PSA - Trash while on the water

[Smirak]

11 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

Visited many remote Montagnard villages in VietNam in 1969.  Lots of people but no trash, no landfills.  

Welcome home brother

[Swamp Girl]

4 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

Like @MediumMouthBass way too many tweakers and weirdos to go around picking up their garbage.

 

Over the course of my life, I have filled many garbage bags with litter and I often think about the hygiene of litterbugs and wonder how many literal bugs they have crawling on their bodies. A person too lazy to properly dispose of trash is too lazy to properly clean their body.

[FishTax]

I went for a walk yesterday afternoon along my property bordering the lake. The amount of stuff I found was discouraging, but most of it was pretty old. Like very rusted can, glass bottles and jars with the labels washed off, etc. I didn't have a way to load it up, but it's on my land so next time down I'm going to bring a contractor bag on the 4wheeler so I can pack it out. Also going to make my kids pick it up and teach them life lessons in the process. 

 

Every time we get rain here, a bunch of stuff washes into the lake from the feeder creeks that go along the roadways, and then stuff dislodges and washes further down, etc. So pretty much every time a big trash clean up is needed.

 

With that said, our lake is generally very clean compared to many others I've visited, so I'm thankful for that. Owning property that border the lake will give you a slightly different perspective on this sort of thing though. I definitely have similar feelings to @A-Jay, especially when there are liquor bottles washing up on my land. The occasional water bottle doesn't bother me as I just assume it accidently fell of the boat or something, but big liquor bottles and also just general household waste stuff really fires me up. 

[Tackleholic]

Since much of this conversation has been about discarded fishing line, I'll bring up some of my major dislikes;  abandoned trot lines, brush lines, and jug lines.  Trolling motors hang up in them, lures are lost, casts are redirected around them;  I came across a dead deer wrapped in one, and fish are left to rot.  The laws state the lines must be checked regularly, but it's obvious they are not, and many have no ID tags.  It is illegal to tamper with those abandoned lines, so I wont say that I ever have.

 

[Catt]

17 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 Shoot to kill.

Really cuts down on repeat offenders

 

2 to the chest...1 to the head

[Mobasser]

People trashing the lakes are a pet peeve I've had for years now. On the lake I fish now, it's not a problem. But before on a larger public lake it was horrible.                                                             As A- Jay says above, these people are the most selfish people out there. They have no respect for other anglers,  or they're own environment.            A bunch of self centered low life's. Some of them have children, and are too stupid to realize they're teaching they're children this behavior through example. IMO they should be banned from the lakes. If you litter and leave trash, you lose your privilege to go fishing there again.                                           I live for pulling up to the lake in the morning and seeing a clean, nice looking fishing lake. I never want to see cans, bottles, garbage, fishing line or any of that stuff out there.

[Swamp Girl]

20 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

IMO they should be banned from the lakes. If you litter and leave trash, you lose your privilege to go fishing there again. 

 

Yep. 

 

From time to time, I spot aluminum cans on the bottoms of the water I fish. I often try to capture them with my net, but doing so is a bit dangerous, as I have to lean over the side. Still, I've captured a few and am as proud of those crummy, old cans as my four-pound bass.

[MediumMouthBass]

Forgot about this last night, theres a creek about 45 minutes from me, its in a very big city. Very well known across the US.

 

Fantastic brown trout population, we are talking giants here. Throw some mouse flies at night and your in for a skunk (they travel up and down regularly) or a new PB

 

The city hasnt cared about the creek in decades, people have been dumping shopping carts, batteries, tires, car parts, metal grates, all kinds of junk for. As well as some bad pollution spilling in to it every so often in certain parts from old mines.... City never lifted a finger to stop it or clean it up. Multiple conservation clubs finally came together and started making it very nice.

Crystal clear water, healthy fish, bank trails and very easy access to it. And on one of the sections theres a fly shop 20' from it.

Still the lower part is off limits because theres still pollution spilling into it daily, but maybe one day there wont.

 

Theres still many people out there who care and have respect for our wonderful hobby and the amazing nature and wilderness we are surrounded by, and do the best to keep it clean.

Its sad people do this on purpose, but the reason i wrote this is to prove that even the worst places to fish with enough support can transform from dirty coal to a clean diamond.

[Big Hands]

6 hours ago, Jig Man said:

I guess I am fortunate in where I fish.  The parking lots and ramps are never littered. 

In that regard (and probably others), you are indeed fortunate. Just to give you an idea of the factors involved where I live (draws a long breath):

 

The population of Los Angeles County alone is about 9.6 million people. Orange County and Ventura County add about another 4 million people to that. In an area that people has pretty good weather year round, that means that people are able to pursue outdoor activities all year, though you would need a good full wetsuit to surf or water ski in what we call winter.

