WHATS WRONG WITH PEOPLE

[vexi]

Was out fishing on a couple different lakes in WC MN yesterday. I CAN NOT believe all of the garbage left on the ice. IT was even more frustrating to find dead crappies laying on the ice. I counted 22 in one area, some were even 10 - 11 inches long. Whats up with that, let them go back if your not going to keep them for gods sake.

Sorry for the little rant but it just ticks me off to see this kind of disregard for our lakes.

[Dylan33]

You could have had a couple of limits by just walking around picking up dead fish! That would have saved a lot of time actually trying to catch them

In all serious though, I've seen plenty of this in the few times I've mad it on the ice also....these people that leave garbage and dead fish laying all over need a serious talking to (A.K.A beating). It's very frustrating to see. You would think people would have the common sense to take care of the places that they like to spend time....I guess common sense ain't all that common!

[Vlasin]

Agreed! Besides being out on lake for fun, I also have to be out checking water qualtiy as well as a few other items a couple times a week. I always bring an extra 5gal bucket just for garbage...you would like to think that outdoorsmen would take better care of the lakes they fish. I have yet to see a pile of fish laying on the ice - that would get my a little fired up as well. It's almost like they think the garbage on the ice doesn't enter that lake and it magically goes away.

Please take the time and leave no trace!

[brmuskie]

I don't see fish laying on the ice very often but I do see plastic bags with human waste in them all over the ice in several places. Permanent houses and the slobs just bury it in the snow or down a half drilled hole. I wish there was something that could be done about this other than try to shame them into doing the right thing.

[Neighbor_guy]

"Whats wrong with people today".....

The problem with people in the world today is the people.

Thats it in a nutshell. Its hard to find good people today. A few bad ones tend to give the rest a bad name. The rest just have to sit there and let it happen. If you want to make the world a better place, you have to take 35-40% of people out of the equation.

[broncosguy711]

"Whats wrong with people today".....

The problem with people in the world today is the people.

Thats it in a nutshell. Its hard to find good people today. A few bad ones tend to give the rest a bad name. The rest just have to sit there and let it happen. If you want to make the world a better place, you have to take 35-40% of people out of the equation.

totally agree. as like normal (and no shots taken here) we hear about the bad sites. how many times do you go out to the lakes and see spots that were used and cleaned up? but totally agree about slobs on the ice.

[reinhard1]

page 12 of the dnr regs.: any fish that is caught and will not be utilized must be immediately returned alive back into the water. a person cannot wantonly waste a fish that is caught by leaving it or any usable portion on the ice, thrown up on the bank, or intentionally killing it and returning it back into the water unless authorized. end.

what you stated is not only disgusting behaviour but against the law. these people should be called on it or call the tip line with license plate numbers. it is a good idea to get and keep your local's CO officer number on your phone for just these and other unlawfull acts. good luck.

[bturck]

friend of mine out fishing on a lake he lives on off #94 near Clearwater. he picked up all kinds of garbage (he didn't want it on his shoreline) including a bicycle and a 3 wheel cart. It definitley takes all kinds. Just too bad we don't have enough enforcement people to cover the lakes, they are spread way to thin. And with the budget deficit facing MN I don't see many new hires either....

[reinhard1]

i have called my rep and state senator and told them we need a licence increase to address this and other issues. it would be nice if a person or party gets a ticket for this behaviour and it is put out in the media for all to see. those who do this may think different the next time. it's not the biggest issue and there are bigger issues at hand but just for once trashing the lakes and streams and leaving fish on the ice would be nice to see the media take up. good luck.

[Ed Carlson]

Slobs...apparently they are invisible.

They practice there fine art of Slobbery in the dark of the night. Also they apparently have no friends to discourage this practice, so they must fish alone too.

Few things Tick-Me-Off more than this.

[mrklean]

its getting worse and worse each year to

[Neighbor_guy]

My first post pretty much sums up how I feel about this subject. Honestly, a lot of the people nowdays just plain suck at life....

