Alternatives to Lead Fishing Sinkers

 

Lead alternatives good for the Highlands environment

By Bruce Litton

 

          “That’s a half ounce sinker?” Joe Landolfi said. He sat opposite me in one of Dow’s rental boats, reaching across to look closely at the duck egg shape. I was rigging for hybrid stripers with live herring on Lake Hopatcong.

          “It’s steel,” I said. “Some of them are rusted a little, makes them feel homey.”

          Joe has an acute eye. Steel egg sinkers are not really outsized, although they do have about half the density of lead. Why use them?

          Our lakes and reservoirs, some of the rivers, are frequented by diving birds like loons, bufflehead ducks, and mergansers, which ingest stones from the bottom to help their digestive process. Statistics show a great many such birds die from lead poisoning, the result of swallowing lead sinkers instead of stones. Even bald eagles die from the lead poison in smaller diving birds they eat. Everyone loses sinkers to snags, so for the health of the environment, it’s a good idea to use alternative weight such as steel, tin, brass, bismuth, or tungsten.

          Alternatives are new on the scene, but many states have already passed legislation against the use of lead weights. For more than 5000 years, lead has been used for fishing beginning with ancient Egyptians, so the change is nothing less than revolutionary from an historical perspective. After what mankind has done to the Earth, we are entering an age of unprecedented environmental appreciation.

          Fish have always fed people and symbolize human spirituality; spirituality is nothing if not connectivity to the planet. We anglers participate in a practice older than European origins—a form of endeavor upon which civilizations are based. America began with fishing. The Northeast seacoast, particularly George’s Bank, was exploited before settlements took root. And the following example is my favorite: a tax levied on the sale of striped bass paid for the first Colonial public school in Plymouth, MA, 1670. I wonder what kind of sinkers. Nets need them too.

          Lead alternatives don’t make sinkers a big, bulging eyesore, and tungsten is twice the density of lead and a much harder metal. Tungsten is expensive, but cool stuff. If you want to punch through surface vegetation with a worm weight, nothing is better than a tungsten bullet sinker pegged at the hook’s tie loop. If you love jigging, why not invest in tungsten jigs to get a margin of more distinct feel? The metal makes harder contact against rock or sunken timber. It doesn’t make much difference, but that would be the whole point, just to see if you can appreciate the subtlety. And if you do, then it seems to be a big difference indeed.

          Alternatives on the market cover everything now: spinnerbait heads, bladebaits, jigs, egg sinkers, split shots, tungsten putty, tiny cylindrical weights, and slip weights of all kinds. Like anything else, they need and deserve a critical eye to discern right uses. When I fished the Salmon River for steelhead with my son a few years ago, I weighted my float rig with shiny, tin split shots. A helpful angler approached who told me take them off I wanted to catch any. Steelheads are extremely visual fish and apparently get spooked by split shots that reflect light.

          So Boss Tin of Colorado came up with solutions. By mixing tin and bismuth, the company has produced a line of dull toned split shots that are better than fresh lead to avoid scaring sight-wary trout and steelheads. They also have a complete line of fly leader sinkers that look like little sticks and bits of stone to camouflage the presentation, really ingenious stuff. Likewise, Bullet Weights has a complete line of alternatives from the famous bullet weight for bass, to split shots, to bottom bouncers—dozens of types.

          Just Google lead alternative fishing weights and handfuls of companies come up. Water Gremlin was a household name in the 1970’s when we used to crimp lead split shots with our teeth—never a good idea, nor necessary. The EPA put out a warning to home-made tackle buffs against making lead weights, jigs, spinnerbaits, etc. When melted, lead produces airborne particles that can spread throughout a house, contaminating it just like a gas chamber. Lead can be very bad news in unexpected ways.

         For the ultimate in environmental consciousness, Envio-Weights produces tackle made from reprocessed landfill steel and resin: buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, as well as split shots and other sinkers. Who would have thought that perhaps the New Jersey Meadowlands might become the source for a buzzbait cutting across calm, pristine looking Oak Ridge Reservoir at dawn?

