still has to strike.

What is in the subcategory

The principle — «What is a fixed sinker»: how it is attached, why self-hooking does not always work, and how not to crush the line with a split shot.