Recreational fishing is often the target of criticism over both our treatment of fish and the environment.

Whilst these attacks are not always accurate, responsible fishermen have responded to these challenges by improving catch and release methods, abiding by improved fishery protection laws and exhibiting a more respectful attitude to their surroundings. This is commendable, but much more needs to be done and complacency lurks in ambush.

One of the big issues in USA is the pollution and damage caused by what we call "terminal tackle", that is "what we fish with." There is a growing call to control the use of plastic baits, a move that we subscribe to when we realise just how much junk we leave lying around the waters that we fish.

New generation baits like protein based Gulps, and more recently Gulps Alive (more next week) have addressed this issue in a way that gives us a more successful way to fish with a zero environmental footprint. Great move!

Recently the international price of lead rose a massive 70%, so you can imagine what has happened to the price of sinkers.

Which "lead" us to think it's about time we tackled this issue too. Lead is so environmently toxic that lead shotgun cartridges are now banned from much of our goose and duck shooting. I shudder to think how many tonnes of lead go out the door of even this small business each year, destined to be dumped on the ocean floor, toxic forever!

Enter "Enviroweights." Uniquely developed and made in Australia, these lead sinker substitutes have now also become back pocket friendly.

Enviroweights come in both snapper and bean configurations and are manufactured from compressed ferrous particles and then coated to leave a smooth "lead like" external texture. They will last in your tackle box almost indefinitely, but in water they will quickly deteriorate over a period of a few weeks.

As well as the environmental benefits, they are priced under lead sinkers, and we are probably crazy to use anything else.