Olive weights

Olive

— sinkers of a characteristic elongated, spindle-shaped shape. This shape contributes to the casting distance — before the advent of lead-bullets (see the relevant paragraph), "olives" were not equal in this regard — and also reduces the likelihood of getting tangled in algae during extraction. Also note that most of these weights have a through hole and refer to sliding tackle, which is convenient when fishing in strong currents and great depths.