Lead-Free Fly Fishing

"It doesn’t cost much extra, it’s just as effective, and by using nonlead alternatives we can fish our flies at the depth we want without causing harm to the wildlife we love."

• Drew YoungeDyke, Director of Conservation Partnerships for the National Wildlife Federation
• Mar 08, 2023

When we fly fish, we often take extra caution to ensure that our actions don’t cause the fish we catch and release to perish. We know it’s a possibility, but if we can take a couple extra steps, or fewer, we can increase the odds that that particular fish we caught survives. We can do the same for birds that share the landscape with the fish we pursue and enrich our time on the water, like common loons and bald eagles, to protect them from lead poisoning resulting from our fishing activities. 

Lead poisoning is a leading cause of mortality for both common loons and bald eagles. For bald eagles, the source is primarily lead ammunition fragments used for hunting, but bald eagles are also fish hunters and lead fishing tackle in a fish eaten by an eagle can be a source. For common loons, lead fishing tackle like split shot is a primary source of lead poisoning. 

While we most often associate lead fishing weights with gear angling or ice fishing, it is present in fly fishing tackle, too. However, nonlead substitutes are available for everything we use lead for in fly fishing. By taking just a few extra steps – just as we do to protect the fish we catch and release – we can eliminate lead in our fly gear and also protect common loons and bald eagles. 

 

My local fly shop – The Painted Trout in Dexter, Michigan – sells only nonlead fly tying materials. I tie flies for northern pike, smallmouth and largemouth bass, brook trout, and bluegill, so they have a pretty good selection of nonlead materials for me to choose. Most fly shops carry nonlead alternatives, though, even if they sell lead materials, too, and can probably stock them if you ask. I asked their shop manager why they sell nonlead materials. 

“My father has been an environmental engineer with the USEPA my whole life, so from a very early age and because of what he taught me, I’ve had an appreciation for the kind of damage lead do in the environment,” Neall Dollhopf, Shop Manager at The Painted Trout, said. “Since I came to The Painted Trout in 2018, I’ve made it a point to ensure that there is no lead in anything that we sell. There are equally effective, nontoxic options out there for flies, tying, and drift-boat anchors. There’s absolutely no reason to be leaving this stuff to pollute our precious resources.” 

 

Walt's Worms tied with leadfree wire and tungsten beadhead.

There are five primary places where we can use nonlead substitutes to eliminate lead from our fly kit. The first two are in tying the fly, and the next two are used on the water to sink the fly, and the fifth is the anchor you use if you fish from a drift boat, kayak, or canoe. 

Nymphs and streamers are often tied with lead wire wrap and/or lead eyes to help a fly sink faster. These are two places in fly tying where lead materials can be directly substituted. Nonlead round wire can be substituted for lead wire and nontoxic dumbbell eyes can be directly substituted for lead eyes. I like the Fulling Mill tungsten eyes that I get from The Painted Trout, especially for Clouser Minnows, River Pigs, and Pike Bunnies. 

Clouser Minnow tied with tungsten dumbbell eyes

Indirect substitutions in fly tying can be made, too, depending on the pattern. For instance, a tungsten beadhead or conehead can be added to some streamers rather than using lead wire or lead eyes. Some patterns calling for lead wire can be tied with a nontoxic beadhead. Bead chain eyes can be substituted, too. In addition, heavier natural materials like rabbit zonker strip can be substituted on some patterns, which will soak up more water and add weight to the fly after it gets wet. 

Jig nymph with nonlead wire wrap and tungsten beadhead.

Out on the water, lead split shot is often used to add weight to a fly. Loon and Orvis make nontoxic split shot that can be substituted, and Loon makes a tungsten putty. Rather than rely on additional weights to get a fly down, using sinking, intermediate, and sink-tip lines and leaders made with tungsten coating can more effectively get streamers in the zone and allow for a more natural retrieve. 

Finally, whether you fish from a drift boat, canoe, kayak, jon boat, aluminum rowboat, or any other boat, ensure that your anchor is lead-free, too, in case you lose it and so it doesn’t release tiny lead fragments when it bangs on rocks or any other obstruction. Dollhopf recommends Tornado Anchors, made from steel plates around a center axis clipped to the anchor rope.

As fly anglers, we purchase rubberized landing nets. We get our hands wet before we hold the fish, or keep it in the water while removing the fly. We hold it until it’s regained the strength to swim off on its own, or we avoid fishing for coldwater species when the water temperature is too high. We do this because we consider ourselves not just anglers, but also conservationists. As conservationists, though, we can’t limit our concern only to the species we pursue, especially when it’s our actions that can have an impact on other species. 

By taking a few extra steps to ensure that we tie flies with nonlead wire, tungsten beadheads, and nontoxic dumbbell eyes, and use sinking lines, nontoxic split shot, or tungsten putty to sink our flies, we can show the same care for the well-being of common loons, bald eagles, and other birds of prey as we do for brook trout, smallmouth bass, northern pike, or musky. It doesn’t cost much extra, it’s just as effective, and by using nonlead alternatives we can fish our flies at the depth we want without causing harm to the wildlife we love. 

Drew YoungeDyke is a Director of Conservation Partnerships for the National Wildlife Federation.