Do fish hooks have a lead coating?

Question

I recently read the following: "It's very important to remove the hook before cooking and eating the fish.... If you cook the hook, the layer of lead that coats the hook will melt into the fish..."  (https://www.wikihow.com/Unhook-a-Fish)

I'm familiar with lead in weights and solder joints, but do hooks often contain a lead coating as well?

Thanks!

edit: I ask this because, for ecological and child-safety reasons, I avoid tackle containing lead.  I'd like to know if I should investigate my plain old j-hooks more closely.

I have no intention to cook a fish with the hook in :)

Mikesplace · Answer

Generally speaking that is an idiotic statement in that wiki. Having said that, coatings theses days can be made out of all sorts of exotic materials, but even if the coating did contain lead its unlikely to have enough of it for it to be dangerous

Answered by Mikesplace on October 22, 2021

blacksmith37 · Answer

No.Probably many decades ago before chrome plating and stainless steel , hard steel hooks may have been tin plated . Because tin melts at low temperature some one mistook it for lead.

Jimmy Fix-it · Answer

It is not common for hooks to have a lead coating, at least in my locale (US southwest). They are most often brass, steel with a brass plating, plain steel, or stainless steel.

Brass may have varying percentage of lead content... but that is a small percentage.

Weather Vane · Answer

Some hooks have a lead weight moulded into the shank.

You would not eat that easily but why do you care when the other danger is putting the hook through your own lip while eating the fish?

There is also the fact that hooks are usually re-usable. Another day, another fish.

A similar – but more serious – danger is when eating game killed with a shotgun. It's not so obvious, because you don't want the lead shot back for re-use.

Do fish hooks have a lead coating?

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