Lead Ban?

I just wanted to say I sure hope everyone is putting in their 2 cents about this issue because if they ban lead it will be very bad for us.

Some of you have seen this I feel sure, but I want everyone to see it. Below I will copy and paste the email from Cabela's.

Keep America Fishing

Skip

September 2, 2010

Dear Cabela's Customer:

Occasionally, an issue of such importance arises we feel it necessary to contact our loyal customers. With our fishing rights at stake, this is such an issue.

On August 23, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was petitioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and others to ban lead from ammunition and fishing tackle, including sinkers, jigs, weighted fly lines and components containing lead, such as brass and ballast in lures, spinners, stick baits and other fishing products.

On August 27, the EPA denied the petition regarding ammunition, but let stand the petition to ban lead in fishing tackle and has opened a short period for taking public comment.

Such a ban would cause prices of fishing products to skyrocket. Alternative metals can cost from six to 15 times more than lead, and most do not perform as well. For many, fishing would no longer be the affordable sport it is now.

Please join Cabela's and Keep America Fishing in opposing this ban by submitting your comments to the EPA no later than September 15, 2010. You can easily do so by clicking here.

It is a fast and easy way to assure your opinion is heard.

Cabela's is working in conjunction with the American Sportfishing Association and Keep America Fishing to protect our tradition and heritage of fishing.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Cabela's

i would refuse to obey such a ban if they did pass it.it would be one of those things they just could not enforce.i highly doubt some epa whacko enforcer would find you out on a lake fishin to bother you about using lead head jigs.sposedly they backed off from banning it in bullets and firearms correct?if you reload ammo you could still get lead,and as long as you have the jig head molds you'd still be in busness...i agree to fight it in the first place so it doesn't happen tho.im sick and tired of these whacko hippie types trying to force their crap down every ones throats and tell everyone how to live!they need to be fired and removed from office permanently!f they want to be on office with power,there are plenty of other countries that run on their agendas!thanks for the heads up skip! :)

bxn Im with the others in sure hoping they let us lead guys alone,However you wont have to worry about a epa officer,they will simply do as wildlife officers do durin waterfowl season,wait at the boat ramps and check everyone as they come in,and at this point you sure better not have any lead shot in the boat with you if there is a duck in there.Same will apply with lead fishing gear.Once again sure hope everyone has click on the link and tried to fight this.

Thank you skip for posting this. We will make sure that my friends throughout the state of Oregon know about this . We just contacted the Oregon Bass panfish club. Also dignitaries on radio talk shows pertaining to sports fishing. And thank you for letting us know skip this is very important especially to me in the rest of the industry.

Guys it would be just like the local Game Wardens would give you a huge ticket for having lead baits and like duck hunters along the coast had to stop using lead shot years ago and only steel which is just not as good, is what they had to go to. It sucks and for sure would suck big time if we were stuck with thousands of heads we couldn't use!

How many of you would like to throw out every jig and other lead baits in your box and have to start over?

Remember when I posted last year or the one before the jigs using Tungsten Beads for heads? Well this kind of crud is why I was looking into that a long time back. Oh and believe me Tungsten is not lower cost at all. They cost a lot more than lead heads.

Skip

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bxn

i would refuse to obey such a ban if they did pass it.it would be one of those things they just could not enforce.i highly doubt some epa whacko enforcer would find you out on a lake fishin to bother you about using lead head jigs.sposedly they backed off from banning it in bullets and firearms correct?if you reload ammo you could still get lead,and as long as you have the jig head molds you'd still be in busness...i agree to fight it in the first place so it doesn't happen tho.im sick and tired of these whacko hippie types trying to force their crap down every ones throats and tell everyone how to live!they need to be fired and removed from office permanently!f they want to be on office with power,there are plenty of other countries that run on their agendas!thanks for the heads up skip! :)

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The NRA said 2nd Amendment + lawsuit and they dropped the ammo case. No such luck with fishing. %$@^*%# tree huggers.

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Originally Posted by skiptomylu

It sucks and for sure would suck big time if we were stuck with thousands of heads we couldn't use!

How many of you would like to throw out every jig and other lead baits in your box and have to start over?

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Guys- You need to tell EPA how many jigs you stockpile and estimate how much you have invested in your supply. There seems to be a notion that fishermen have a working supply of sinkers, jigs, and other lead tackle items and the only time they buy or make more is to replace a lost item. EPA needs to hear that some number of fishermen maintain inventories of tackle items that exceed the stock of a small tackle store!

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Originally Posted by Corker

Guys- You need to tell EPA how many jigs you stockpile and estimate how much you have invested in your supply. There seems to be a notion that fishermen have a working supply of sinkers, jigs, and other lead tackle items and the only time they buy or make more is to replace a lost item. EPA needs to hear that some number of fishermen maintain inventories of tackle items that exceed the stock of a small tackle store!

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I must have missed where to tell the EPA because some have ask. I for sure have a pretty large inventory of heads, at least for a one man band like I am.

Do you have a link? I will look at other post to see if one is around.

Skip

I sent mine in to the epa directly along with my submission from cabelas. I basically said with the cost of tackle and materials you limit yourself on what you buy. Also I said that I make some things to offset the price and lead is one of my primary components that I use and I stated that if I cant afford to go fishing I cant take my kids fishing and teach them about being stewards of our land. Then I closed with if the kids are not involved with the outdoors who will protect our resources in the future.

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Originally Posted by skiptomylu

I must have missed where to tell the EPA

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Use the link in my "Two-click comments" post. Your first click takes you to the official comment form and the second is the "Submit" button. All you have to do is enter your name and your comments. Since you're going to comment about cost, you might want to remind EPA that a ban will have many costs--some of which we haven't discovered yet! The ones we know include:
- cost of disposing of stocks & inventory
- cost of retooling for alternate metals, and
- cost of raw material for production of lead-free items.

Commercial (and amateur) manufacturers will experience all three. Retailers and consumers will experience #1 directly and the others indirectly.

Thanks Corker! I bet that I have well over 25,000 heads of sizes from 1/80 to 1/4 and then all the Roadrunner heads in 3 sizes. Heck I just sent out 1200 Roadrunners to get Nichol Plated.

Skip

I posted what I had stocked up plus all the box's of hooks, blades etc. I then went on to show cost increases by using their quote "alternate materials".

When they talked about lead, zinc and other materials mixed in including brass, that "OTHER MATERIALS" worried me.

I also don't think the EPA realizes we're powder coating these jig heads and that would stop any breakdown of the lead. I'm waiting to see if they catch that in my comments.

Fatman