SAFE Angling Kits
SAFE Angling Kits are ready to fish kits loaded with all the tackle you need to start fishing. Every kit is packed with lead-free weights, biodegradable molded lures, circle and cam action hooks. Plus, you’ll find an illustrated knot tying guide, fishing and stewardship tips, and instructions – with photos – on how to use everything in your kit.
To buy a SAFE Angling Kit online, visit www.greentackle.com or The Red Rock Wilderness Store.
To get one at a tackle shop, see “Where can I get a SAFE Angling Kit?” below.
If you’ve purchased a SAFE Angling Kit … Thanks!
Now get your free Recycled Fish membership by clicking here.
You can also win a $50 Gift Card at the store where you bought your kit if you’ll tell us what you thought of it in this brief survey.
Learn more about SAFE Angling here.
So what’s in the kit?
We’re proud of the contents of the SAFE Angling Kit because not only is this tackle non-toxic, biodegradable, and more conducive to catch and release fishing, it’s all quality equipment made by reputable manufacturers. Part of fishing is that you’ll lose some tackle, so when it comes time to re-stock your arsenal, look for products from these SAFE Angling partners.
Here’s what’s in your kit:
Tru-Turn J-Hooks (Gold Aberdeen and Bleeding Bait Red, 3 sizes)
These “cam-action” hooks do a great job of hooking fish on the outside of the mouth. Different sizes target different species and let you pick the right size hook for your bait. The long shank makes it easier to remove the hook, too. Load it up with a night crawler, FoodSource Lures, hook a minnow through the back and hang it under a bobber, or try a cricket, grasshopper or piece of cut fish for bait.
We recommend using a pair of needle-nose pliers or hemostats to pinch down the barbs on these hooks. You’ll still catch fish just fine, but it will make it easier to take them off the hook. It also makes them safer if someone unintentionally gets hooked, or the hook finds clothes, carpet or a tackle bag.
Daiichi Circle Hooks (2 sizes)
Circle hooks are a great choice for fishing with live or dead bait for larger fish like bass, catfish, walleye, pike or saltwater species. You don’t set the hook – the unique shape of these hooks automatically catches in the corner of the fish’s mouth almost every time to make for easier release, and eliminating deep “gut hooking” of the fish. A card inside the kit explains how and when to use them, and details on rigging live bait.
Water Gremlin and Bullet Weights Tin Split Shot (4 sizes)
Above your hook, you need a weight. Water Gremlin and Bullet Weights make tin split shot that you can pinch onto your line. The “wings” on each weight allow you to remove and reuse them over and over. Tin is an inexpensive alternative to lead, which is toxic. Waterfowl mistakenly eat lead weights and die.
Dr. Drop weights (3 sizes)
Dr. Drop weights are also lead alternatives which use heavier non-toxic metals. You ‘weave’ these onto your line, which eliminates pinching or crimping the line, which could weaken it. Their shape helps them slide past snags underwater.
Bullet Weights worm weights (2 sizes)
Bullet Weights worm weights slide on your line, so put those on before you tie on your hook. Fish won’t feel the weight when they pick up the bait, and the bullet shape slides through snags. You can put it above a split shot to add more weight and keep it away from the bait, or let it slide right down to your hook.
Northland Nature Jigs (3 sizes)
Northland Fishing Tackle makes many fishing lures. In this kit you’ll find lead alternative jig heads. Put a minnow, leech, worm or artificial lure on the jig head, then cast and reel it back in. If you’re fishing for bullheads, a jig head does a great job of helping prevent them from swallowing the hook – something bullheads are notorious for doing. Just put a half worm on the jig head, cast it out and let it sit. There are countless molded baits designed to be placed onto a jig head as well.
