I fished several spots north and south of Hwy 82 near The Mississippi River yesterday and one thing was consistent.....there was crap left by ice fishermen everywhere I went!! Bait containers, used hand warmers, snack wrappers, and of course....cigarette butts laying all over the ice and at access points. The ice has only been safe for a week or so and already it looks like there were people everywhere. And everywhere they went, they left all of their crap behind. Wake up you slobs!!! Take your crap with you when you go!! Why is it that people think that they can just throw what they don't want or need on the ground? It looks like crap and it shows that you don't care about the area that you fish in. Put it in your pockets and take it home with you and dispose of it there. I'M NOT YOUR MOTHER!!!!!!
Ice Fishing
DON'T BE A SLOB!!!!!
To be fair, don't you think it's possible that you see more trash on the ice because it can't sink in open water?
Sure, ice brings more people out that don't have a boat, but there are MANY open-water fishermen that ice fish too, and a leopard can't change its spots.
As for smokers - they don't give a rip about polluting their own bodies. You think they actually care about the environment?
I saw dog crap all over lake ona the other day. Cig butts by multiple holes. I just don't get it. I agree there needs to be a fine or else people will just keep doing this. Safe ice seems to bring people out of their caves. You wonder how some of these people function in their daily lives even.
It is pretty disgusting and sad to see what some people consider ok to do. If it's an empty bait container by a hole, ok...maybe someone dropped it or missed it. But when you're leaving empty propane cylinders and cans and bottles (which I've seen more than a couple busted up), that's just ridiculous. Worse yet imo are people that leave fish on the ice. Some people really need to learn to respect the resource.
I've noticed that Ice fisherman are probably some of if not the worst when it comes to litter. I fish a lot of the big lakes in northern Minnesota and I've spent plenty of Mondays riding the wheeler or snow machine with a sled in tow cleaning up. Until there are some stiff fines for littering I don't see it changing anytime soon. The sad part is, is that it's not the hard cores for the most part. It's the party group drunks that leave their sh*t all over. Go onto a lake like Wind on a Monday and just look at all the crap left.
One of the lakes I fish has gotten to the point where the local PD patrol the lake actively for litterers. They load up pretty good on offenders, they also nab the occasional drunk so that's bonus.
The litter situation will unfortunately only get worse. Ice fishing is a hell of a lot cheaper than open water. 40K for boat and truck vs 100 bucks for a few tip ups. You get one guy in the group that has an auger and now it's him and 50 joe six packs standing around waiting for a flag. The downside of the all the advancements in warm weather clothes and shacks, is that for a fairly small amount of money you can get on the ice. Look at how we are with our boats, we would never get as close to another boat as ice fisherman do to each other. A spot that in summer would have 4 boats tops with 3 people per, in the winter that same spot has 100 people all stuffed on top of each other.
