• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

A ban on lead in fishing?

I can see it coming to be, we stopped using lead shot in the 80’s as it poisoned swans and other waterfowl which ingested it. Also lead removed from petrol years ago. Lead is bad in the environment.

It never ceases to amaze me how many cracks offs I see when anglers are carp fishing. Some lakes must be littered with lead weights on the lake bed. Is it a ticking time bomb?

And the shooting industry is currently trying to to fight a ban on lead shot in shotgun cartridges, even though it was proven that alternatives are just as effective.
 
We all had lead water pipes in our houses for many years, probably millions of homes still have lead water pipes but I can’t remember it ever causing any major health issues.


Why are they so bothered about lead weights in fishing scenarios 🤫.
They knowingly release all kinds of much worse pollutants into the river systems everyday 🙄.
 
Last edited:
As I understand it, there were over 16? Different heavy metals and toxins found inside Swans livers that could have been found to be harmful to the birds, not counting the toxic pesticides? that have now been banned or limited in use, but at the time only lead split shot and leads under 1oz were banned immediately, ( lead split shot) that were not banned across other European countries, haven’t had further problems with wild foul deaths, which would suggest that the pesticides and other nasties (forever chemicals) now banned or limited in use, were to be blamed? The dumping of leads should be banned! Though in my opinion 👍🏻
 
Ian Woods said:
We all had lead water pipes in our houses for many years, probably millions of homes still have lead water pipes but I can’t remember it ever causing any major health issues.


Why are they so bothered about lead weights in fishing scenarios 🤫.
They knowingly release all kinds of much worse pollutants into the river systems everyday 🙄.
Click to expand...
I believe that there’s lots of lead water pipes in West Yorkshire and other parts of the county still, I came across old Lead water mains pipe still in use at a house I did up for my brother in Brighouse, I think if I remember correctly that only infants under the age of 4 or could’ve been 4 months of age? were of concern? I could be wrong as it was a long time ago when I looked into it? But as they probably don’t ingest much water? And as they grow older every year that there’s no real problem? If it was a serious issue I’m sure the powers that be would have replaced the pipes that are on private property as well as the pipes that are in the road with plastic? as it’s the home owners that are responsible for the pipes from the roadside stop tap / meter that’s on there land I believe?
 
Jim Brook said:
I think 🤔 we should worry about the plastic pipes more?
Click to expand...

Funny enough Jim that thought had crossed my mind also!
I replaced the lead water pipes in our house 20yrs back with blue alkathene/plastic pipes.

Regarding the banning of leads in fishing, will they ban the plastic feeder bodies, method feeder bodies etc also?

Lead does occur naturally.
 
Ian Woods said:
Funny enough Jim that thought had crossed my mind also!
I replaced the lead water pipes in our house 20yrs back with blue alkathene/plastic pipes.

Regarding the banning of leads in fishing, will they ban the plastic feeder bodies, method feeder bodies etc also?

Lead does occur naturally.
Click to expand...
Probably not for a long, long time and then it will be too late? If it’s needed? I think 🤔 there’s a lot of money in plastics 😉 I watched a programme a few years back now, where they found micro / nano plastics in the bottles used for Coca Cola, Fanta etc and first thought 💭 it was all coming from the bottle itself? But then found that the nano plastics particles were coming from the plastic pipes used to get the water in the first place! I believe there is ongoing research into how much plastic is getting into our bodies through the water/ liquids we drink and the food we eat? As we’ve all seen the giant water sprinklers used in agriculture potatoes etc.
 
Ian, as your primarily a float angler that uses shot a lot of the time, would you say that you loose far more of the non toxic stuff? Than the far superior lead shot of old? I can’t remember losing much at all? Unless I got broken off, but now I seem to lose a shot or two quite often these days 🤔
 
Jim Brook said:
Ian, as your primarily a float angler that uses shot a lot of the time, would you say that you loose far more of the non toxic stuff? Than the far superior lead shot of old? I can’t remember losing much at all? Unless I got broken off, but now I seem to lose a shot or two quite often these days 🤔
Click to expand...

