Limited options on Leadfree Jig Heads

[NHbassfisherman]

I live in New Hampshire and as most of you are aware, it became a "Leadfree" state along with several other New England states, about 5 years ago. I just saw where "Zman" has come out with a new product line of Finesse BulletZ weedless jig heads for their Zman TRD CrawZ and etc. Its built on a #1 EWG and has like 4 different weights. But again, just like Zmans TRD ShroomZ NED jig heads, they are not being manufactured with Leadfree states in mind. Is there anyone that can make or already makes a leadfree product similar to these products, especially the Finesse BulletZ weedless weighted jig heads. Heres an attachment of the jig head I am referring to.

[67elmustang]

Ask Ken McKee on Facebook @ Lead Free Jigs

[NHbassfisherman]

Yeah, i did talk to Ken. He suggested the obvious solution which fishermen have been doing for years. Basically use a Texas Rig, eliminating the worryies of the leadfree jighead and belly weight. Smarrt man.

[okiebass]

This might be a silly question, But have you ever been checked on the water to make sure your lures are lead free ?

[DrewFlu33]

Maybe this isn't helpful or something you already thought about, but maybe it can be. I just went reading the actual law for the lead ban New Hampshire as I know that some states that have lead bans basically aim to stop people from using lead sinkers and shot since those are the things most likely to be inadvertently consumed by waterfowl and allow other things with molded lead built into a lure. New Hampshire seems to be at least a little more strict than that as it specifically mentions that lead jigs are prohibited regardless of whether there is a skirt on it. However, there is this little blurb (LINK) about things that don't fall under the definition of lead sinkers and lead jigs:

Lead sinkers and lead jigs shall not include lead fishing related items including but not limited to lead core line, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, spoons, poppers, plugs, or flies.

The way I read this tells me that lead spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, spoons, etc. are NOT subject to the lead ban. Any idea if there's some language somewhere that goes on to define each of those things? What I'm wondering here is if you could use those exceptions as a loophole here to make using the Finesse BulletZ okay, or even better, whether the Finesse BulletZ would somehow fit into the legal definition of one of those items that isn't subject to the ban IF there is a place where each of the exceptions is defined.

To speak to the former of the two possible workarounds, an obvious one could be attaching a small spinner blade to it; now it's a spinnerbait and not subject to the lead ban. Now it's possible that the definition of spinnerbait that's been laid out in the law (if it exists somewhere?) would preclude doing so if the definition for spinnerbait is more explicit, and I know that this makes it a different lure than what you're really wanting, but it may be worth a shot.

Even better, maybe you could argue that it constitutes a spoon, and thus is not subject to the rule? Finding their legal definition for a spoon would be really helpful for doing that, as I'm sure that'd be one of those things where you try to argue with a CO and they tell you that it's not in the spirit of the law and write you a ticket anyhow. But if it is spelled out somewhere and they weren't careful with how they defined a spoon (maybe they say a spoon has "lead molded around the shank of a hook away from the hook eye" or something like that) you could point to the actual language and argue that it's really a spoon based on the letter of the law?

This all feels gross, but when laws are made like this it starts to become a necessary evil in my mind. I'm all for protecting waterfowl, but I think the accidental ingestion of lead happens when the lead is a small morsel that looks like it might be food. I doubt any waterfowl is grabbing something that's been molded, painted, and made to look like a fishing lure is mistaking it for some seed or something they might otherwise be eating. And loons have good enough vision and are smart enough not to mistake some lure laying on the bottom for the fish they'd normally be swimming after that swims away from them.