 

In Los Angeles County, there are exactly two "lakes" that allow boating with gas powered outboards. One is Castaic Lake that has a maximum surface area of 2,200 surface acres, and Bonelli (Puddingstone) that has 250 surface acres. That's 2,500 surface acres for a population of 14 million people that are within an hour and a half drive of Castaic Lake (where I live) which is at the northern corner of the county that can operate a gas powered outboard boat in a freshwater lake.

 

It's a wonder the lake is as clean as it is. Especially considering that I have observed that Los Angeles is one of the most garbage infested cities I have ever visited in this country. I mostly notice it when I travel to other cities and don't see nearly the volume of litter that I see here. The only thing that saves it from being little more than a landfill (well, aside from the very onerous and restrictive Quagga mussel restrictions that I have previously droned on and on about, LOL. And the fact that they charge $25 to park and launch a boat) is that very little of the shoreline is accessible to foot traffic, and those areas are mostly steep rocky banks. If both ramps are operating, they have the parking capacity for up to 500 boats. . . for a lake that has a maximum surface area of 2,200 acres.

 

The 180 surface acre lagoon has two swim areas that has had problems in the past of people leaving diapers in the water to the point that swim areas had to be closed due to the contamination. Simply lovely. It hasn't happened for a number of years, but it could certainly happen again. Yes, the same Castaic Lagoon that has produced bass over 19 lbs. . .

 

Just call me Mr. Sunshine 😘

[Functional]

At my home lake people are fairly clean and despite everything running off into the lake/river it stays pretty clean after a storm since most of it is farm land around our area and up stream. What kills me though is the amount of broken off lures and line. I swear some guys break off from the other side of the lake and just leave the line. At least if I get hung up I get as close as I can and break the least amount of line off. 

 

My inlaw's lake has a lot of party and wake boats so naturally its a lot more littered. I don't go nuts but I try and pull out the larger stuff that would really ruin someone's day. I got 2 free life jackets (new), a few squirt toys, few cooler tops and about half dozen 5gallon buckets. As mentioned people are disgusting and I have enough health problem to be touching other peoples stuff. 

[Smirak]

I don’t go looking for it, but if I’m seeing snags on limbs and such, my first thought is what’s it attached to?

[gim]

On 1/20/2025 at 9:34 AM, Mobasser said:

IMO they should be banned from the lakes. If you litter and leave trash, you lose your privilege to go fishing there again. 

 

The problem is enforcement.  Many states have some kind of litter law on their books as a misdemeanor.  But the chance of getting caught is slim to none, and generally speaking, an individual has to be caught in the act to be punished.

 

Many of the lakes here in MN have a Lake Association.  Its composed of people who live on the lake.  They often have a "spring clean up" when the members volunteer their time to clean up trash, debris, etc both in the water and along the shoreline.  Obviously if you lived on a lake you would want it to stay healthy so lots of folks are on board with this.

 

Last year, MN also enacted a state law as it relates to having a dedicated "trash receptacle" while ice fishing.  You must have on your person, in your ice shack, truck, etc a designated location to dispose of trash, feces, dead fish/minnows and failure to do so can be cited by law enforcment.  It tends to help with the lack of enforcement officers, so they don't actually have to catch someone littering to fine them.  But as I stated already, there's just not that many officers out there to begin with.  I've never enountered a LEO while fishing or hunting here in 30 years.

[rboat]

I always hate the idiots who think those large PVC pipes at the ramp, marked and designed to recycle fishing line, is their personal trash bin.

If they turn around, there is a trash can on the opposite side of the ramp. I guess they are too lazy to walk across the ramp. It is sad when people can't read or act accordingly.

[TOXIC]

We pick up trash.  I snagged a piece of braid on Headwaters last year and started pulling it up by hand.  I ended up with what had to have been a full spool of line.  At least 300 years.  This was in an area only accessible by watercraft.  No excuse.  None.  

[F14A-B]

Idk if this is a new thing or not, I’ve never seen much trash around. But I will tell ya about the time down on Lochloosa in maybe 87 .. we launched and as we were motoring towards Cross creek we could easily see dead gators on the shore. Apparently during the night they killed a bakers dozen of them. Yea, I couldn’t believe it. It was illegal at the time, it didn’t become legal to harvest gators again in Florida till 89. But yea, this country has some real low life’s in it let me tell ya. 

[Smirak]

I know I’ve clipped line before and put it in my kayak and I’m sure some of that didn’t make it to the trash. However, if it’s enough that I know could cause a problem, I always make sure to put it in my cup holder to throw away.