Do lead coatings catch anglers or carp?

Q: A few years back we had all sorts of lead coatings emerging, from textured to weed effect to fluoro yellow and white ones! What do some of you think about lead coatings, do they catch anglers or carp?

Gaz Fareham says: “I’ve got to be honest, it is probably the last thing in carp fishing, out of everything, that I worry about (Fig. D). If I’m fishing over gravel I’ll use a paler colour, if I’m fishing in weedy, silty areas, I use darker ones, ideally that aren’t shiny, but that is literally as far as my thinking goes. I think the proliferation of fancy lead coatings is purely to sell more products to anglers and not to help them catch more carp. I honestly believe that unless you are fishing in shallow water, in ultra gin clear conditions, in bright daylight conditions, the visibility and camouflaging of your end tackle just isn’t a real concern, as long as it is sensibly coloured and more importantly pinned to the deck as tightly as you can. I think all the hype and neurosis induced surrounding tiny tweaks to the colour and camouflaging of your rig is just to sell end tackle products.

“I buy all my leads now from Potty’s Leads, a little one-man company who makes really reasonably priced leads that can be tailored to your own requirements. There’s no way I want to be paying the best part of £2.00 a lead to drop them on each bite, when I can get them for less than a third of that price from a little company that do exactly the same job. A busy session on a day ticket and you might get through £30 worth of leads?! I get mine in a nice matt green and brown finish, and they suffice perfectly for all my fishing.”