Pond Plinking?

[Black Beard]

Lead split shot was banned because of Esther Ransom's "dying Swan" campaign.

[Muskett]

Yup, and no Swan died of lead poisoning. Any that died did due to the nylon leaders attached to the split shot weights, or from the hooks attached to leader and split shot.
Modern angling have changed a lot since those days. Few fish with a necklace of spit shot under a whopping big float. No polite fisherman would leave piles of leader material on the bank either.