Just a reminder to all ice fisherman

The season is here and I’m starting to see people flood all over the hard water. We all have a great time out there.
But for some reason I see more trash left on the ice then any other place any other time.
My son and I go out almost everyday and we always pick up trash others have left and it’s sad. 1 pound propane tanks are a big one for whatever reason.

My point being is just pick up your trash and if you have to, then pick up others. I’ve taught my young ones to do this and my nephews . In hope they will pass on the word to their friends and what not. If I see guys leaving stuff I usually call them out on it. But you come up to these sights where they left garbage all over and it’s tough to see.

Pick up after your selves and if needed then pick up after your sh!tty neighbors on the lake

Absolutely Bearcat.
It’s sickening to go out on a Monday and the lake looks like a community dump. Last year on Red after the weekend I went around on the snow machine with a sled in tow and spent all day cleaning up trash. I do this quite often on the lakes near me in SE Wisconsin as well. It gets frustrating though to constantly see it week after week.

We have the same problem here in Ohio- makes me so mad to see our natural resources abused.

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This is a great reminder. Thanks for posting.

I have always thought pigs are pigs year round. Just in the winter, their trash doesn’t sink or float away. Everyone always needs to be cleaner, I pick up so much garbage out of my road ditch it is sickening. Most appears to have been thrown out of the vehicle and not just blowout accidentally. Good reminder specifically for the winter though.

I thinks it’s always good practice to bring in more then you went out with. I personally can’t just pass a pile of garbage and leave it on the lake. My son which is 7 and I will stop and throw it in the box of the truck.

Lazy people are lazy people which sucks and I dont get it. But we all have to deal with them. And like I said earlier I will confront them in a heart beat to take it with them. But most cases is I pull out on the lake and there is a pile of stuff near 4 old holes. So we just clean it up for them.

I think it teaches the young ones a good life lesson as well.

I’ve ranted on this subject before. Last winter while having dinner in downtown White Bear I heard ” icefisherman are a bunch of drunken pigs” I ended up having a very civil conversation with them. I believe the majority of the garbage comes from people that see the ice as place to party. They aren’t true outdoorsman, but unfortunately we all get lumped together. I can only imagine the tons of crap sitting on the bottom just out from Bellaire beach. Sad thing is, there’s a dumpster right in the parking lot.
Garbage on the ice is as sure as death and taxes.

Line is a particular problem for a number of reasons. First, in the winter line can get stiff and create issues on reels where the fix is to rip it off and let the wind taking it away. Second, line is hard to see on ice and snow and gets overlooked. Later on when the ice has melted birds can get wrapped up in this line and literally weave themselves into a death snare.

Dustin’s comment above is pretty much spot on in that the people who trash the ice more than likely trash any place they visit. Time of year means nothing.

Thanks for the post-Bearcat,
it’s a sad day when you have to ask or remind people to pick up after there selfs.

Everytime you leave something on the ice ask yourself this question……”how happy & proud would my mother be to know she raised such a pig?”

Thats exactly what I think. What kind of mother did these pigs have, their mother would be so proud.

Pigs are pigs. It shows in their homes, vehicles, hobbies.

Agree

I try to pick-up extra trash when I can.

I know I have left items out there but not on purpose. Dang wind

On a related note. We should all try and do our best to slow down the amount of plastic we use. You see the news reports on how many bags and soda bottles are ending up in our waters and landfills. I rarely buy soda in bottles (I like cans better) but I do admit to using to many plastic bags. The upside to the plastic bags is they are easy to stuff into a pocket and then use for other trash.

We need to treat our earth better then we have.

The trash issue seems to be worse when talking about ice anglers. With the explosion use of wheel houses and extended stays, people tend to be out there longer…thus it often results in more waste, both in forms of trash and you know what else. Plus the fact that a ton of people are out there to binge drink and leave their cans/bottles behind too. Its obvious come spring when the lakes open up and there’s all kinds of crap floating around.

I agree with the reduction of plastic use overall. When I was younger I thought it was foolish to think that what one person did made a difference. When I got older (early 20s) I seen how the behavior of one can impact things. I now use reusable bags at the grocery store and switched to all LED lights in my house and a number of other things. I want my grandkids to be able to use the resources as well.

Cig butts are the worst on the ice and off.

-J.

Last year I was out ice fishing when a dark colored pickup went by me and drove close to shore. I thought there was an unattended tip up they were looking at. The 2 men got out of the truck ( DNR wardens) and were looking at it. Curiosity got the better of me and I went over to investigate. There were 2 bags of garbage buried in the snow. They opened it up and the idiot that threw them out had left a letter addressed to himself in there. Not only was the guy fined, they also made him come back out and Chesil the 2 bags out. Karma was served,

I wish the DNR had the resources to put a couple wardens out there on a Sunday afternoon and watch as the wheelhouses pulled away so when all their garbage is exposed they could nab them. Eventually word would get out and maybe people would be more diligent about cleaning up after themselves.

Jon you’re right on with the cig butts. Those and wax worm tins. I see those and spent propane tanks on just about every lake I fish.

Last year we were on an unnamed lake in Canada, one of those lakes where you really had to want to fish it type deals. From what we could tell one other group was there before us. That group of what we figured to be 4 people who must’ve camped on the lake left enough garbage for us to fill two extra garbage bags. I mean they left everything, egg shells, every piece of packaging that all their stuff came in, and of course their waste bag. They must’ve thought it would be funny to hang it from a branch smack dab in the middle of the trail to get in.

