Becoming A Trash Man

[Mobasser]

My dad and grandpa were big believers in leaving the area cleaner than you found it after every fishing or camping trip.                                    The popular term these days is " leave no trace", meaning, leave the area looking like no one was ever there.                                                    When my grandson first started fishing with me, we took a couple of trash bags with us. We made it a point to make a quick sweep of the lot and pick up some trash, throwing it in the dumpster.                                            Ive seen trash of every type, and there's too much of it to list here. It aggravating to clean up after other guys. They should be cleaning up after themselves.But,If your a serious fisherman, it only makes sense to want your area to be cleaned up. You'll want your lake looking good, not looking like a trash dump.                                                 What people don't realize is that trash company's are working against time. They're running a route, and don't have time to pick up loose trash laying around. This trash will blow around, and some will eventually end up in the lake.                                                   Look at it like this: if every member of BR would have a " leave no trace" attitude, imagine how much better our lakes would look.           Would you rather cast your lure into clean water, or, onto a pile of floating trash?           It takes only minutes to clean up after your fishing trip. At some point down the road, someone will appreciate you doing this. I've wondered how the lakes will look for my grandkids, after I'm long gone. I hope they can enjoy fishing in a clean, nice looking area. Leave no trace starts with all of us, and should start now.

 

[fin]

I was picking up trash and fishing line, and fishing line tied to plastic bottles as makeshift rod/reels, this morning. The holiday weekends generate a huge amount of trash. Yesterday I saw a tire someone left in the parking lot. People bring their trash from home to dump at the park, it's unreal.

[Mike L]

Excellent post!

Couldn’t agree more. 
 

Always try to Leave it better than you found it. 
 

 

 

Mike

[gim]

3 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Look at it like this: if every member of BR would have a " leave no trace" attitude, imagine how much better our lakes would look.

 

If every PERSON would clean up after themself we wouldn't have an issue with trash or items left behind.  I was always taught to clean up after myself growing up and put things back where they belong.  I'm not really into cleaning up after others because of this.  I don't feel like its my responsibility to clean up after someone else, because I wouldn't expect them do it behind me, because there's nothing to clean up.

 

I will however clean up balls of discarded fishing line.  I feel like that is more detrimental than trash as it can foul up props and tangle wildlife or fish.

 

I've stated this before, but up here in the north, ice anglers are the most notorious demographic of outdoors people that leave crap behind.  Its because they are generally out there for longer durations of time.  Its not uncommon for a group of ice anglers to spend several days and nights in a fish shack at one time.  When you are there for a longer period, you generate more waste.

[TnRiver46]

If everyone would not break laws, they wouldn’t need prisons 

[A-Jay]

Personal pride requires more effort than many folks are willing to expend apparently.

Humans who blatantly litter are so far down the chain

it's hard to even measure it. 

A-Jay

 

[Chris Catignani]

I make it a point to net stuff I ride by on the lake.

I like to think that the fishing gods will smile on me days when its tuff.

[TnRiver46]

Just now, Chris Catignani said:

I make it a point to net stuff I ride by on the lake.

I like to think that the fishing gods will smile on me days when its tuff.

I’ve salvaged some pretty good stuff out of the river. Anchors, fishing rods, tackle boxes, coolers, etc. My boss has collected enough lumber to build a house that floated into his yard 

[Bird]

Yes, very good point but unfortunately these types of people have no regard for others or themselves.

I watched a guy drinking bottled beer from his boat and when he finished the beer he simply sank it to the bottom of lake ?

 

Wife and I use to volunteer to pick up trash in a lake we camped at and it was amazing the amount of wet garbage we gathered.

 

Thankfully I was raised to respect others and the beautiful resources we get to enjoy.

[MAN]

The problem I am running into is I have nowhere to discard it.  My local garbage pickup will only allow for 1 full trash can which we usually fill. I have always used "bulk trash day" to throw this type of stuff away, but they stopped picking it up 2 weeks ago and left a note on my trash bags that said excess typical household trash was not considered "bulk" and will no longer be picked up at my residence.  I don't have any community bins near me to utilize either.  The bulk trash pick up was convenient and easy for me.  I'm not going to stop picking up other peoples trash I just need to get over this little hurdle I ran into. 

[Kirtley Howe]

3 minutes ago, MAN said:

The problem I am running into is I have nowhere to discard it.  My local garbage pickup will only allow for 1 full trash can which we usually fill. I have always used "bulk trash day" to throw this type of stuff away, but they stopped picking it up 2 weeks ago and left a note on my trash bags that said excess typical household trash was not considered "bulk" and will no longer be picked up at my residence.  I don't have any community bins near me to utilize either.  The bulk trash pick up was convenient and easy for me.  I'm not going to stop picking up other people I just need to get over this little hurdle I ran into. 

I solved the problem of "nowhere to put the trash" by talking to a few local  businesses....it took asking more than one, but I found 3 different companies in my area (a grocery store, a small machine shop, and a convenience store) that were happy to let me discard a bag or two of trash I had picked up while fishing. I explained what I was doing, and they agreed it was a good thing and let me toss the trash in their dumpsters. Since then, I have almost always managed to find a business that will allow me to discard trash I have cleaned up while fishing at all the places I usually fish. If you explain what you are doing, a lot of businesses will cooperate. However, and I cannot stress this enough...DO NOT EVER discard trash into a commercial dumpster without getting permission from the business first.  On the rare occasion when I cannot find a business that will allow me to toss the collected trash, I take it home and cram it into my trashcan. 

