Thats interesting Lawrie - my father never fished with wire grip sinkers - he use to fish whole pillies - sometimes floating. After casting we would sit down behind his rod in the holder and ever so gently wind in the fresh bait(He did this so slowly and with the odd movement by the shake the rod)with the bait on the move he didn't have a problem with crabs - I thought he was nuts...untill he started landing snapper over the 20lb mark?