In the March 2008 edition of Field & Stream, John Merwin’s Fishing Department, titled “The Worms Have Turned,” touched on a topic of great concern to the fishing world; namely, that many freshwater gamefish ingest soft plastic lures and are then unable to pass or regurgitate them out of their system. The result? Untold numbers of dead or sickly gamefish.

There are estimates that as much as 20 million pounds of soft plastic lures are being lost in freshwater lakes and streams annually in the U.S. The average life expectancy for these soft plastic lures is more than 200 years. The number of fish that could die from this one cause is staggering.

In his column, Merwin cited a study done by Maine state fish pathologist G. Russell Danner and two colleagues on brook trout ingesting soft plastic worms. In the study, more than 65 percent of the brook trout voluntarily ate soft plastic worms when made available to them.

If you want to learn more about the study, which was done at Unity College, a report on the project was recently published in the Northern American Journal of Fisheries Management. It is available here.

A number of retail stores, including LL Bean, are now making plans to stop selling traditional soft plastic lures, offering biodegradables instead. This seems like a no-brainer to me; other stores should consider jumping on this bandwagon. – Jay Cassell