Summer Techniques: Largemouth Bass, Pickerel, and Rock Bass

Largemouth bass, pickerel and rock bass summer techniques

          Pebbly soil allows relatively sparse vegetation to give you a barren impression of the area flanked by ridges to the north, south, and west. It slightly reminds me of how mountains rise over desert valleys in the western United States. The lake is very deep. How deep exactly, I don’t know. But shallow flats exist to give it better structure than it would have with only drop offs from shorelines.

          Largemouth bass and pickerel fishing good, large rock bass of close to a pound also serve opportunity. In all of my experience, I’ve never known a lake to have so many of these brown-toned members of the sunfish family. I’ve caught one in Round Valley Reservoir, but typically they’re found in streams and rivers. In this lake, they’ll swallow a plastic worm whole if you don’t set the hook in time. Sunfish are present also for panfishing.

          During the warm water season, topwater plugs early and late in the day are especially good for largemouth bass. University research has shown that largemouths are sight advantaged over prey like sunfish when light intensity is changing. Bass like to hug bottom in relatively shallow water around dawn and sunset, looking upward for prey. A topwater lure is most vulnerable in this situation. Pickerel won’t hesitate either.

          Popping plugs like the Pop-R and Plunker, prop plugs like the Torpedo and Dalton Special, surface crawling plugs like the Jitterbug and Crazy Crawler, walking plugs like the Zara Spook and Bug Stick, and weedless soft plastics like the Phatrat and Money Frog are just a list of favorites. Others manufactured in a dazzling array can be effective at one time or another, but these four categories have their special purposes.

          Poppers may be best when surface is calm and calls for a slow, teasing retrieve. Make a cast and let the plug sit until the ripples fade. Then twitch or pop it. Fairly often, the first cast before sunrise is all it takes for the first catch. Bass move as light changes, and if the surface is calm, they charge for the disturbance. Poppers, however, can be effective also on slightly choppy surface with a quick, noisy retrieve, although a prop bait or surface crawler with the metal flanges is more suited to the commotion. Walking plugs retrieved by turns of the rod tip to the right and left make the plug zig-zag like a dog on a chain, sniffing right and left. Something about the crazy action makes bass and pickerel strike savagely sometimes. Since a lake may have some fairly thick weed growth along the shallow edges during summer, a weedless rat or frog can be cast directly onto weeds at the surface and a strike blast a hole right through the mess.

          Some weedlines end where very deep water begins. Soft plastic lures like Senkos and other plastic worms prove especially effective along the drop-offs. Senkos sink fast enough that they don’t need to be weighted to fish as deep as 20 feet. But especially during the day with increased wind, I imagine conventional Texas or Carolina rigs for plastic worms with an inset hook and bullet sinker might work. The difference between the two is that the Texas rig simply allows the sliding bullet sinker to rest against the inset hook. The Carolina rig uses a barrel swivel spaced two feet from the inset hook, so the worm is free to sink slower to bottom after the rod lifts the entire rig high and allows it to fall back. Jigs with plastic twister-tail grubs or synthetic leeches can result in quick hook-ups for rock bass and largemouth bass alike. Since largemouth bass retreat into clear water as deep as 40 feet or so, plumbing this particular secret lake’s depths might be interesting. Plenty of deep water in range of the bank, a boat may yet allow more effective, parallel approaches.

          A canoe or kayak can be wheeled in and launched from one or two spots. Otherwise, lots of bank fishing exists where you can position to cast at differing structures. Some spots difficult to access, careful steps can make casting effective and landing fish possible.

          I think of a surrounding environment remarkably clean, free of litter, and attractive in the desolate way of suggesting desert I mentioned. To reflect on a once busy industrial site bodes well for environmental resilience. Visitors here seem to respect renewal and growth, and release their catch. Sometime in the future a forest may surround the lake and our grandchildren will catch bass and pickerel in a different environment yet.

