How about a competition for the largest ball of discarded fishing line collected while fishing for the contest? I picked up a couple huge clumps of it this morning while getting otherwise skunked.

I was also thinking we should compete to see who snaps the best picture of waterside litter that's funny/disgusting/massive or otherwise remarkable. I'm stunned every time I fish from shore. I was thinking I should always carry a garbage bag, but there's just too much. I pick up what I can, but that's a tiny amount compared to what's there. So I'll keep picking up all the line I see, at least. I was shocked this morning, when I threw away a broken rod handle I'd picked up, to discover that there was actually garbage in the garbage can. I was sure all of it had been left on the shore.
Olaf

I was thinking of something Steve Martin says on one of his albums (probably an inaccurate quote): "Always keep a litter bag in your car. If it gets full you can always throw it out the window."

Funny, JK staked out our chosen spot yesterday and picked up garbage while waiting for others to arrive. Kudos to JK!

I agree, there is just too much trash at some of my fishing spots to even know where to begin. Taking out a full garbage bag wouldn't even make a noticable impact on the litter. I generally just scrounge all of the assorted swivels, hooks, splitshot, etc. and leave the rest as I found it, because people are slobs and it it'll just get trashed again. If there is only like a worm carton here and a pop can or cigarette butt there, I will pick up everything I see but when it is just basically a dump I leave it be.

Roughfish.com will be putting together a fishing spot clean-up day in the future. We will go to a popular shore-fishing location and put out some lines, then all of us will clean up the garbage. Maybe we can get through to a few of the litterers that way, I don't know. If you know a fishing spot that we as a group could adopt, let us know(But I know of plenty).

And thanks for cleaning up after others, you have made that spot a little better for whoever fishes there next. ~andy

I think we should also put up a sign saying:

"This fishing spot cleaned up by roughfish.com. Don't be a slob. Garbage attracts hippos."

bwahahah!

Much of my tackle has been scavenged from my various fishing spots. Last fall, in one spot, I found about a dozen sinkers of various sizes, 2 12" coated leaders, a brand new pack of split tail plastic grubs (mister twister no less!), a daredevil, 2 rotted bobbers, and half of a fishing reel (who leaves half?).
That doesn't count the metric crap-ton of line laying everywhere.

Sounds like someone was fishing drunk in the dark and kicked over their tackle box. Picked up what they could by feel, stumbled to the car, and hopefully made it home without passing out at the wheel. You don't mention it, but I'm guessing based on what I see on every muddy shore that there were also lots of empties nearby.

Those empty crawler containers left at a fishing spot can sometimes be useful...I used them this weekend when exploring some new fishing spots. I wouldn't stop unless there were at least two laying around!

Sorry for the bad joke, but it's pretty frustrating. I had actually vented to my wife this past weekend how frustrating it was to find containers all over.

I can't believe that people go fishing, bring a carton of crawlers and a bottle of mountain dew, and LEAVE THEM BOTH ON THE RIVERBANK. I can't even imagine the type of person who does that.

They obviously carried the garbage out there, when it was FULL and HEAVIER ... but somehow it never crosses their mind to pack it out.

Either that or it's intentional. Either way ... it gives fishermen a bad name.

I don't think there is anything that pisses me off more than people being such jerks. Like Corey was saying they carried the pop bottes in when they were full and heavier!

Being an ex smoker I have thrown my share of butts out the car window......but did you know that if only TWO cigarette butts are flushed down a toilet into a septic tank they have the potential to kill off enough bacteria in the tank to stop it from working properly? I checked this info out with the U of M extension office and it is TRUE.................so if it can do that IMAGINE what all those cigarette butts people chuck into the water can do. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. It just grosses me out. So...if you smoke.........smoke away! Just put those empties you will be carrying out to good use!

Stephy and Dawson have learned that looking for others trash can turn up cool left behind fishing tackle. So, that works out as a great reward. Plus it it is something to do when it gets to be a long time between bites.

I think adopting a fishing area would be a great idea! We can kick off the beginning of the adopt a fishing hole place.

That kinda stuff is par for the course i always pick it up as i bring a bag for trash with me...

The stuff that really pisses me off is dirty diapers and used oil filters YES oil filters what the hell are people thinking!

Meadeo

The only thing worse than seeing all the crap they leave on the riverbank is the amount of dead fish they leave on the riverbank because it isn't a fricking walleye or bass. I swear the next guy who tosses a sheephead on shore or stomps on a carp on front of me instead of putting it back is gonna get his fishing pole shoved right up his @$$.

Sorry for the rant...

I like the attitude Gary! LOL. People are disgusting. I watched dirty jobs episode last night that is perfect for this discussion. They cleaned up as much trash as they could out of this HUGE sink hole that was being used as a dump. The funniest(or saddest) part of the show was that the people dumping were so lazy they just left it near the sink hole. Apparently they didn't have the energy to get it to the hole. I wish i was more confrontational. I am kind of a wuss when it comes to calling people out on there bad habits.

Speaking of picking up trash: Anyone hear of or read about Chad Pedracke. He's the guy that goes around to different rivers picking up trash from tires to whole boats or cars out rivers. He started out with a big flat bottom boat and now has a fleet including a barge and towboat. It turned out as a hobby of sorts and turned into quite a commendable profession he has gotten into.

I read an article about him on the Outside magazine website a while back. Very cool thing he's doing. Also saw a feature about him on CBS Sunday Morning a few months ago. It was pretty amazing. The size of things he pulls out of water and mud--appliances, vehicles, etc., in addition to all the garbage you'd expect.
Here's the Outside article, "Dude over troubled water": http://outside.away.com/outside/news/200208/200208_troubled_water_1.html
Olaf