FoodSource Lures earthworms or mealworms
FoodSource Lures make biodegradable molded baits to use instead of traditional soft plastic lures. The old ‘rubber worm’ is actually soft plastic, and it never breaks down – they stay in our water forever. Fish mistake soft plastics for food, eat it, and it can ultimately kill them. FoodSource lures are molded protein, so not only do they catch more fish than plastic lures, they are biodegradable and digestible if a fish eats them. Plus, they are easier to keep than live bait.
Thill Wooden float
Your Thill wooden bobber helps you detect strikes, and it is a biodegradable alternative to plastic bobbers, which stick around forever. If you’ve spent any time at a lake, you’ve seen plastic and foam bobbers hanging from trees or floating around the shoreline. Thill floats will last a lifetime, but eventually break down which is better for the environment. Plus, because they float upright, it’s much easier to detect the bite of fish who take the bait from the bottom. Round floats only show if a fish pulls the bait under, but often fish hit from below. Your Thill float will lay on its side, letting you know that a fish has hit from below.
Finally, your Flambeau tackle box helps keep everything organized. The kit has been hand packed by team members at Recycled Fish, but we include the extra dividers so you can change the layout of your tackle box at any time.
We suggest trying night crawlers (worms) as bait for your first outing. You can collect your own or buy them at any bait shop. Nearly every fish will eat a worm – few baits will provide more consistent fishing to get you started. If you decide to try other live bait options like minnows, make sure you never dump your unused minnows into the lake. That’s how invasive species and diseases are spread. We recommend a metal or plastic bait bucket rather than the styrofoam minnow buckets, styrofoam is particularly hard on the environment.
Other things to bring
A pair of pliers or hemostats for pinching down the barbs on your hooks and fish removal
Food and drinks – especially if you’re taking kids fishing with you
Sunscreen
A camera (waterproof disposables or digital cameras work well – put your digital in a ziploc bag)
Something to sit on (buckets, folding chairs and blankets all work well)
A towel to clean your hands after handling bait and fish
Finally, take a grocery bag or mesh bag with you to the lake or stream to pack out any trash you find. You’ll leave the spot better for the next angler. Keep a special eye out for fishing line, six-pack holders and styrofoam as these are some of the most dangerous kinds of trash for fish and wildlife found around our waters.
Why use SAFE Products?
SAFE Angling stands for ‘Sustaining Angling, Fish and Ecosystems.’ If we enjoy fishing, and want to not only catch more and bigger fish but leave healthy fisheries for future generations, then our choices matter. Maybe even more significant is that the water fish swim in is also our drinking water. Fish are a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for problems in our broader environment. We need healthy water to live – not just to recreate.
Some of our greatest experiences in the outdoors center not just around catching fish, but experiencing the wildlife we see while outdoors.
No Lead
SAFE Angling products are all lead-free. Lead is a toxic metal that has adverse effects on the nervous and reproductive systems of mammals and birds. Found in traditional fishing jigs and sinkers, this metal is poisoning wildlife such as loons and eagles.
When lead sinkers are lost through broken fishing lines or other means, birds can inadvertently eat them and die. Water birds such as loons, ducks and geese often swallow lead sinkers when they scoop up pebbles from the bottom of a lake or river to help grind their food. Eating just one lead sinker can poison a bird. Eagles ingest lead by eating fish that have themselves swallowed sinkers and by ingesting lead bullet fragments from wildlife shot by hunters.
While it is hard to get an accurate count of birds that die from eating lead, current research indicates that lead poisoning is a serious concern. The University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center reported 32 eagles found and treated for lead poisoning in 2008, up from 27 in 2007. In loon breeding areas — the Great Lakes, northeastern United States and eastern Canada – studies show that lead poisoning may account for up to 50 percent of dead loons found by researchers.
SAFE products include sinkers and jigs made from non-poisonous materials such as tin, bismuth, steel, and tungsten-nickel alloy. You can enjoy the fishing experience and rest easy that you aren’t poisoning the environment while you do.