Color Differences for Largemouth Bass at a Private Pond

Fred arrived and fished before me, catching a lot of bass, one four pounds, another three. This is our annual Scout picnic and opportunity to fish a private pond of 15 acres or so.

I fished with Fred down along the spillway, first with a bright red spinnerbait, then quickly snapping on a Senko-type worm as soon as Fred began getting hits, by changing his white worm to black as shadows had overtaken us. It was the same sort of difference in color triggering strikes I recently wrote about after fishing Round Valley Reservoir.

I lost a bass of about three pounds on my first cast, hooked in about six to eight feet of water. I got a good look at the fish, really good sized, could have been a few ounces more than three. Then we casually caught and released bass for about 20 minutes, until we began to head for the dining area.

There was a fallen tree we accessed by climbing down an embankment and fighting off briars. At first, nothing would hit. We must have covered the range with a dozen casts. Then I caught the largest pumpkinseed of my life, must have weighed a pound. It took the five-inch Senko-type with a size 3/0 inset hook. I switched to a slow worm, a traditional Chompers in watermelon, rigged on an inset. This worked. Fred switched to a watermelon Senko-type and we caught a few more bass, and I caught a pickerel also.

After dinner, we cast topwaters for 15 minutes. I nailed another bass, but that was all.

Butler Reservoir Pickerel and Bass West Milford New Jersey

 

Butler reservoir may be worth the hike

          Set more than a mile back in Apshawa Preserve, 40-acre Butler Reservoir in West Milford Township is accessible by hiking the moderately strenuous White Trail to the area near the dam. The Preserve is a joint project of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the County of Passaic, well worth a visit by those who like to combine fishing with hiking. The view from atop the mountain summit over Butler Reservoir and a wide regional vista is worth a long, relaxing break. Particularly with the cool breezes of early fall, this could be nice. After a quick descent, an area of about 150 yards of shoreline is all my son and I fished on our recent family outing, and we found the fishing is good for largemouth bass and pickerel. Supposedly, smallmouth bass exist, but I’ve never caught one in water stained by tannic acid, although some rock structure exists in Butler Reservoir, which is necessary for bronzebacks. Fifteen-foot depths near the spillway also support this information’s possible veracity. Otherwise, this is a shallow impoundment: lily pads and other aquatic vegetation are abundant.

          My son began fishing a buzzbait and I shot off half-a-dozen casts with a spinnerbait that felt like it wasn’t moving close and slow enough to vegetation, so I snapped on a Rebel Pop-R. After 10 minutes I felt the rhythm of working the topwater plug next to and in pockets of weeds, but my wife called me over to the spillway. Our black Labrador apparently threated to leap over, but she was just intensely curious with her claws dug in and neck over the edge. No way would she have jumped.

          With deeper water to try, I tied a Chompers worm to 15-pound fluorocarbon and barrel swivel connecting 15-pound test Power Pro. We came prepared for heavy vegetation and pickerel. Fluorocarbon resists abrasive rows of razor teeth. Retrieving the worm back at quick speed for the next cast drew interest from a couple of small pickerel, but I felt interested in at least a fair-size fish.


          I fished the rock dam structure of some sort out in deeper water very closely, not really expectant but making sure. Then I observed that at the far edge of the spillway a slot existed between the bank and a micro weed edge about five feet long and very thin, forming a pocket with weeds in the back of it, leaving open an entry way to the shallow spillway bottom where water flows, finally to drop over the edge. In that pocket, I wholly anticipated the possibility of a bass. Most of the casts any of us make prove less certain. On occasion, we can anticipate a fish without seeing it. My cast propelled the worm about 60 feet in a straight line and it landed perfectly in the pocket’s middle. The line slack, I felt a subtle tick through my St. Croix medium power graphite rod and through line loose and limp, transmitted like a sort of weak electrical click. I let the bass take line for five seconds, then set the hook hard and all three of us marveled at the aerial show the bass gave almost immediately, a good bass about 2 ½ pounds that I finally prepared to grasp at the lower jaw, eager to hold up for my wife—when I saw the hook pull free. I got the fish nearly to my feet. 

