So there I was, relegated to the bank the other night like 99% of this fishing season, and after my first handful of casts with a paddle tail I feel it suddenly tug back. I set the hook and start reeling her in. Now I'm fishing beside an overpass, and the water level is seasonably low, (because the Northeast now has a drought season it seems). 

 

Because of this the bank has a pretty steep incline to reach the waters edge, and it's also a narrow opening between the stone embankment and the bushes. So I have no choice but to awkwardly lift the bass up and over the foot of the bank at the peril of high sticking and snapping my rod. I also had no choice but to briefly rest the bass on a patch of grass while I reposition myself without tumbling backwards into the water. 

 

In the three seconds it took to turn, the fish flops once and twists the line into some tall weeds. Turns out the weeds are also tangled with some jerk's old line, this tells me two things. The spot I'm fishing is worth fishing, and that some people are trash. And that there should be more strict laws regarding littering... Okay three things. 

 

Yes that's a swivel to a pre-snelles size 6 hook with about 3/4 inch piece of plastic worm and there was a 3/8oz bullet weight in this mess too

 

And this did require to cut my line, but not "quickly" 

 

After I cut my line I decided not to bother fiddling in the darkness to re-tie, so I moved across the street to other other side of the overpass where I can only cast from above. 

 

I have never used a buzz toad before and was excited to see how it went. I cast out across the way to some lily pads and started to bring it back. A beaver suddenly popped up and swam directly into my line about halfway to the toad. I didn't have a lanyard snip, only had pliers with cutters in my holster, so I had to press my thumb bar so that instead of pulling the toad into itself the beaver would just pull line out. 

 

I was able to draw my pliers and snip the line relatively quickly, but the beaver turned about and I couldn't tell if it wrapped itself in the braid or not. I would've been able to cut quicker if I had snips with a retractable clip ony waist. 

I normally do not pick up trash or other items while I am out there but I make an exception for discarded wads of fishing line. That stuff wreaks havoc on props and wildlife.

 

I wish everyone would just clean up after themselves and leave the habitat as you found it. That’s what I have always done.

I try to pick up most trash I can put in my pockets if it's not disgusting. I usually end a trip with at least one pocket full of some dipwad's line and usually some torn up plastics. Sometimes an Old Dirty Bag(stard) or clamshell if it's not gross, or if I guilt myself into being the better angler I'll suck it up and grab it and just sanitize my hands in the car. 

I can't count how many discarded lengths of line I've picked up from around my normal shore spot.

 

AND THERE'S A TRASH BIN NOT 30 FEET AWAY!!!

 

Lazy morons.

 I set the hook on fishing line today. Felt good at first.

I pick up what I can, especially fishing line.

One thing I never touch is the single sock. 

I also pick up a LOT of trash, but I hate, hate, HATE it. I figure someone too lazy to toss trash in a can is also too lazy to wash and as I finger their trash, I think about the filthy fellow who littered. Ewwww!

 

If I see a discarded can on the bottom of my pond or my pal's pond, I also work to retrieve it. Not easy. If I hit the bottom with my net, that stirs the dirt. So, when I do net an old can, I'm as happy as if I netted a bass. 

Always have a pocket knife that opens with one hand 

Preach. I'm forever picking up old line, dragging old line out of the water, or cutting out old line to detangle things. 

 

It's like nobody knows how to properly break off if stuck on the bank. I'm finding tens of feet of line at a time. Sometimes it's like somebody just peeled off half a reel and walked off. Puzzling stuff.

 

I recently snuck a kayak onto a residential pond just to clean the trees of yards and yards of old mono and over sized braid which was becoming an ever large nest as more people got snagged in it.

I pickup everything that doesn't belong. Some of it is truly disgusting and I'll leave it at that. I do carry those litter grabber sticks of various styles and nitrile gloves and plastic bags. On the plus side, I did find a crisp $100 bill that I donated to a local raptor rehabber and a case of bottled water, which I kept.

Last year I walked along a local main road picking up trash. You name it I picked it up. The amount of trash I picked up was staggering.

 

7 hours ago, Crow Horse said:

case of bottled water, which I kept.

So you stole some homeless guy's drinking supply? Poor guy

I'm always finding old braid along the bank.  You need a knife for that stuff.

You guys should see our lakes here in the winter. Ice anglers are slobs. They leave all kinds of items on the ice. The state recently passed a state law requiring each angler to have a designated trash receptacle or bag with them. The problem is enforcement; there just isn’t enough of it.

 

The good news is that a lot of lake associations have an annual spring clean up day after ice out.

6 minutes ago, gim said:

The problem is enforcement; there just isn’t enough of it.

Chalk that up to the DNR being severely under-funded.

@Crow Horsethank you!  Way to go above and beyond! 

 

One of my favorite cheap Amazon purchases in the last couple of years is this little wind up "trash can" for tag ends and pieces of line.  In the boat it normally blows and on the bank there's no good way to keep tiny trash from escaping.  But, with this I'm GTG.  

 

Ninja Crap Trap:

 https://a.co/d/b8bq8hM

I was out fishing and hooked onto a beaver wrapped up in a long length of braid with a toad at the end. What some people leave behind, there oughta be a law. 😉

I hated having to leave that out there, but I'm pretty sure if i didn't cut the line I woulda had a new PB

Yup. It’s one reason I won’t use braid exclusively as a bank angler. Sometimes we’re forced to break our line and sometimes is a lot. The thought of having that loose braided line that won’t break down in the water to tangle up with wild life makes me shudder. 

I fish a lake that has so many abandoned gill nets in various degrees of decay, that I can't fish any treble hooked baits.  When someone asks what a bite on a T Rig feels like, I tell them exactly like what a T Rig feels like snagging an abandoned gill net.  It can get very confusing when I get bit, at the same time my worm is getting hung in a net.

1 hour ago, islandbass said:

Yup. It’s one reason I won’t use braid exclusively as a bank angler. Sometimes we’re forced to break our line and sometimes is a lot. The thought of having that loose braided line that won’t break down in the water to tangle up with wild life makes me shudder. 

 

I'm the same way. No braid on my bank gear.

2 hours ago, islandbass said:

I won’t use braid exclusively as a bank angler

 

40 minutes ago, Rucksack said:

No braid on my bank gear.

There's no bank near me that isn't so weedy I could get away with not using braid. I've never had an issue like this before, but I need braid to rip free when I'm in the pads

It isn't just shore anglers and ice fishermen. Almost every trip out to my home lake I end up with line wrapped around one prop or the other and sometimes both. A number of times I heard the TM prop making a ticking sound only to find a length of line wrapped around its base with a lure still attached. These lazy fools don't even attempt to unsnag a lure, they just cut the line and tie on another. 

Whenever I find broken line with a bait on it's always mind boggling.  Something like a snap swivel with an egg sinker and then soft plastic lure just sort of rammed onto a straight shank hook.  It reminds me that there is a whole world of anglers out there that are not active online or consume and bass fishing media.  

I am down here in Southeast,Tx.  There is always some trash laying around, but the last 2 years has been beyond bad.  Torn castnets everywhere, food trash everywhere, Modelo cans strewn across the banks or in piles. ect ect.   My church pond was completely fished out from people coming in middle of night and castnetting everything.  

You wouldn't believe it if you saw it with you own eyes.....but it actually has gotten significantly better in just the past 6 months. I don't know what changed but people appear to be getting more respectful of the environment down here. 

Where I fish there is a heron skeleton hanging from some line. Over the years in my urban fishing spots I have seen many great birds dead from being tangled in wasted or snagged fishing line.