An Editor's Musings at New Tackle Show: What About Old Line and Lures?

The annual International Convention for Allied Sportfishing Trades, or ICAST, is the best place in the world to see new fishing gear. It’s also where journalists and other industry figures go to observe trends and gauge interest in various initiatives—take the pulse of the sportfishing industry, in other words.

One thing high on my own priority list is finding solutions for the disposal or recycling of fishing line and plastic lures. In recent years, at fishing locations I’ve frequented for decades, I’ve been finding way too much line draped around mangroves, docks, bridge fenders and other points. (Actually, any more than NONE is too much!) I’ve made it a point to take time before or after each trip to recover as much as I can.

Monofilament can be placed in one of the purpose-labeled recycle tubes found at most ramps and piers; braid—totally different composition—is not supposed to go there. I usually bottle the stuff up in a coffee cup or plastic soda bottle and bury it in my home trash bags. On a recent trip, that effort included rescuing a brown pelican which had a wing wrapped tourniquet-tight in black braided line. A happy ending for the pelican, but it left me unsettled.

Make Old Fishing Gear New Again

As luck would have it, one of the first booths I visited at this year’s ICAST show in Orlando featured what’s essentially a wood chipper for fishing line. Brett Tait, a representative from Circular Blue, showed the company’s Despooler Line Cutter machine designed for tackle shops, retailers, marinas or other places where anglers are replacing line. Taking up about the space of a dorm-room refrigerator, the machine simultaneously removes monofilament from up to six reels at once and then chops it into tiny bits. When the reservoir is full, the product is shipped out for recycling.

Tonic, an Australian eyewear manufacturer exhibiting at ICAST, sourced Circular Blue nylon for raw material to produce one of its sunglass frames, the Maximus series. I found the Maximus frames to be attractive and comfortable. They feature Tonic’s proprietary two-piece polarized glass lenses which are de-centered, meaning they automatically adjust for angular distortion of objects (such as gaffs, nets, etc) placed into the water. Tonic is bringing its sunglasses into the U.S. market.

Tait said Circular Blue, as well, is looking for U.S. partners—including places to host Despooler Line Cutter stations. I may look at getting one for the Florida Sportsman office!

But what about that no-stretch, super-strong braided polyethylene line? I asked Tait. He said the Despooler Line Cutter is designed only for nylon monofilament, and that poly braid has a toxic coating which makes it nonviable for recycling into sunglass frames or other apparel. But, he said Circular Blue has the technology to blend polyethylene with discarded ABS plastic to render a product suitable for injection molding. By way of example, Tait pulled out a small black scraping tool, something that might be used to scrape paint or remove surfboard wax. “This is made from recycled polyethylene and ABS plastic from reel spools,” he said.

So there is a way forward for recycling braid. Pretty cool.

Ways to Make a Difference

Cooler yet is the panoply of initiatives underway in Australia under the Tangaroa Blue banner: tangaroablue.org. I learned about this after ICAST, doing some followup research. In Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the southern oceans, they’ve got reef cleanups, fishing gear recycle programs, ghost-net elimination efforts and all kinds of great stuff we should be paying close attention to here in the U.S.  I screen-shotted an image of one of their Rig Recycle bins which accepts all kinds of fishing line—in addition to hooks, sinkers, plastic spools and hard lures. (Soft lures are not admitted—but read on!)

Closer to home, Western Filament, based in Grand Junction, Co., showcased the Biotip biodegradable tippet at ICAST. It’s available in 3- to 12-pound tests, in the small spools fly fishermen carry for stealthy terminal rigging. A representative from the company said the Biotip material is plant-based and designed to break down in 7 to 10 years—versus the 500 to 600 years expected for nylon monofilament. He said the company is exploring prospects for heavier lines and in volumes suitable for fishing reels.

What about finding useful ways to repurpose damaged soft-plastic baits? That’s on the near horizon, too, as I learned at ICAST.

First-time ICAST exhibitor Saltgator demoed a DIY home injection-molding device about the size and shape of a French press or small blender. The Saltgator plugs into a base (either 120V AC or 12V DC through a transformer) and heats up PVC plastic. At 300 degrees, the hot gel is ready to be injected into molds to make fishing lures. Tints and reflective flakes, sold through Saltgator or sourced at hobby stores, may be added for effects. The company sells molds and also offers patterns which may be downloaded and fed into a 3D printer. One 17-ounce, $15 bottle of liquid PVC will yield about 50 small grub tails.

You can also augment the material by recycling chopped bits of leftover PVC plastic worms, grubs or other baits; the Saltgator guys recommend adding some of the liquid PVC, however, to ensure a complete melt of the chunks. They warn against adding the remains of TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) lures such as Z-Man baits. Use only conventional PVC, is the Saltgator advice. The two materials react poorly together, as any angler who’s placed baits in the same tray has discovered.

A few aisles over from Saltgator, an Italian plastic molding and engineering firm, Plastools, had a small display of line spools made from recycled plastic. That reminded me of a longstanding Berkley Conservation Institute project which manufactured nylon fish habitats—reefs--out of recycled monofilament.

Berkley—not present at this year’s ICAST--has been recycling nylon monofilament since the early 1990s. By company estimates they’ve recycled over 9 million miles worth of line. The white PVC line recycling bins, some 17,000 of them around the U.S., are ubiquitous at boat ramps and piers. In the past, only nylon monofilament was accepted; Berkley now indicates braid may be included.

In my mind, it’s high time the U.S. fishing tackle industry got together to assess what’s possible to minimize our collective footprint and develop what’s known as circular manufacturing. It’s a subject I’m keen to monitor. Meantime, we’ll keep cleaning up our fishing grounds, doing the best we can to keep the waterways and shorelines safe for seabirds and other locals.

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