But, that being said and having a few conversations with others today I came up with another way to look at it...

In the past "Ice Fishing" was not a popular activity in the winter. Sure every lake had a "shanty town" or two on it, but not like today. To sum up a statement made frequently by someone who wanders around here, "...any [PoorWordUsage] can ice fish..." $45 to get a hand auger, another $35 for a combo and a few jigs and you are fishing. Drive, walk, however you want to get there and whatever you want to spend, the sky is the limit. Add to that the use of technology and anyone can stumble on fish, and if they do they are likely to tell someone else, then more people come to the spot, then people who dont know anything about anything come out and set up with the croud, and so on. Ice fishing tends to be an easy access sport.

Now think about it. How many times have you been out fishing and lost track of a sandwich bag or a candy bar wraper? I defy anyone here to say they get every single thing every time. It is not possible. Once in a while, we all leave something behind, intentional or not. Now multiply that by the THOUSANDS of people that visit a particular spot over the coarse of a winter. When the spring thaw comes around all that junk shows up, the snow that hid it all before is gone now. Now it just looks like a garbage pit. Now sudenly its not just one person, or a handfull of people, now its all of us... Just something to think about.

And were are all those "slobs" in the summer you ask? Not out on the lakes, see it takes a lot more effort in the summer, most of the time a boat is involved, it becomes a lot harder to fake it in the summer. No, near as I can tell they are at the boat landings fishing off of the landing dock as you are trying to land your boat. Or at the shore of the river or lake were it gets close to a road or under the bridges. Thats the only thing I can figure, because you cant drive on water in the summer, and you can fill garbage bags with beer cans, candy wrapers, and worm containers all sumer long at the spots I mentioned above.... But then again, I bet none of us have ever had to clean out our boats at the end of the day either. The diffence is when I toss my empty diet coke can in the bottom of the boat, or the bottom of the sled I know I will toss it out when I get home. Some are content leaving it on the ice, or shore.

As far as leaving fish on the ice, there is no excuse for that.

[Ed Carlson]

That was kinda my point too. We all can do better at keeping track of our own waste, and encourage others to do better too.

[Bad Moon]

Good point, we see garbage evidence from the slobs but none from guys who police up the area, so it is easy to assume that everybody but us are slobs. Last week I fished 3 days with 2 smokers, same small area where we hole hopped each day. One of them went around with a can and routinely picked up all the butts cause he didnt want to leave litter. How often do you see a smoker do that? Give some credit to other fisherman, there are a lot more nice guys out there than it seems.

[robert aldrich]

slobs, i agree, i people leave to much garbage around on the ice, plus what is more wrong with people who take over the limit of fish. in winona mn some mong will come and fish the summer and take over the limit of panfish, but in the winter they dont seem to do ice fishing. my friend and i called the MNDNR on a group of mong and the dnr came and guess what they had over the limit of panfish. one darn snob put a pop can in a ice hole and coverd it up and i was redrilling the hole and i ran in to it.

[tsande00]

I've recently been fishing a hidden lake that most folks don't know about or are too lazy to walk to (no vehicle access). I was out the weekend before last fishing until well past dark. I packed up when done, walked around with my lantern to see if I forgot anything and after satisfied walked the 1/2 mile back to my truck pulling my gear.

I went out again this last weekend, right back to my usual spot. As soon as I got to the area I saw a large water bottle laying on the ice (mine from the previous weekend). Whoops. A complete accident but on a lake that sees little to no human traffic it looked awful. I also found a plastic cigar butt that must have missed my sled. Obviously I picked them up but these two bits of trash were very unsightly and to somebody else wondering along would probably look like a slob was out there recently which is not the case. I make a very reasonable effort to pick up all my trash but as mentioned above, sometimes mistakes happen and when you multiply this by thousands of fisherman (on a typical lake) it gets worse quickly...not to say there aren't slobs out there because there are... but a lot of the trash you see is likely there from accident and left unknowingly.

