Do you love big bluegill?

I melted down the lead I collected last year....

I pour my own sinkers. Right now, it's bank sinkers and split shot. Haven't really poured any bank sinkers in a couple years, as I've switched over to fishing the snaggy areas with a slip-float. I use split shot to carry the bait down, and the float to suspend it up above the snags.

One of my favorite places to fish is a wade-fishing spot. The river isn't very deep, especially when we are in the second year of a drought. There's barely any water moving, and most spots are only a couple feet deep.

When the water gets CLEAR, and shallow, you see stuff. I've eyeballed lures, marbles, coins, and other oddball items on the bottom. And then, there's the sinkers. Oddles and oddles of sinkers! 18 months ago I picked up, literally, 100 lbs of sinkers in two days. Last year, when I would spot some, I'd pick them up.

Today, I melted down the lead I've picked up in the past year. Skimmed off the corrosion, sand, and wire (jigs and dipsy sinkers) that floated up. Then, I'd pour than into a mold for later use, as I don't want the "crap" going through my lead pot.

Here's the haul. 36 lbs of lead ingots! I was figuring I had about 30 lbs. Guess I wasn't far off.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Sheehan on February 13, 2013 at 4:21pm

Very resourceful!! Why do the look like corn cobs?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Allen Morgan on February 13, 2013 at 4:56pm

If you look in the upper right corner, you'll see part of my "ingot mold". It's a cheap cast-iron cornbread mold, that yields corn-cob-shaped cornbread. Works perfect for what I'm doing, and I can drop three or four of those ingots into my lead pot, and not have to worry about it leaning against the top, and melting through and dropping half the ingot on the ground. The lead ingots from BPS cost way to much, and are to long to fit into my lead pot.

I should take a picture of the bucket I have my lead ingots in. 5-gallon PVC bucket, over 3/4 full. Probably 180 - 200 lbs of lead.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David, aka, "McScruff" on February 14, 2013 at 12:56pm

You are awesome, Allen. You are my new repurposing hero.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by klrbaer on February 18, 2013 at 7:58am

Ok, I have a question. Can I use batteries and wheel weights, or not? Is the lead in batteries pure lead? Does anyone know?

Thanks

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by LedHed on February 18, 2013 at 8:18am

kb - Car batteries can be used but getting the lead out is more trouble than its worth and you have to deal with acid, You can use older wheel weights - gives you med hard lead. The newer WWs are including zinc in them - you don't want to mess with this stuff. Usually the WWs that have zinc, usually, are marked with a Z. The tape on are a pain also - melt them outside with no one around. X-ray lead and plumbers lead (can't use anymore) is what you want for soft lead. I get a lot from recyclers and waste disposal.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Allen Morgan on February 18, 2013 at 4:14pm

Last year, a friend of mine scored about 700 lbs of lead at his local hospital when they remodeled the X-Ray room. He might have even scored another 1400 lbs when they remodeled the room that houses the X-Ray generator.

I am actually recycling lead sinkers lost in the process of fishing. One of my wade-fishing spots tends to collect sinkers in certain locations. Once you find those, finding the lead is easy. I usually pick some lead up every trip. I'm probably NOT going to this year, simply because I'm not using the recovered lead as fast as I am recovering it.