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A ban on lead in fishing?

There was a post I think? on Des Taylor’s angling facebook group, showing the amount of leads in roughly a square meter or so, By someone with scuba equipment and it was a shocking amount! I’m not a facebook member so can’t go back far enough to find it, but I’m sure someone on here could, Maybe? and post it on here? The practice of dropping leads on every take should be banned! I get releasing leads as safety point if the fish gets snagged but the dropping on every take must’ve been invented by the tackle companies just to make money from gullible anglers? 🤔
 
I'm surprised to read comments questioning the toxicity of lead. Really?

Lead water pipes are a well documented and proven health issue - there is stacks of evidence to back this up. It is also a water quality issue as the water companies have little choice but to add phosphate (orthophosphate to be specific) to the drinking water in many areas to reduce the risk of lead leaching into the water. And we know what high phosphate levels can do to our rivers.

Whilst the use of lead in angling might not be an issue now - what about in the future? Some of our lakes and river beds must be littered with it.
 
Yes. Saw Mark's video. How would this ever be effectively policed? OK maybe on high profile commercial fisheries but what about miles from anywhere on a stormy beach? Speaking of which, trying to get the range on Chesil abd hold bottom without a 5 - 8 oz grip lead would be interesting! Similarly, holding bottom in a strong tide 2 miles out in the channel without a dense abd heavy lead weight would be challenging. OK. There are substitutes but losing a few as you most certainly would boat or shore fishing would be heartbreaking! Personally I rarely lose a lead ( not even when Carp fishing) and probably have enough to see me out!
 
Hi men

Can't ever remember setting up a carp rig to purposely drop the lead , I know people do . IV had fish pull through weed and the lead come off the clip , tbh if I ever thought that the spot in fishing really need the lead to come off on the take , I'd probably move 😉

Hatter
 
If I remember correctly the main problem with lead shot was the containers it came in. Many were not single shot dispensers and there were many shot spills in areas where swans deliberately picked up and small stones and swallowed them. The shot was the sort of size swans would choose. They use stones to grind their food in their gullet, obviously grinding lead shot in the gullet greatly increases adsorption into the body.
At the time the response by anglers and the tackle trade was excellent. There was alternatives on the market quickly and by the time lead shot was banned most anglers had already moved to the alternatives.
I think the university paper that looked into lead poisoning in swans was actually supported by an angling club I think they provided a stretch of water where angling was not allowed as a control. ( I hope I’m not imagining this)

But all that is now in the past and we should do our best to limit the amount of lead in the aquatic environment. I had not heard of the practice of dropping leads on the take. This is utterly ridiculous, we might just as well paint a target on our heads. This practice should definitely be banned. I cannot think that any decent angler would consider this method.
 
Ralph Harris said:
But all that is now in the past and we should do our best to limit the amount of lead in the aquatic environment. I had not heard of the practice of dropping leads on the take. This is utterly ridiculous, we might just as well paint a target on our heads. This practice should definitely be banned. I cannot think that any decent angler would consider this method.
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It’s extremely common with bolt rigs to be set up to drop the lead the moment the fish is hooked.
Yep it’s ludicrous i agree and a compulsory enforcement on certain rig types would be a far better move than simply changing the product that’s going to continue to get dumped
 
Richard Isaacs said:
It’s extremely common with bolt rigs to be set up to drop the lead the moment the fish is hooked.
Yep it’s ludicrous i agree and a compulsory enforcement on certain rig types would be a far better move than simply changing the product that’s going to continue to get dumped
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The thought process is that the fish can use the fixed lead as a counterbalance to eject the hook.

I don't know if this is true in reality, but when I have caught tench on a very short hook link on an in-line maggot feeder I have felt a touch uncomfortable about a 2oz lead smacking it in the head whilst playing it.

It is not that difficult to overcome the fixed lead arrangement. Use an in-line lead slid over a tail rubber so that it is semi-fixed, when the fish shakes it's head the lead comes loose and runs up the line.

It makes me laugh that we are supposed to carry a fish care kit that wouldn't look out of place in an A&E department yet are we allowed to discharge a toxic material on the lake bed.
 
I don't fish for carp very often, and when I do I'm more of a chuck it and chance it kind of angler, so I've never heard of this idea of a rig that deliberately drops a lead. But I have to say I find this idea totally wrong, ludicrous, and unbelievably gob smacking :oops:
 
Paul Whiteing said:
I don't fish for carp very often, and when I do I'm more of a chuck it and chance it kind of angler, so I've never heard of this idea of a rig that deliberately drops a lead. But I have to say I find this idea totally wrong, ludicrous, and unbelievably gob smacking :oops:
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If you watch any of the Korum monster carp series and watch the end right now when they land a fish you will notice that there is never a lead attached.
 
I never heard the idea of dropping the lead, and don’t see why. But if it is the case that’s the most stupid thing in angling history.
 
I can see the logic in an angler fishing a very weedy, ultra-hard venue setting up to drop the lead, the sort of venue where a successful season is measured by a couple of fish. But doing that on a runs water is just bonkers, and totally indefensible.
 
Huanzhou Zhu said:
I never heard the idea of dropping the lead, and don’t see why. But if it is the case that’s the most stupid thing in angling history.
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Hi men ,

I fished a really weedy water , and many of the anglers were setting up the inline leads to drop off as the carp used to wedge themselves up . It does without a doubt work , but some anglers are doing it for no reason other than fashion . I used korda helisafe as they work really well as the bottom bead on my leadcore helicopter setup , but you can choose to keep the lead on , and I do .

Hatter
 
The cost to most non sponsored anglers is a no go . I reckon I loose about a dozen plus feeders on the tidal Trent and maybe a few more breakaway leads on the Humber and it does piss me off that I have to buy more. Imagine multiplying that by a few hundred every season.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
It’s extremely common with bolt rigs to be set up to drop the lead the moment the fish is hooked.
Yep it’s ludicrous i agree and a compulsory enforcement on certain rig types would be a far better move than simply changing the product that’s going to continue to get dumped
Click to expand...
Clearly it’s nothing to do with marketing, I mean why would the tackle companies want you to dump the lead constantly…
 
I don’t really see this as a major issue, it’s an odd priority in the grand scheme but thats not new. We’ve probably all got miles of expensive unused cycle lanes next to a road covered in pot holes in our local area… Lead isn’t the only high mass per volume material we can use, some of my jig heads etc are actually Tungsten, roughly half the size for the same weight. Price per tonne of Tungsten is roughly $340 vs $1900 for lead. Production cost is likely higher as lead is very easy to mould but that’s a manufacturing issue.
 
I bet the fishery owners would have a fit! If the anglers in question started using rusty nuts and bolts instead? 🤔
 
I’ve just remembered seeing an old boy when I was a kid using spark plugs attached with a rotten bottom legering in the Yorkshire river Ouse! Now can you imagine if spark plugs came in green and brown? 🤔🤣
 
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