Coat hanger sinkers

[fishinJohn]

What do people think of these? I used them for perch suspended deep for a couple reasons, they get down fast and they are easy to see on the Vex. Keeping them on during transport was a pain because I was using a floro leader so they flop around. This setup was recommended frequently around here but I haven't seen or heard of any FM-ers using them. I don't have a camera so I am not sure what impact they have on jigging?

[rocki]

what do they look like???

[fishinJohn]

A six to eight inch piece of metal, I have seen copper, about the thickness of a wire coat hanger or a little thicker with both sides pounded flat. Most have a small washer between the flattened edges to bounce the sonar back. Each edge has a hole where a connector/swivel is attached. There are plastic ones manufactured also.

[hanson]

fishinJohn-

Good Questions! The popularity of the Coat Hanger sinker, or "Hanger" rig (I believe) grew out of a need to fish small jigs, in deep water, fast.

This system was widely employed on Devil's Lake, ND where perchin' occurred in 30+ ' of water and you needed to present a very small bait down there quickly. Small meaning size 10, 12, etc in 30+ feet of water while not sipping half a soda waiting for you lure to reach the bottom.

You would tie a leader onto the bottom of the "hanger" that was a tad bit shorter than the "hanger". This would prevent your small lure from getting tangled in the mainline, it could only tangle around the metal hanger which it rarely did. This allowed you to fish a very small lure in deep water while hole hopping efficiently.

Other lures that had a similar concept are the Hali spoon w/ chain dropper (which are deadly perch lures). The spoon dropped down very quickly, while the hook hanging on the chain below the spoon tipped with a Eurolarvae provided the business end.

The common theme is a very heavy lure that fishes small.