Thread: Going Leadless, Hunting/Fishing

I heard today that during his last day(s) in office Obama signed a bill to eliminate hunting with lead ammo or fishing with lead sinkers by 2022. Has anyone heard about this?

It's over in the Coastal and Boating

And only on federal lands, NWFs, Parks, etc...
Most likely wouldn't have a huge impact in this state.
And will most likely be rescinded any day now.

Originally Posted by CarlF

And only on federal lands, NWFs, Parks, etc...
Most likely wouldn't have a huge impact in this state.
And will most likely be rescinded any day now.

I'm hoping to see that happen too

Ya, I did, but I did not see when it was suppose to take effect.
I live in MN., one of the few states where lead is suppose to be banned. In 2002, there was a lot of talk about it. The drift I got from the talk was that we could use the lead for fishing that we had in our tackle boxes but could not replace it. Some people put there molds in high gear and made many, many jigs and sinkers. I have NEVER seen any rules or regs. to the effect that we could NOT use lead for fishing and I skim through the rule book like everyone else. Every fisher person that I know, uses lead head jigs and lead sinkers as well as lead in the bead heads used in tying flies. The same is true in Ontario Canada, in about 2010 the talk was that you may no longer use lead jig heads or sinkers. I have never seen anything in the regulations, which I have skimmed though, like everyone else. I have been checked many times in MN. and sometimes 2 - 3 times a day in Canada. In Canada they will check you 2 - 3 times a day because sometimes a person feels that once he is checked, he won't be checked again that day and he will violate. A can of beer in the boat will cost you $500.00, even if it is empty. If there are 2 cans and 2 people, its $1000.00. They do not mess around if they can catch you on something. All of the violations, that I know of, is $500.00. I do not know of that from experience, only from hearsay.
I have had lead head jigs on my rod, setting right in the open because I have never given it a second thought, in both MN. & Canada. Nothing has ever been said or done. It is my understanding, for what it is worth, the reason for the ban on lead while fishing was because they thought it was killing the loons, MN. state bird. So, they did 2 different studies, in one case they found the lead was only responsible for 5.4% of the loon deaths. the second study found 5.6% of the loon deaths were due to the use of lead. That was kind of the end of it.
We may not use lead to hunt waterfowl.

I have lost a hundred pound of lead in the Tennessee River in my lifetime, all downstream of MY city water intake, so no problems.