          Soon I unhooked and released a small bass. Throughout this time, intermittently, I looked for other places to stand and cast around the reservoir and noted there quite a few. You can hike all the way around to enjoy perhaps several hours or more of steady fishing. A lot of this could be done with soft-bodied plastic rats and frogs. These draw ferocious strikes from bass and pickerel when the time is right. The worms obviously work with an inset hook, but pickerel less likely take them, although we’ve caught more than a few over the years slow-fishing worms as if for bass.

          Butler Reservoir is an out of the way place not far from plenty that isn’t, such as the Town Tavern Country Restaurant where we ate afterwards, and is wild enough for surprises. As Matt led us towards the parking lot, he watched the trail in front of him when Sadie, our Labrador, stopped walking and Matt suddenly looked up. A big bear 20 or 30 feet away looked directly into his eyes as if to say, “What are you doing?” She had two cubs. Matt said, “Woh…,” while backing up. The bears turned and wandered away.

Shadow Pitching Plastic Worms for Bass

With 61 degrees and bluebird skies, I didn't expect to catch any, but soon connected with a bass more than 14 inches, the 7 1/2-inch Culprit watermelon traditional worm (but slender) pitched just beyond line of shadow. The idea is to place the worm in sunlit water just beyond shade. Bass in the relative safety and ambush point of darkness see the worm in the light, rush out and take.

After photographing and releasing this first bass, I tossed the worm to the side, again placing it just beyond shade. The line jumped and swiftly moved out, I let it tighten, set the hook and was into a good fish. I tape measured the bass at 17 inches.

All told, I fished about a half hour. I missed another hit coaxed the same way. I hadn't much time, but today I felt that had I progressed through the sticks, making spot-on pitches and short casts; I could have caught another or two.

Newark Watershed Reservoirs Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Muskies, Trout

Newark watershed reservoirs great gamefish havens

 

 

          Four reservoirs in Passaic County, New Jersey—Oak Ridge, Echo Lake, Clinton, and Canistear—comprise the Newark Watershed Conservation & Development Corporation’s fishing opportunity. All are available under special regulations, such as permits that must be purchased in person at one of the two offices, and limitations on boats. Canoes, kayaks, sailboats, and inflatables are not permitted; all other boats must be 10 feet long or more; no gasoline outboards are allowed, but electric outboards are allowed. All the information you need on the nuts and bolts of access to these beautiful highlands waters is available online.

          Another possible way to fish them is shore casting, although this is very limited. Having driven all the way to Newfoundland, N.J., to clear the legal hurdles, my son and I were informed that inflatables are not allowed. Since that’s all we had besides our feet and legs, we purchased the $30.00 family permit anyhow and set out to find smallmouth bass at Oak Ridge Reservoir from shore. We also visited Canistear Reservoir and Echo Lake Reservoir. All of these places have beautiful woodland settings with mountains in the backgrounds. The water flowing beyond the dams eventually reaches the Passaic River and flows right through Newark. Route 23 will take you to the Passaic River and the Verona urban sprawl, but approaching the calm surface of Oak Ridge Reservoir at the empty boat launch lot with the same highway’s traffic in earshot, we felt a world away from the city.

          My second cast resulted in a crashing surface strike. Once again my favorite Hedden Torpedo had scored. A nice smallmouth leapt two feet and then ploughed under for cover beneath the rock shelves I had seen and cast to—faintly visible under still surface. I turned the rod down to my side, pulling to the right, and the bass shot to the left and leapt once again after a 10 yard streak. It proved to be a well-hooked 17-incher. A plug is especially vulnerable to having the hooks loosened by wild, rapid head shaking bass giving an aerial display.