Finally, lead alternatives work great to catch fish! Many of these metals are harder than lead, so it’s easier to feel what’s happening underneath the water when you fish them. Some – like tungsten – are more dense than lead, so they sink faster at a smaller profile, getting your bait or lure down where the fish are faster, and keeping it there.
For more on fishing lead-free, visit Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Get the Lead Out site here.
No soft plastics
Plastic Pollutes. Soft plastic lures have been around since the 1950s. So where have 50 years of plastics ended up? Fishermen know that a lot of soft plastic lures are lost or discarded in water or weeds. However, plastic lures are not biodegradable so they’ll be on the bottom of lakes and rivers pretty much forever. Estimates suggest that as much as 20 million pounds of PVC get put in the water supply every year due to soft plastic fishing lures.
Plastic Lures Hurt Fish And Other Wildlife. According to Dr. Russell Wright, Fisheries Extension Specialist and Auburn University Assistant Professor of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, “a lot of times when a largemouth bass swallows a plastic lure, it jams between the stomach and the small intestine. When that happens, it’s over — the bait can’t go either direction and the fish will ultimately starve to death.”
Soft Plastic Lures Can Contain Toxic Chemicals. Soft plastic lures usually contain phthalates (pronounced “THAL-ates”), a plastic softener that is a potentially harmful chemical. Harvard University researchers conducted a study that found links between exposure to phthalates and reproductive problems in men. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, phthalates “get rid of the things in the testosterone line, the things that make a man a man.” (USA Today, Aug. 2, 2005). Phthalates also have been linked to cancer — including breast cancer — and asthma in children.
Biodegradable molded baits catch more fish! Fish like protein, not plastic. The scent and flavor associated with baits that are made from real food without plastic means that they simply work better to catch fish.
For more on the benefits of biodegradable baits and lures versus plastics, visit our partner FoodSource Lures here.
Single hooks and circle hooks
Catch and Release has caught on. We also support selective harvest – taking some fish some of the time, harvesting selectively from healthy stocks of fast reproducing fish or invasive species. If we’re practicing catch and release, we want the fish to have the best chance of survival following release. This means keeping the fish out of the water for the shortest time possible, with the least amount of injury possible.
Put simply, single barbless hooks can help facilitate this.
Circle hooks generally hook fish on the outside of the mouth, reducing injury to tissues deep inside the fish and making for quick release.
For more on Catch and Release fishing click here.
For more on Selective Harvest fishing click here.
For more on SAFE Angling click here.
Where can I get a SAFE Angling Kit?
Joe’s Sporting Goods
33 E County Rd B
St.Paul, MN 55117
Red Rock Wilderness Store
2267 Fernberg Road
Ely, MN 55761
Wolf Tackle Shops
6030 Havelock Ave.
Lincoln, NE 68507
5563 S 48 Street
Lincoln, NE 68516-4101
Woods Sporting Goods
531 W.S. Omaha Bridge Road
Council Bluffs, Iowa
I want more information on learning to fish.
Anglers Legacy is a partner to Recycled Fish. Our mission is focused on stewardship of fisheries, theirs is on introducing new people to the sport of fishing, so we work hand-in-hand. Be sure to check out their website for loads of information on getting started in fishing or teaching someone else, plus where to fish, getting a fishing license, fish identification, and more.
The NEFGA Beginner’s Corner focuses on fish and fishing in Nebraska, but it gives step-by-step basics written by everyday anglers on getting started in fishing that will help no matter where you fish. What’s great about this website is that you can ask questions and get fast answers from the community – check it out.
SAFE Angling Kit Partners
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Have you taken the Recycled Fish Sportsman’s Stewardship Pledge? If not, it’s an easy way to advance the Stewardship Ethic. Catch and Release best practices and Selective Harvest are important, but conservation and stewardship of our waters means preventing the spread of invasive species, SAFE Angling or “green fishing,” and other angler ethics. The truth is, the stuff we do every day – even off the water – matters just as much, because our lifestyle runs downstream.
Stewardship Tips are available here.