Fishing Forum

Every time I walk the banks of a river around here, either the south fork or the snake or wherever, I always come out with my fishing vest full of trash. I have complained about this every year on this forum, but I know it's not us. My point is if you see some trash along the river, dont say I didnt put it there, so I'm not picking it up. Dont assume anyone else will. We have to do it. I know you are trying to fish, not be someone's garbage man ,but if you can, please help keep our rivers clean. I sometimes carry a kitchen garbage bag in my vest and on my way back I pick up trash, usualy left by fishermen. Some people just dont care, I do and I hope you guys do also. I like fishing our rivers and lakes in Idaho, I dont like all the garbage I see. Go get 'em Tom JL
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if i see trash on the river bank i pick it up. last year during archery season for elk i found an empty 2 liter bottle of pepsi and some other random articles of trash in a pile on top of a mountain that you have to hike 2 hours to the top of i mean the tip top. i picked it all up of course but i couldnt beleive the ignorance of that person or persons who left that up there.
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This amazes me--- that they can tote in a 2 Liter bottle full, but it is too heavy for them to take it back out when it is empty????

Who hikes with a 2 liter bottle anyway? They must really need their Coke![sly]
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These photos are a little old, but we try to do a little here and there.
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Funny you mention this..my wife and I were out fishing this last weekend on the south fork..she always brings a large trash bag along so we can pick up after the slobs that fished there before us..we were talking about how people around here don"t appreciate what they have around here..I lived here 3 years now and it was one of the first things I noticed when going out fishing...empty worm containers, beer cans and bottles, soda containers, cig. butts...I even came unpon a empty fish pole plastic container. Someone had bought a new pole..ripped into it and discarded the container...unbelievable!! I better stop..I'm getting into melt down mode[mad]
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In my experience their are slobs everywhere. It really isn't fair that we have to pick up after them, but it is what it is. The only way that it will change for some is if the cops go on litter patrol and start handing out some heavy fines to wake people up. I have tried to talk people into picking up their trash a couple fo different times, but they were so intoxicated that there was no dealing with them.

Maybe we could form an undercover task force to take pictures of evidence along with license plate numbers? On the second thought I don't want to get shot.[laugh]

Windriver
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I have fought this battle for years. I have found that a great way to combat this is to just pick a little up every trip out. The vast majority of us find this behavior abhorable and would never think to just throw our trash out where we lay. So i figure that if I take a few moments each trip, I may not change the the whole river/lake, just the bend I am fishing on. If you see someone littering...just throw em in and throw rocks at em. eventually they will sink and they're mostly biodegradable.
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Gotta love that idea
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It's a very fact of life. With the amount of trash I carry out every time I bank fish I figure it has to be the majority rather than the minority that just don't care. There is always to much litter and discarded line and junk for it to be a small minority. It makes you wonder what their own houses must look like.
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brilliant idea now who do we recruite to start the sting?
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Pisses me off too. I always pack up my trash and put it in a garbage can. If there's no trash service, I take it home with me. I need to start keeping a box of garbage bags in my car for everyone ELSE'S garbage too.

It seems that a lot of people just don't care. What really gets me is that half the time it seems to be families with kids leaving crap behind. Way to teach responsible stewardship to the next generation.

Last time I was at Swan Falls, I found one of those folding chairs that had a foot broken, and someone had just thrown it in the bushes. Plus you couldn't go ten feet without tripping over beer bottles, cans, and plastic and styrofoam containers.

Plastic is especially bad, since it never biodegrades. It sticks around literally forever.
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Love the topic. One of the first things my dad taught me about the outdoors, leave it better than you found it. For years now I have always packed out more than I have packed in and it just amazes me that the people that love to be in the outdoors would treat it the way they do.
I was yelled at once at my favorite lake because a guy thought that all the trash in the area was mine, I told him it wasn't but that I have a trash bag with me and when I packed up to go home all that trash would be going with me, I then thanked him for watching out for for the losers that would be leaving the trash. I think he walked away quite .
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It's a worthwhile thing for each of us to do our part. So little effort picking up after the pigs in our society. If you have not done so, read the Joseph Heywood books. Start with "The Snowfly". I promise you it is one of the best fishing novels you will ever experience. Then read his string of novels that cover the Conservation Officers of Michigan's wild and wooly Upper Pennisula. You know, the land of the "Yoopers".
Main character's name is "Grady Service". What is particularly interesting is his depiction of the law breakers... Generations of poachers, baiters, etc., that have no regard for the law... NONE. Gives you an insight into how people like this think; or don't think...
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When our kids were young and we would start to pack up from camping, we'd all take bags and rubber gloves and collect what ever trash we could find.

The fun part came in the rewards - prizes for the "most of something", "the most unusual", "the biggest", "the most colorful" and so on. Prizes were usually candy bars or some other treat.

The kids even took to making secret hordes or treasure caches before hand when they spotted something. And sometimes it was a war over who claimed what! Ever had your kids fight over a piece of trash??? [sly]

But first you have to teach them what not to pick-up--glass and some other things are just for grownups to take care of.

We go to places that are beautiful, and I like to leave them that way. I have always wondered why so many others leave trash. They came to the place because they thought it was nice right? Would they camp at the dump even if it was on a fishing hole? No! So instead they pick a nice place, and then make it into a dump? Not logical to me.
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