[gotum]

I think some is left on accident however I believe the majority of people do not care. check out the shore fishing places littered with beer cans and snack wrappers. Look at the piles of trash left in a heap all over the place look at all the spots where permanent houses were or even portable setups with beer bottles and propane shoved into partially frozen holes. go ahead and try to tell me those people even tried and I will not believe you.

[tsande00]

I think some is left on accident however I believe the majority of people do not care. check out the shore fishing places littered with beer cans and snack wrappers. Look at the piles of trash left in a heap all over the place look at all the spots where permanent houses were or even portable setups with beer bottles and propane shoved into partially frozen holes. go ahead and try to tell me those people even tried and I will not believe you.

I agree that the majority of trash is from slobs but at some point in our lives we've all been guilty of leaving something behind though whether it was on purpose or on accident.

[gotum]

That sounds about right everyone forgets or looses something every now and again. However the vast majority is from people who do not care or try to pick up after themselves.

[Rippinlip]

Thanks for all that go the little extra on picking up someone else's garbage, I've done it too.

As a true sportsman we would not intentionally leave anything behind.

For those that do, how would you like it if we came by your place of residence and just dumped our garbage in your yard??

[hovermn]

They way I see it, the people leaving stuff on the ice are the same people that will throw trash out of car windows, miss trash cans and keep walking, expect the world from everyone with no effort in return, "this is everyone's fault but mine," someone else will do it kinda people.

Some friends and I are going out on either Forest Lake or North/South Center lakes this weekend with our hovercraft to play around a bit, and I WILL be bringing a trash bag or two. Trash on the ice makes me sick

[Ed Carlson]

I see guys whom also fish rivers maybe 2 times a year, spring and fall for walleye and otherwise are lakes fisherman. Same for part time catfisherman, they trash up the shore with beer cans and bottles, bait containers, even furniture, and think little of it...it's a river who cares..right? B-S..I CARE!

They often are the guys whom leave a mess on the river bank and shrug it off as..."Ehhh..it's a river, the river will take it away".

The same guys would never trash up a lake, but oddly find it acceptable to trash up a river bank without a second thought on it.

I openly call them on it and have had my share of confrontations due to this. I see it as the only way to educate slobs on what sportsman should act like. If they can't figure it out on there own, I'm more than eager to help them speed up there leaning curve.

[Jim Uran]

I've picked up a ton of garbage off the ice over the last few weeks... People are just sick, the last three trips alone I've picked up enough to fill a 30 gallon garbage bag.

[jwmiller33]

Some people all you can do is shake your head at them and wonder what is going on upstairs. One specific instance that comes to mind is when people throw their cigarette butts out the window while driving. It really ticks me off when people do this, especially when you are driving behind them and they are basically flipping their cig butt at your car, with ashes flying up. For some reason, this has been happening a lot to me recently.

I don't know if this is common practice by everyone who smokes, but I just don't understand why these people think it is ok that they are litering these disgusting pieces of trash all over our roads and anywhere else they decide to smoke. Sometimes I wish I was a cop so I could issue these knuckleheads a $500 litering citation everytime I see it happen. And most people who smoke cigs are chain smokers and smoke several cigs a day, probably with all of them ending up in a ditch or on the side of the road somewhere.

IF YOU SMOKE CIGS, PLEASE DON'T LITER/THROW THEM OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!! we have enough garbage already on the side of the roads, we don't need your disgusting cig butts there too.

/rant

[art321]

I'm with you Jake. That is one of my major pet peeves. No regard whatsoever to the fact it is still littering. I pulled up to a stoplight yesterday before the snow and there were more cig butts than trash. Literraly 1000's. Don't all cars still have ash trays in them. How many empty cig packs do you see on the road and ditches too? I have friends who smoke and they've taken to pinching them off and putting the filter in a baggie when we are out and about.