Just thought I'd throw this Question out there to see what you guys and gals think. The lead we use for fishing is toxic right, so when it gets stuck on the river bottom and we break it off what happens to it? I'm wondering if all the lead on river bottoms especially on popular stretches of rivers has a negative effect on fish especially Trout, salmon, and steelies.
I'm very interested to hear your opionions
Thanks
Egg Flinger

There was a post some time ago stating that lead doesn't really do anything just sitting on the bottom. No harm is done until it is actually ingested. Maybe one of our contributing biologists can verify this.

They were talking about banning usage of lead in some rivers (upper Kenai?) in Alaska. I heard that 2 or 3 years ago.

From what I understand after a short period of time the lead oxidizes and is sealed from any true water/lead contact. It is then reclimated (spelling?) into the gravle or sand and spread into the system. Fortunatly most of it is too large that most waterfowl cannot ingest it. if they could you could bet we would be fishing with toungsten or buismith.

Lead is banned in England where it killed swans, and in Yellowstone park. I wonder if it has a toxic effect on the acquatic insects that live and eat on the river bottoms.

From what I understand lead does not react at all with water, only a problem if it is ingested whole.

As soon as I saw this post I ran down to Olympia and applied for a lead-mining permit. It only took about 5 minutes to get one. They tried to make me take one that would apply to all of the rivers in the state, but I thought that would be more than my small operation could handle. So I just got one for the Blue Creek area. Exploratory sampling has shown there is a lead deposit of between 30,000,000 and 60,000,000 metric tons there. Dredging and excavating will begin tomorrow! I figured it would be ok because about 1/2 of its mine anyway!

About fifteen years ago a fly fishing club tried to use the same arguments to basically outlaw non-fly fishing methods. Luckily it didn't go anywhere.

I just saw a post on another board that the Canadian Govt. has, or is about to, ban lead jigs and shot. If I remember right, the logic is that loons will pick up the jigs and ingest them. Most folks agree that lead is not a problem unless ingested.

I'm thinking that the hook on that lead jig may cause more damage when ingested than the lead will...

I snorkel the rivers just because I have been interested in how rivers works since a small kid. Its hard to spot lead that is not attached to something. I would think the all the fishing line would be more of a problem to birds.

Lead is not soluble to any reasonable extent in water, so it doesn't get into the water column and affect fish, bugs, birds or people. If you eat eat, I believe the acids in your digestive tract can react with it and make a soluble compound. In most running water, this isn't really an issue. Perhaps someone whose chemistry class has occurred in the current century can be more specific.

In running water, lead settles to the bottom of the gravel. Lead is relatively heavier than the rest of the gravel, and as the current runs and turns rocks, lead ends up sifting to the bottom, out of reach as far as animals are concerned. Think about how gold settles on the crick bottoms, and that's what happens to lead.

Where lead does cause problems is in still water, where lead shot from duck hunters can fall and be ingested by waterfowl. There, when in the bird's gizzard with other gravel, it gets ground up and digested with the rest of the food, and then causes poisoning. That's why lead shot got banned for duck hunting. In England, a lot of the fishing is done in very still water with very small shot, so this shot presents the same risk. I don't think downrigger balls and pencil lead present the same issue.

I don't worry about lead in the rivers. Hydrocarbon pollution is a much bigger deal, among other things.

How about slinky's? A ton of people use them during winter fishing when the rivers are high. Then, as summer comes around, the rivers drop exposing the very area people were fishing and the slinky material has deteriorated so as to release the lead pellets. Seems like they are about the same size as buck shot, and therefor, not very creature friendly.

Always argumentative, aren't we? Of course, I should know...

Even with slinkies, I suspect that that the pellets are still relatively unavailable. Birds tend to go to target rich environments when they gravel up their gizzards. Roadsides and gravel beaches come to mind. Slinkies are going to get caught in larger rock environments for the most part, so when they break down, most of the pellets are going to insinuate themselves into the crevices around the bigger rocks. If they do get washed into the gravel bars, they'll likely be low in the gravel.

I'm sure it could happen to become available for the birds, I just don't think it's a serious risk. Besides, I mostly pull plugs.

There is so much gear including lead on the bottom of most rivers it would blow your mind. The lead is like gold it moves to the center of the river line and acumulates in natural catch points and that is where it stays. If it was going to kill off a river the kenai would be dead. I bet there is close to a ton of lead in beaver creek hole alone. That section sees thousands of 6-12 ounce lead balls in one month. Many stay there. I picked up nearly a half of a five gallon bucket full of just spinners and spoons last spring up river of Soldotna at a not so popular spot for silvers. I picked up a coffee can full of leaded trebels at a popular snagging spot near town. The steel rusts away but the lead is there for ever.

Thanks for the responses sounds like I'm not going to get lead poisoning from eating a hatchery steelhead or salmon Are there any non toxic leads available on the market nowadays?