          The pattern was familiar to me: catch a nice fish right off the bat and the rest of the day is shot. The temptation is to get hopes high as if you’ll have a great day when realistically chances are you won’t catch so many, perhaps no more at all. That proved to be the case. Nevertheless, the little we found we could really fish from shore was compensated for by great views, as well as the chance to park and scout what we could of Canistear and Echo Lake. My son, Matt, had a great hit at the dam of Oak Ridge, and earlier in the morning or in the evening things might have been different with more bass caught.

          If you have a boat, these 300 to 500 acre reservoirs have excellent rocky shoreline structure for smallmouth bass, as well as deep drop-offs, coves, and underwater humps. Check out New Jersey Lake Survey Maps online or in book form and see. Canistear is an excellent walleye reservoir. Echo Lake is known as one of the state’s best musky fisheries. I spoke to someone who had fished Echo Lake a number of times this past spring, and although he caught no muskies, he wasn’t trying for them either. He was too busy catching smallmouth bass as large as four pounds from shoreline rocks on tube jigs. A member of the Knee Deep Club associated with Lake Hopatcong once told me that Oak Ridge Reservoir is the best smallmouth bass fishing in the state. That’s what motivated us to visit. I knew enough not to get carried away by catching a nice one so fast, but the bass are out there if you can get to them.

          However, limited numbers of anglers does not necessarily mean there are more bass than other waters in the state of comparable size. Most anglers, or at least most anglers who catch the most bass, release their catch—but bass that get caught become conditioned to avoid getting caught again. This is why fishing pressure is largely about the lures fish see and get hooked by rather than about the numbers that get eaten.

          Maximum depths are over 40 feet in all four reservoirs but Echo Lake, which has depths over 30 feet. Trout are stocked in Clinton Reservoir and some of these fish holdover, although it is not a trout fishery comparable to Merrill Creek and Round Valley reservoirs. But for smallmouth bass, muskies, and walleyes, these are some of the finest waters in the state.   

Blue Mountain Lake Largemouth Bass Delaware Watergap Recreation Area

Patricia and I first visited Millbrook Village, spending time inside the residence, church, general store, and at the blacksmith's shop. It made us think about how hard it must have been to settle in the wilderness, first living in a cabin as farming was tended, and then finally enabled to build a modest house for generations thereafter to live in. And then in the 1970's, along comes our dear old government, forcing them out under eminent domain. For absolutely nothing. The Tocks Island Dam was never built and should never have been considered. A waste of time and human life. All that work to settle in this little village--taken away by the delusions of politicians, believing they were going to dam the Delaware.

We hiked the trail up along Van Campen's Brook. I fished a size 12 nymph on my 6-foot TFO two weight in not many more than a few runs and little pools, losing a five-inch trout with some red on it, so probably a brookie for color to have been that distinct. I had expected a little brown and maybe that's what it was, I couldn't tell for certain. Sadie the Labrador kept crashing into the water and after trying the little I did, I drew the line against my urge to catch some trout and hiked on further with my wife.

My son and I fished Blue Mountain Lake with shiners last year and got skunked, so I felt wary of letting my hopes get the better of me, but I wanted to fish it again. We sighted a five-pounder, and several about three to three-and-a-half last year. The water's clear. So I went to a spot sloping into deep water, fishing deep thoroughly to no avail. I winged my Senko-type worm shallow near the bank many yards ahead of me, had a take, set the hook, and missed it. Then I missed another hit and imagined this was a small buck guarding a bed. I lost interest. Then, as often happens, I felt my inner state come to peace and resolution. I was looking up the bank. How can you see a "pocket" when all the eye really registers is calm water of a sort of grayish reflection in the shade? Water I couldn't see through to anything from this distance where my intuition told me exactly to place the next cast. I hadn't stood over the spot on this day or last year. Nevertheless, as I cast the worm, feeling the most meaningful assurance I had felt for the past half hour of fishing, when it hit the target it felt like destiny. The worm slipped under, began sinking, the line twitched, I set the hook, and was into a really good bass. I thought it was larger than it really was--a 17-incher apparently spawned out--because it fought hard.

I called for my wife to photograph me with it, released it, and we departed the lake.