Doug Crumrine is the president of Bullet Weights and a staunch advocate of lead alternatives. He maintains that Bullet Weights' tin split shot and Ultra Steel 2000 sinkers are environmentally smart and attractively priced for fishermen.

"When we introduced our Ultra Steel 2000 line in about 1995," Crumrine said, "we knew the sinkers had to be cost effective for anglers. We felt we had to make a sinker that fishermen actually wanted to use, not one that they would use because the government decided it was environmentally safe."

The result was a steel sinker that is about 20 percent larger than its lead counterpart and that is priced very comparably to lead. "The cost of producing our Ultra Steel 2000 sinkers is very similar to the cost of producing lead sinkers," Crumrine said. "We package it like lead and the cost per sinker is almost exactly the same as lead."

But the boon to the environment and a good price structure are not the only advantages of steel sinkers in Crumrine's eyes. "Our steel sinkers are harder than lead, so they transmit feel better and produce more noise," Crumrine said. "They also hold paint better; so colored sinkers will retain their colors better than lead models."

The folks at Bullet Weights have added another dimension to their Ultra Steel 2000 line that goes beyond the basic qualities of the material itself. Their PermaScent sinkers are actually impregnated with a long-lasting scent designed to attract fish - or at least mask undesirable human odors.

"Because we've been able to bring a quality steel product to anglers at a price that's about the same as lead, our steel sinker business has been growing by leaps and bounds every year - even in those markets where alternatives to lead are not required!"

Bullet Weights got into the tin split shot business at about the same time they introduced Ultra Steel 2000. "We needed something that was softer than steel," Crumrine said.

Lead, of course, is very soft and has long been the standard in the world of split shot. Tin is just as effective as lead - if you're willing to make a couple of adjustments.

First of all, tin is a lot more expensive than lead. It costs about twice as much, so getting rigs unsnagged or using reusable split shot becomes a necessity unless you're willing to spend the money.

Second, tin is not as heavy as lead for its size. "It's about 67 to 68 percent as dense as lead," Crumrine said. "For that reason, I usually bump up my sinker selection by one size when using tin rather than lead. That gives me about the same weight as a lead split shot."

Apart from those two qualifiers - increased cost and less density than lead - tin is actually a more attractive sinker material than lead. Because it's harder than lead, which tends to absorb the kind of signals that anglers feel through their lines and rods, tin will better transmit sensations like a rocky substrate, a limb, a weedbed . . . or a strike!

Despite the additional cost of tin, Crumrine reports that Bullet Weights' sale of tin split shot has increased annually since it was introduced.

And right now, we don't have to! The ban on lead sinkers is far from widespread, and there doesn't appear to be much in the way of lobbying for a national or international ban. Of course, as political climates change, so could the future of lead fishing products.

Fortunately, there are several attractive alternatives to lead sinkers, jig heads and the like. Some of them will even outperform lead, though typically at a premium price. Each of these materials has qualities that distinguish it from the others and from lead. Ultimately, the well-equipped angler may be carrying samples of several of these lead alternatives and using each for specialized applications for which that material is best suited.

Whatever the future of lead, these alternative materials are likely to be around for a long while. Some offer real advantages over traditional sinkers, and you owe it to yourself to give them a try. They just might put an extra fish on the end of your line.