Sinker weights

Sinkers are an integral part of fishing. It's required to put your bait at where the fish are moving/hiding. If the bait is not at where the fish are, chances are you're not going to catch any fish.

Sinkers are usually measured in ounces(oz). There's a marking on each sinker to identify the size. There is some variation to the weights, depending on manufacturer but in general they are about +/- 15g from the marked weight.

In Singapore, different fishing grounds will require different sinker sizes. On top of that, the current of the day will also play a significant part in choosing what sinker size to use. The optimum sinker size would be one that is just heavy enough to hold the bottom. Too heavy and it'll be a pain to reel up, too light and it will just drift off the bottom. So how do you choose?

Location
Changi/Tekong - the currents here aren't usually very strong. The heaviest I've used so far is up to size 14 but in general I would bring a range of size from size 4 to size 12.

Southern Islands - waters here are much deeper and currents stronger. Depending on current, I would bring between size 8 to size 20.

South China Sea/Horsburgh - a wide range of underwater terrain with varying currents. For this area, I would bring between size 6 to size 20. There have been occasions where a size 20 sinker still wasn't enough to hold the bottom. A size 20 sinker is actually 560g, almost half a kilo! Imagine cranking up that weight each time!

Current
On your particular fishing day, check the height of the high tides and low tides. If the difference is a lot, ie low 0.3m/high 2.9m, expect the current to be stronger and therefore, require heavier sinkers.
If the difference is less, ie low 1.5m/high 2.3m, then the current isn't that strong and you can use smaller sinkers.

After fishing a few sessions, you may find that the markings on the sinker tend to get faded and soon, you may not make out the markings anymore. I normally would use 'Liquid paper' correction fluid to outline the size marking prior to use. And when that fails, I would just use a normal screwdriver and hammer to make new markings.

Losing sinkers is part and parcel of fishing. The technique to reduce the loss is outlined in my previous post in 'tips and techniques'.

Thanks for reading.