On 6/16/2017 at 6:44 AM, TOXIC said:

Kudos to you for the upfront effort.  I used to wade fish the Shenandoah River quite frequently.  Access is a constant problem.  Once in the river you are fine to travel where ever as long as you don't go up on shore on to private property.  I had a friend that owned 300 feet of shoreline property that I used for access and I waded about 3 miles upstream or downstream.  I had a friend come to town and wanted to give it a try but we didn't want to drive the extra distance to my other friends property, so we took a road along the river looking for access points.  All areas were posted no trespassing.  Came to one small pull-off that looked good.  Got out and it was littered with everything from beer cans to baby diapers.  I always carry a box of trash bags in my jeep so I told my buddy that we needed to clean this up before we fish.  We filled 4 trash bags!!  Went fishing and after about an hour I see someone standing by my jeep so I wade back over and it is a DNR Officer.  He asked if I had permission to access at this spot.  I told him no and stated I didn't see any signs.  He pointed up in a tree and sure enough there was one.  They have a -0- tolerance policy for trespassing.  I thought I was getting a ticket for sure.  He then looked over at the 4 trash bags laying against the jeep and asked if that was trash.  I told him yes and that we cleaned up the area before we started to fish.  Not only did I not get a ticket, he took down my information and said he would give it to the landowner and "suggest" I have access going forward.  Too many places that used to be access points were shut down, posted and patrolled because of inconsiderate people who trashed the river.  It's a shame.  

Love these kinds of interactions with LEOs/Wardens/Etc.  The kind you ran into see the bigger picture.

On 6/15/2017 at 4:59 PM, MassYak85 said:

Nice! I may be wrong but I feel the majority who litter are simply doing it out of convenience, give them a convenient place to put the trash and they'll probably use it. 

 

No, I think you are right, sadly though, what does that say about us?

 

When I fish my local lakes and ponds I bring a couple of plastic shopping bags and bring out all the fishing related trash, as well as all the plastic that will fit. I also put all the fishing line in my back pocket. 

3 hours ago, reason said:

 

No, I think you are right, sadly though, what does that say about us?

 

When I fish my local lakes and ponds I bring a couple of plastic shopping bags and bring out all the fishing related trash, as well as all the plastic that will fit. I also put all the fishing line in my back pocket. 

I always grab any fishing line lying around. That one's a pet peeve of mine. 

On 6/17/2017 at 11:54 AM, Skunked again said:

Kudos to you!

We used to have a lake cleanup day, haven't for a couple of years now. It had been every spring, said it was being moved to the fall for weather reasons. Hasn't happened since. We would fill a big dumpster.

There are trash cans by every parking area and others scattered around. It's amazing how many people walk by them to go fishing, leave their trash laying down, walk by a trash can to get back to their car.

The worst is fishin line. Ever try mowing around a lake?

 

That's a terrible job.  I spent 2 hrs unwinding line from my mower one day.  10x worse than getting it out of the trolling motor.