[geo g]

Thanks for this post.  I too am always picking up trash especially when bank fishing in some popular spots.  The thing that ticks me off more than any other is, fishing line.  Over the years I have picked up hundreds of yards of line our fishing brothers just throw on the ground.  Balls of line that can easily become tangled on wading birds.  All kinds of line from 50 pound braid to 4 pound mono.  It is pitiful that fisherman can be this clueless of the damage this stuff can do.  I just don't throw it away, I cut it up, so only little strands are left, and then put it in the trash.  Why these people fish, and then could care less about the environment.  These are not just cane fisherman.  

[Bluebasser86]

I've pulled so much fishing line out of the lakes I fish. It always gets wound into a ball and taken to the recycling tubes at the boat ramps so it doesn't end up in a landfill or back in the lake. 

[GRiver]

I drive by and scoop stuff up, carry back all the time. Once I picked a crap load of beer cans left on a area where boaters beach and party. Thought on my way back “I’m gonna explaining to do”if they stop me. Over a 12 pack of bear cans in the bottom of my boat. 
It would’ve been just as easy for the people that brought them to take them back with them.

[PondHoppinPete]

Good points being made. I fish local ponds and they're filled with trash (from both fisherman and others in the park). It's a good idea to stuff grocery store bags in your tackle bag and  try to fill up at least one bag (which wouldn't be very difficult to do in a lot of these ponds haha) 

 

Also what are everyone's thoughts on pond scum or weeds? Sometimes in really grassy ponds I see a lot of dried out weeds and muck on the edges of the pond. Is it better to throw it back into the water or does it not matter? 

[fin]

2 hours ago, geo g said:

I just don't throw it away, I cut it up, so only little strands are left, and then put it in the trash. 

 

Yeah, there are a lot of options. I'll wrap it around two fingers and then cut it with my braid scissors so that leaves pieces about 2" long. Sometimes I'll cram it into a plastic bottle. Sometimes wrap it around a stick and then tie a knot at the end. Sometimes I'll twist up like a piece of rope, and then tie that into a knot.

 

3 hours ago, Chris Catignani said:

I like to think that the fishing gods will smile on me days when its tuff.

 

When fishing is slow, I'll pick up trash thinking it will help my karma ?

[geo g]

7 hours ago, fin said:

 

Yeah, there are a lot of options. I'll wrap it around two fingers and then cut it with my braid scissors so that leaves pieces about 2" long. Sometimes I'll cram it into a plastic bottle. Sometimes wrap it around a stick and then tie a knot at the end. Sometimes I'll twist up like a piece of rope, and then tie that into a knot.

 

 

When fishing is slow, I'll pick up trash thinking it will help my karma ?

 

 

It can't hurt!

[T-Billy]

11 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've pulled so much fishing line out of the lakes I fish. It always gets wound into a ball and taken to the recycling tubes at the boat ramps so it doesn't end up in a landfill or back in the lake. 

I collected a bunch of it myself this spring throwing an A rig on 40# braid. That thing grabs ahold of anything that gets within ten feet of it. 

 I watched a straw hat pull an entire spool of mono off his spinning reel and throw it in the lake a few weeks ago. I picked it up off the surface. If he hadn't had his small children with him, we'd have had an interesting conversation about it.

[KSanford33]

I do what I call the +1 technique: I pick up everything I have, plus one thing someone else has left behind. Unless, like others have said, the fishing is slow, then I wander around picking other stuff up too.

 

There's a pond at a local park near my house that I fish at if I just have the urge to rinse off some lures. It boggles my mind the amount of litter I find there. I understand that it's a public park, but here's the thing: There's trash cans all around the pond!!! I pick up random handfuls of litter as I work my way around the pond and throw them in the trash. I don't like to speak ill of anyone, but I can't imagine the lack of self-respect you have to have in order to not take your trash 100ft in one direction to throw it out.

[geo g]

23 hours ago, MAN said:

The problem I am running into is I have nowhere to discard it.  My local garbage pickup will only allow for 1 full trash can which we usually fill. I have always used "bulk trash day" to throw this type of stuff away, but they stopped picking it up 2 weeks ago and left a note on my trash bags that said excess typical household trash was not considered "bulk" and will no longer be picked up at my residence.  I don't have any community bins near me to utilize either.  The bulk trash pick up was convenient and easy for me.  I'm not going to stop picking up other peoples trash I just need to get over this little hurdle I ran into. 

 

 

Call your local elected officials and tell them to increase local pick up.  One bag is just ridicules, we have twice a week, they supply two giant trash cans, and we have bulk pickup once a month.  Yes we pay for it in our taxes, but its worth it.  Could not put up with a your pickup system.

[Ravox]

Im extremely OCD regarding saving the environment, I also pick up other people trash, hate to think that something left behind can hurt a bird or other animal… I’m so concerned about that when I lose a bait I blame myself so much to the point that the fishing is over for me

[BigAngus752]

Interesting that I just noticed this thread this evening.  Not unusual for me to leave the lake with a bunch of other people's garbage that I collected.  I was beside myself today because, at one point this morning, I snagged on something and when I pulled free some crappie fisherman's jig and line came with it.  I was pitching at docks and I set it on my deck and TOTALLY FORGOT about it.  Somewhere on plane I deposited it back in the lake.  That was bothering me all the way home.  

[jbsoonerfan]

I keep 2 milk crates in the back of my truck and I walk around the ramp/dock area and pickup trash and dump it in the dumpster every time I go out. One day a guy asked me if I worked at the lake, I told him nope, I just care about it and want it to look nice. He said he wished more people cared as much as I did, I told him, so did I, then I wouldn't have to pick up other people's trash.