There is no question lead can be an environmental hazard, chldren eating lead paint, lead leaching from plin=mbing fixtures into the potable water... but..Open a Cabelas or Bass Pro catalog and you will find pages of jigs sized from micro to macro; all painted and ready to go. How is a fisherman to know whether these jigs are made with lead? It doesn't state it in the product description. How is the angler to know if it is made out of lead? If the angler doesn't know what the jig is made out of and they get checked will F & G give them a citation?
Why not focus on cleaning up the lead in the lake sediment around the gas docks that pumped leaded gas for all those years. Or how about focusing on mercury emissions from the mid-west power plants that have so contaminated our fish that there are health advisories in every NE State. How do we as a society find this acceptable? The legislature's concern is lead poisoning of loons, what about mercury poisioning of loons, eagles, herons, otters etc. after all if it is unsafe for us to each more that a few meals a month of freshwatwer fish imagine the damage done to species that their main food soucre is freashwater fish!
There is no question lead can be an environmental hazard, chldren eating lead paint, lead leaching from plin=mbing fixtures into the potable water... but..Open a Cabelas or Bass Pro catalog and you will find pages of jigs sized from micro to macro; all painted and ready to go. How is a fisherman to know whether these jigs are made with lead? It doesn't state it in the product description. How is the angler to know if it is made out of lead? If the angler doesn't know what the jig is made out of and they get checked will F & G give them a citation?
Why not focus on cleaning up the lead in the lake sediment around the gas docks that pumped leaded gas for all those years. Or how about focusing on mercury emissions from the mid-west power plants that have so contaminated our fish that there are health advisories in every NE State. How do we as a society find this acceptable? The legislature's concern is lead poisoning of loons, what about mercury poisioning of loons, eagles, herons, otters etc. after all if it is unsafe for us to each more that a few meals a month of freshwatwer fish imagine the damage done to species that their main food soucre is freashwater fish!
i wonder how many jigs are actually lost by the bass guys that know what they are doing, i see them using that 50 pound line for jig fishing. now the lead core line is another matter, i like the line, but pick up piles of the stuff of the bottom when fishing for lakers. my boat floor gets covered with the stuff every time i drag bottom. its only a matter of time before lead line gets banned in my opinion.
I've gone with the no-lead "leadcore" for that reason Fishless. I figure its a matter of time and for the right reasons.
As to NW powerplants, global mercury emissions etc...wouldn't it be nice if we fisherman could make an impact on those issues. What we can do is voluntary ween off lead sinkers, jigs etc. and have an immediate impact where we fish.
