Lead Ban On All Fishing Tackle

[fishinwrench]

This thread keeps popping up when I hit the View New Content icon. As I tell my 8th graders, "Play nice, or don't play."

How did that stategy work for you when you were practicing law ?

[Fly_Guy]

It would be a shame if we didn't get lead poisioning when we bit down on our split shot sinkers. I would hate to have to pay more for sinkers. Give me all the effects of lead. How do we feel about lead in toys from China?(I'm guessing not good). Now think about all the young fishermen biting split shots with their mouths... but that's ok? I've always wondered why lead sinkers were allowed.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Now think about all the young fishermen biting split shots with their mouths...

Good grief, do you suppose they're biting mono and ruining their teeth also? Is that why you think lead should be banned, if so why not change split shot? That way those making jigs and spinnerbaits in this country won't have to retool or go out of business.

For all of you who think lead in fishing tackle, it does go a little beyond sinkers for some of us. I make and tie my own jigs, and I would like to continue. I also have no desire to trash several hundred dollars worth of equipment.

You could also take pity on people like me who played with lead soldiers and drank water from lead pipes and tell me where all your honey holes are. That way I won't have to burn up what little brain cells I have left looking for them.

[awhuber]

This post needs one of these

[Fly_Guy]

For us folks who have been fishing with lead all our lives, it does seem silly. However, now that we are more informed, why not make the gradual switch away from lead? Announce that using in jigheads and suchlike will be illegal effective in 3 years or so. That way, the waynes with all the $$ of equipment will have a chance to use it before the ban. It has long been the nature of society to change traditional practices based on intelligent information. This seems like the case, given the scientific evidence of lead poisioning.

I'd tell you where my honey holes are, but I keep forgetting where they are myself... must be the lead...

[Wayne SW/MO]

Yes we do know that lead is poison, like alcohol, certain drugs legal and illegal, siphoning gas, cleaning loaded guns, and we know youngsters shouldn't be exposed to paint chips, and the list goes on. But the petition only addresses lead fishing tackle, while another points to lead bullets. Both aimed at the lethality of them on birds.

I have nothing against birds, in fact I like them. I do think that we might need a little more research on the fishing tackle connection. As for the bullets, well that's aimed primarily at Condors and their habit of eating gut piles. The common sense in me says that rather than ban lead bullets for the US and many areas around the world, we simply make hunters remove gut piles in Condor areas.

Maybe we could use the same common sense on lead fishing tackle and only ban the small, easily swallowed, stuff. Then we could still have our spinner baits, jigs, lead core line, and of course sinkers.

[Outside Bend]

For all of you who think lead in fishing tackle, it does go a little beyond sinkers for some of us. I make and tie my own jigs, and I would like to continue. I also have no desire to trash several hundred dollars worth of equipment.

See, THAT makes sense to me. You're not irrational, just looking out for your own interests.

WAIT...

The common sense in me says that rather than ban lead bullets for the US and many areas around the world, we simply make hunters remove gut piles in Condor areas

You would seriously rather strap 30 lbs of animal guts (not just heart and liver and that, but the intestines, skin, bones, stomach contents, feces, bladder, etc) on your back and carry it 5 miles out of the field than carry a pound or so of non-toxic bullets INTO the field?!

You and I have very different ideas of common sense

[jdmidwest]

It would be a shame if we didn't get lead poisioning when we bit down on our split shot sinkers. I would hate to have to pay more for sinkers. Give me all the effects of lead. How do we feel about lead in toys from China?(I'm guessing not good). Now think about all the young fishermen biting split shots with their mouths... but that's ok? I've always wondered why lead sinkers were allowed.

I have made alot of lead weights, bullets, and round balls for a sling shot when I was a kid with my uncle in his enclosed basement in St. Louis. He had an ample supply of lead water pipes that were pulled from buildings in the city. In chemistry class we played with mercury all of the time, used to roll it around on my hand. I think we even used it to separated out some other metals college. Now, you find an old mercury thermometer, and a hazmat team has to respond and dispose of at least an acre of ground to clean it up. I had a Mickey Mouse watch with glow in the dark hands that really made the geiger counter tick.

I don't doubt the toxic effects of mercury, lead, or the little atomic particles that made our watches glow and the geiger counters tick in class. We have come a long way in controlling our damage to the environment, but this may be too much. But we must remember, The Government is only here to help us.

[knuck]

I don't even have a comment on the "potential" lead ban on fishing equipment. I would like to say the tone of this topic and others recently on the forum give a shining example of why nothing gets accomplished in this country, finger pointing, name calling & insults abound all in the name of ideological BS.

Steve in STL

[Outside Bend]

We have come a long way in controlling our damage to the environment, but this may be too much. But we must remember, The Government is only here to help us.

It's my understanding this is a group of citizens (Center for Biological Diversity) petitioning the government (EPA) for action.

That is how a democracy works, right?