We’d be hard pressed to find an element of bass fishing as much ignored as sinkers. When asked to cite the critical elements of a presentation, few anglers mention weights. Apologies to Metallica, but heavy metal gets no respect.

In their heart, though, bass experts know that in some situations, the weight used can be as important as the plastic bait it carries. In the past, anglers had few choices of weights—basically lead split shot or bullet-shaped slip sinkers—to present their favorite plastics. But as specialized techniques—California rig, split-shot rig, Mojo rig, and drop-shot rig—came along, weights were designed to match. Simultaneously, legal and environmental challenges to lead have led to sinkers made from new elements.

Dragging A Line

Any angler who’s retied a Carolina rig while trying to hold boat position on a windy point can appreciate prerigged Carolina-rig weights. Prerigged systems typically include a hefty brass or steel bell-shaped weight, ticker, and bead—freely sliding on a wire or heavy monofilament line between two barrel swivels.

Tournament pro Kathy Magers gives witness: “Prerig systems like the EZ Rig make it much easier to organize and store the components of a Carolina rig. Even better, they’re simple to use.” Try the Top Brass Ready Rig, Kalin Carolina Clacker, or Bass Pro Shops Carolina Short Cut.

Have you ever had a tug at the other end of a Carolina rig, only to have a “sure thing” hookset come up empty? After experiencing this frustration, anglers started noticing teeth marks on the lead weight of their Carolina rigs. They found bass, attracted to the mud kicked up by the terminal tackle, often struck the weight itself.

Jig Rigs

Several creative anglers replaced the Carolina rig’s terminal tackle—weight, glass bead, and a barrel swivel—with a jighead, tying a leader to the jig. Predictably, bass sometimes were hooked on both the jig and the trailing plastic. It didn’t take long for manufacturers to design jigs for this rig. Rig jigs, like J & J Lures’ Missouri Jig Rig and Lunker Lure’s Carolina Jig-Weight, feature stand-up heads that don’t topple when dragged. Some have a swivel or extra eye molded into the rear of the jighead. Tying the leader to the swivel instead of the jig hook reduces tangles.

Slinky Weights

Walleye pros and steelhead fishermen have long recognized the snag-evading advantages of bottom dragging weights in the slinky style. These weights, a woven nylon tube filled with lead or brass shot, are flexible to slide through or ride over obstacles that often catch bullet, egg, and bell-shape weights. Using them for Carolina rigging or livebait presentations saves tackle and time as their surface resists friction from the bottom and their balance is remarkably snagless.

Another innovative weight is the Lindy-Little Joe snag-defying, bottom-walking No-Snagg Slip Sinker and Rattlin’ No-Snagg Slip Sinker. The weight’s wire arm and banana-shape body design walks and rolls over wood and rock.

Finesse Weights

When fishing conditions dictate a subtle approach, anglers often downsize their offerings. While a little lead can work, brass sinkers with glass beads create sound and add a fine look to small baits.

In the spirit of Don Iovino’s Finesse Movement, Top Brass Tackle and Thunder Bullets carved their niche in bass fishing with brass weights for the fine arts of doodlin’ and shakin’ worms. The Mojo rig, using an elongated weight pegged a distance above the bait, has found fans in the East after sweeping across the Rockies. Joining Mojo Tackle, other companies including Top Brass, Bullet Weights, and Bass Pro Shops have designed long cylindrical weights and pegging systems.

Drop Shot Rigs

To meet the finesse craze, manufacturers responded, producing new drop-shot weights. Check Big Poly’s rubber-coated hole shot, Bass Pro’s XPS drop weight, and Bakudan Distributing’s lead drop-shot weight. “Like other drop-shot weights, the Bakudan weight is shaped like a cherry bomb,” explains western pro Rich Tauber. “But, you don’t tie your line to the weight. A swivel on the weight holds the knotted line in place. When the weight hangs up on a rock, the line breaks at the swivel.”

Wormin’ Weights

The most popular rigging for plastics remains the Texas rig. This simple setup serves well for dragging a worm over structure or through a weedbed, bouncing a crawworm over rock, flipping a lizard into the thickest brushpile, and countless other applications. Innovations in design and material have been directed to weights for Texas rigs as well.

When flipping and pitching plastics into dense cover, it’s important to maintain contact with the weight and lure, or you’ll miss subtle strikes. Gambler Worms created the Florida Rig weight with a “cork screw” wire, to thread into a bait to secure it. Other manufacturers, including Bass Pro Shops, Mustad, and Lunker City, have produced weights that insert into the plastics to hold them.

Gambler also offers a rattling version of the Florida Rig weight. Joe Bennett, a bass pro from Missouri, invented the Jobee Pro Hook, with the sinker molded onto the extra-long offset-shank Gamakatsu hook. The Swing Head from DUH!!! Team is another rig with a Gamakatsu hook swinging freely behind a lifelike head.

Lead weights are both affordable and heavy, but the metal is soft and becomes grooved or mashed. Moreover, lead is under attack as a toxic metal both to loons and other birds that may ingest it, and to humans working with it. New Hampshire banned most lead sinkers and small jigs, and similar bans exist in National Parks and in parts of Canada. Steel, such as Ultra Steel 2000 from Bullet Weights, is much harder than lead, creates sound, and is still affordable. Brass is a bit more pricey, but offers anglers a good weight-to-size ratio and is hard, enhancing sound as it contacts cover or a glass bead.

An innovative addition to bass fishing’s weighty lineup is Lake Fork Trophy Bait and Tackle’s Mega Weights. The East Texas plastic lure manufacturer recently introduced weights made from a tungsten-nickel alloy. Mega Weights are heavier than lead, so sinkers run 25 percent smaller than lead weights, with even greater differences compared to brass, tin, or steel.

Assessing the range of sizes, shapes, and materials, top bass anglers put as much care in matching the sinker to the application as in selecting a plastic bait. No time to be an old codger in the world of weights.

*Paul Cañada, a writer from Irving, Texas, is a frequent contributor to Bass Guide.