Yes Jim, I find there is much more chance of the tin type shot pinging off than the lead. I don't really use many saller than no1 so not so many ping off in that size and larger which is ok for me since I literally only use one at a time as a dropper shot below my olivettee.
The anchor double cut are quite decent though, i've found them to be the best of the buch of replacement lead shot.
 
Ian Woods said:
Yes Jim, I find there is much more chance of the tin type shot pinging off than the lead. I don't really use many saller than no1 so not so many ping off in that size and larger which is ok for me since I literally only use one at a time as a dropper shot below my olivettee.
The anchor double cut are quite decent though, i've found them to be the best of the buch of replacement lead shot.
Click to expand...
Yes I’ve found the same with the smaller size tin shot and have found myself changing over to bulk shot rather than shirt button pattern where I can, unless I’m using fine lines then I double up size 8’s which is a chore and have also found that the anchor double cut performs better, I tried the expensive ZLT shot as it’s meant to be good? But found it to be quite poor as it just doesn’t grip the very well especially when re used!
 
Hi men

Ban lead weights , could only be the shops as IV not seen a EA bailif in 60 years of fishing . It would go underground at that point , be like dealing drugs 😂. IV used 2 garden shed lead makers lately , and can't see them being policed . One of the last fish I caught was a pub chuck at showing fish with a 4oz as hard as I could , the alternative "stonz" type weights in that size would look like half a house brick . There is a company that are producing concrete weights which could be the alternative 🤔

Hatter
 
I’m not advocating the use of lead split shot but you can still buy it (ballabeni) from Benwick sports 👌🏻 before anyone starts! It’s for use abroad and is sold as so. 😉
image.jpg
 
Jim Brook said:
I believe that there’s lots of lead water pipes in West Yorkshire and other parts of the county still, I came across old Lead water mains pipe still in use at a house I did up for my brother in Brighouse, I think if I remember correctly that only infants under the age of 4 or could’ve been 4 months of age? were of concern? I could be wrong as it was a long time ago when I looked into it? But as they probably don’t ingest much water? And as they grow older every year that there’s no real problem? If it was a serious issue I’m sure the powers that be would have replaced the pipes that are on private property as well as the pipes that are in the road with plastic? as it’s the home owners that are responsible for the pipes from the roadside stop tap / meter that’s on there land I believe?
Click to expand...
Pretty much every terraced house in Sheffield have lead water mains
 
I knew there were quite a lot in West Yorkshire and thought that there would be lots more? And now you have confirmed it, where I am there lots of cast iron and newer steel pipes that can be a real pain to deal with when they corrode as no one want to deal with it. 😩👍🏻
 
For what we lose in the rivers I would dare say it’s a long long way off the top of the problem list.
Even our lead drop safe rigs are only designed to lose leads if quite a lot of pressure is applied and even then in most cases the fish is netted with the lead.

Definitely the issue lies in heavily fished carp lakes where they are dropped on every run

There must be hundreds of tons dropped annually in them and yeah I can see that in those cases something should change.

Is a total ban on lead going to address this?
It’s a bit short sighted really I think.
so we’ll stop them dropping leads every run and instead they can drop something else every run. Bit of stainless steel that’s twice the size being half the density.
It’s not as poisonous so surely it’s fixes the problem….. right?

carp anglers won’t like it but I think the problem needs to be addressed with the rigs not changing or banning the weight material.

On the poisonous front ….. lead doesn’t have to be. It’s companies like Fox and Korda putting the very thinnest layers of coatings on them and they are not durable enough and that’s why people think they break down.
They don’t break down, it’s just some leads simply are made to a price and the coatings don’t withstand too many bumps on gravel

Coated properly lead is not poisonous my leads and feeders are all double completely coated and I don’t offer lead that isn’t fully double coated. You would literally have to cast one of mine head on into a bridge to have a chance of breaking through.
Again this is a more sensible area of enforcement rather than a total ban.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top