Do-it-yourself decoy weights

[fishuhalik]

Any good ideas from a fellow cheap skate? I just bought another 7 dozen floaters at a great price & am having a hard time paying as much for weights as I did for the dekes!! $15-$20/dozen, are you kidding? Any ideas for a flexible keel weight so I don't have a tangled mess every time I reach into the bag? Mostly small weights as I do a lot of rice & puddle hunting, but some big water as well

[rbs]

if you wanted texas rigs I would say go to E Bay but for straps or the like I can't help ya

[dan z]

I use 3 or 4 oz flat bank sinkers. There available online for pretty decent $$$ hit up some catfish guru's they'll have some.

[Old Dewjabber]

I bought some soft sheet lead from the scrap yard. Cut it into strips and punched a hole in it for the line. Wraps nicely around the keel. I've also put lead in the water keel dekes to make them turn up right.

[walleye18]

only way to go is with texas rigged....all my dekes have em now.....except for my big water stuff.

[fishuhalik]

Looked into the Texas rig...awesome! Definitely gonna be rigging all my mallards like that from now on!! 99.9% of my mallard dekes get thrown in >4', should work great

[Shane Z]

Texas Rigs are the way to go for sure.

[TylerS]

I have a bank sinker mold and make my own. You ever make it through Fargo? I could definitely hook you up. I sort of quit cat fishing after I moved away from Grand Forks, so now I have all the stuff but nowhere to go. For a fellow duck hunter, I'll get you what you need for those Texas rigs!

[fishuhalik]

Thanks for the offer Tyler! I come through Fargo every 20 days, going from Williston to Big Lake. I'll hit you up some time before I come through

[Gordie]

Fishuhaulik, I would check the small out of the way hardware store just like looking for bullets as I did this several years ago and found the mother load of strap weights for really, really cheap and the guy at the store told me that if I bought all the weights he would give me a better deal that he just wanted to get rid of them.

I had enough to melt some down for sinkers for fishing cats.

Its worth checking and some times a guy gets lucky and finds a great deal.

[TylerS]

Fishuhaulik, I would check the small out of the way hardware store just like looking for bullets as I did this several years ago and found the mother load of strap weights for really, really cheap and the guy at the store told me that if I bought all the weights he would give me a better deal that he just wanted to get rid of them.

I had enough to melt some down for sinkers for fishing cats.

Its worth checking and some times a guy gets lucky and finds a great deal.

That's a really, really good idea Gordie. You never know what you'll find in those back-alley hardware stores.

[TruthWalleyes]

I could use some more lead, i just casted another 40 or so 6 & 8 oz sinkers and now i'm probably down to only about 20 lbs of lead, and that is making me nervous Since i just got about 300' of SST .035" Wire for bottom bouncers

[walleye18]

try going to the local scrap and junk yards....i bought 110 pounds of lead for decoy anchors and jig molds.

got it for $0.55/lb.

be careful what you buy....lead is not all lead....meaning, there can be differences in lead quality.

[TruthWalleyes]

Yeah, i bought something like 150 LBS two years ago for $50

Got rid of about half of that for $50, and i've got 75 lbs for $0