It’s infuriating how much garbage people leave out there. I can’t stand walking out and passing beer cans, cig butts, packaging, line etc etc. I always throw it in the sled and toss it at home. Every piece picked up is one less piece on the bottom of the lake come open water. I hate thinking about all that trash melting into the lake.

To bad the Dnr Does not concentrate a block of time and ticket the hell out of the guys doing this ! Word travels fast clean up your mess or else ! I worked in a factory and loaded semis ,driver’s responsibility to clean out their trailers. They were not doing it , boss leveled a 50 dollar per trailer to clean. Trailers were MAGICALLY clean within the week !

candofish wrote:

Last year I was out ice fishing when a dark colored pickup went by me and drove close to shore. I thought there was an unattended tip up they were looking at. The 2 men got out of the truck ( DNR wardens) and were looking at it. Curiosity got the better of me and I went over to investigate. There were 2 bags of garbage buried in the snow. They opened it up and the idiot that threw them out had left a letter addressed to himself in there. Not only was the guy fined, they also made him come back out and Chesil the 2 bags out. Karma was served,

That’s great that they were caught and forced to clean up after them solves. But the real fact is that most get away with it and us sportsman deal with it. That why my original post stated to try and pick up what you do see from the few shitty neighbors we have

It’s kinda funny to tag this too ice fisherman. I’m assuming once the ice fisherman get there they bring all the garbage?

My presumption is open water fisher people would be worse? More of them out there recreating? Problem is it’s not as visible once it’s blown towards shore or swept away in currents.

Pretty sure the problem is it’s visible because of the ice.

Glad you all chip in and clean it up. I do as well when I’m fishing.

Frozen mitts and walking off the ice and I’m really cold. No.

Convenient to pick up yes.

I know of know one up on plane in the open water that will pull off plane and turn around to pick up a piece of garbage. Ya, on the right day maybe?

Thanks for the reminder for those that don’t do the right thing.

belletaine wrote:

I’ve ranted on this subject before. Last winter while having dinner in downtown White Bear I heard ” icefisherman are a bunch of drunken pigs” I ended up having a very civil conversation with them. I believe the majority of the garbage comes from people that see the ice as place to party. They aren’t true outdoorsman, but unfortunately we all get lumped together. I can only imagine the tons of crap sitting on the bottom just out from Bellaire beach. Sad thing is, there’s a dumpster right in the parking lot.
Garbage on the ice is as sure as death and taxes.

Well said Scott

I don’t necessarily agree with the open vs ice thing. Most people with just throw their trash in their boat and clean out their boat when they get home. Don’t get me wrong, I think the litter is disgusting no matter what time of year.

Ice fishing has a whole different set of circumstances that contribute to the garbage problem. One is the neighborly nature of it. You can get 500 people in an area where if boat fishing you’d get maybe 10 boats in that same area. I know when I’m on the ice I bring my camping stove and like to cook a hot meal if I’m doing an all day trip. The amount of alcohol consumed I think is a lot higher in the winter. Also the availability of ice fishing draws more people, boat and truck cost vs auger and a couple tip ups.

My question is, is there a way to petition the local or state government to get more involved in the enforcement of this. Or is it too low on the political spectrum to matter to them

Seems like there are a few posts on this each year. I live near Island lake in the metro and there is always trash/worm containers/clothes/etc under the bridge, and sometimes trash on the ice – and this is a pretty lame fishing lake. Each year I pull a few trash bags of stuff out from my boat.

People on IDO pretty much universally don’t like people who litter, the only real controversy here seems to be whether sunflower seeds and dip are trash.

riverruns wrote:

It’s kinda funny to tag this too ice fisherman. I’m assuming once the ice fisherman get there they bring all the garbage?

Not quite tagged to ice fisherman. It just happens to be that season. Correct? And I’m seeing it so I said something

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’ve taught my young ones to do this and my nephews . In hope they will pass on the word to their friends and what not.

This is a great thing to do and something I’m instilling in my kids, too.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>riverruns wrote:</div>

It’s kinda funny to tag this too ice fisherman. I’m assuming once the ice fisherman get there they bring all the garbage?

Not quite tagged to ice fisherman. It just happens to be that season. Correct? And I’m seeing it so I said something

I would agree that ice fishermen are worse. Not the serious ice fishermen though. Here’s the difference and it applies to a lot of different topics between open water and hardwater. Open water the people that are fishing on the lakes and rivers (actually on them, in boats) have put in the time and $$ to buy boats and gear and most likely are very serious about the sport. They most likely have a greater respect for the resources. You don’t see much garbage floating in the lakes too often. Now with ice fishing, you don’t have to invest nearly as much to do it. Therefore everyone and their brother is ice fishing now. You get the serious guys, then you get the guys that put a line or two in the water and that’s all the fishing they do. It’s all about getting drunk and partying after that. They are the ones leaving all the trash.

That’s why I would say more trash comes from ice fishing. Just my 2 cents.

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Totally agree.

Midweek there’s rarely any fresh trash on the ice. The guys that are fishing you can barely tell where they were fishing other than their tracks left in the snow and the refrozen holes.

In contrast, Friday/Saturday is terrible. It’s not just a volume of people issue. It’s lazy slobs who could care less.

Good post.

littering pisses me off in general but I gotta say I hardly ever see trash on the ice and I ice fish Minnetonka! Maybe I am just not seeing it, or more likely im just not fishing enough.

On a related note I heard today that some resorts on Red are charging to use their garbage. $10 a bag!!! opinions about this seemed divided with one side saying the resorts need to be compensated for all of the garbage service charges they incur and the other side saying that this will just result in more people leaving their trash on the ice to avoid paying. Interesting….