Leaderboard

Ejecting the lead on every take is the biggest load of old tosh I've heard in all my years fishing. The ridiculous reason that most sponsored money grabbers anglers give is that you are 'in direct contact with the fish'. Rubbish, there are 16 ounces in a pound, so a five pound fish weighs 80 ounces, what difference is even a four ounce lead going to make?

Korda originally used the term 'Safe Zone' I think it was; not as safe in terms of angler use, but 'safe' for the fish to feed in the area, i.e. the tackle was camouflaged, hidden or difficult to see. It did not in any way make it safe for the angler to use it, and some of the products (leaders etc), made it not at all safe in terms of breakages, the risk of fish towing leads around and the potential for tethered fish. Having recovered a snapped off Safezone leader, attached to many metres of line, with a plastic bait on the end, and a lead that would not release all jammed up with weed, it definitely does not make it safe! As others have said, my view is that using helicopters, you need the lead on the end of a leader system, so that the leader does not fold in the middle preventing the rig being ejected at all. A Heli-safe system will only be safe if not using a leader, but cannot be used where there is any snag, weed or anything that could catch up on the line, andf the rig must be able to be ejected. Again, I do NOT like ejecting the lead, unless I absolutely have to, to prevent a fish becoming snagged up. In most cases I don't need to drop the lead on the take, and even in weed, using an inline lead there is often no need to drop the lead, even more so if using zipp shaped inlines as the weed will pass over it. I understand that tackle manufacturers have a need to make money, its a business world out there. Problem is that as anglers, you only really need a lead on the line that can be ejected safely in a break off or snag, attached to a hooklink with a hook and bait on the end, and to fish that safely, you don't need to buy loads of tackle, yet tackle manufacturers wouldn't exist if that is all we bought

Never been a fan of dropping the lead, must be the environmentalist coming out

looks to me like SAFE no longer means safe, its now just synonymous with 'more money in the bank' would be interesting to get danny and kevins take on the SAFETY aspect tho.