As fisherman see public access to fisheries dwindle, I've become frustrated for a couple of reasons. Development and lake ownership rights continue to take away access. Also this year so far has been the worst I've seen so far for bad behavior by fisherman. I continue to find litter, trash, line left behind, gut hooked fish thrown back in the water to die and worse than that I'm finding stringers of dead fish left on the banks of multiple fisheries. My friends and I carry a garbage bag and try to clean up and take the garbage with us that we find. If this stuff continues I see fishing becoming tougher and places to fish fewer. Just venting and looking for any ideas that you guys may have. I'm very passionate about fishing and want to do anything I can to preserve this wonderful sport for future generations.

Only thing you can really do is to do your own part in keeping areas clean. I would not approach people in order to reprimand them, lots of unstable characters out there and a confrontation may be unwise. Calling the authorities may be the best thing you can do.

Thanks SirSnookalot. I have no intentions of confrontation with any of these guys.

I always report these kind of people to the authorities. Most of the time down here, these people dont have fishing licenses and dont care about the environment as a whole. Its fun to watch them get in trouble for trying to take fish with no license. Pay that fine sucker!

You can organize a cleanup day with your fishing club, baitshops, marinas, and even the homeowners that border the lake. Advertise a clean up day and get the media involved, even if it' the local newspaper. You can take photos yourself, write a little article and submit it to the paper. I've done it for other types of events and they are always looking for something to put in the news. A little positive news would be a nice change from the violence, doom and gloom that tends to be the norm.

That would put a positive spin on fishermen, and environment.

Not to get political here- but based on your bassinNY I would assume that you live there. That being said Illinois and NY share a lot of similar bad traits. Namely we here are broke as a State. Anyhow, licensing fees are not being appropriated to where they should be and is going to general funds as opposed to the parks and agencies it is supposed to be going to. In the last 8 years funding has been cut in half here. So we really cannot count on them to help us. Currently they are set up to close many of our State parks here, and the IDNR is going to be grossly reduced. This just means that outdoorsmen need to help each other. Police ourselves a bit(clean up, lead by example, etc), and take care of what we do have. I see private ownership as not a bad thing for our particular region- I would gladly pay for access to some lakes, and I can have more confidence to where the money is going (sometimes).

Pleasure boaters will be out in full force this weekend, be safe out there.

Thank You All!! I appreciate your time and ideas!! I'm going to see what I can get together with all of your ideas.

you can organise clean up commities for each lake or body of water, work with the private owners to manage the waters around there, they will see this as a good thing and reflect as a positive, maybe they will allow your commities to fish their properties as well.

all the other ideas have been fantastic, good job all !!

Good Ideas NitroFreak!! I'll add that to the action Plan.