I hate to be a classist pig, but......

I just got back home from kayaking. Downstream from the put in, it took about 10 minutes to fill my boat with trash that the fishermen had left. I headed back to the put in and unloaded the garbage, then headed upstream. In about 20 minutes I came back down with more trash All the beer bottles were bud light. All but one of the beer cans were bud light. (The exception was a can of busch.) It is pretty clear that our local littering fishermen don't drink Sam Adams or [insert your local trendy microbrew]. Oh, and the people NOT drinking while they are fishing are just as bad....lots of gatorade, nestea, and styrofoam soda cups from the local gas station.

Today's trash haul seems to support the following hypotheses
1) our local fishermen are slobs who don't mind messing up the place they fish (corollary: the only clean places on the river are where the fishermen don't go.)
2) the beverage choices of our local fishermen tend towards the cheap ass end of the scale

It ain't always the fisherman you know. Most of the time it's the party boat shiny happy people who do nothing but go out on the water, act like shiny happy people and drink all day.

The peace river is shallow, narrow, and runs dry in many spots during parts of the year.. I paddle here a lot, and I've never come across a big boat with a load of drunken party goers. (.....it is possible, but I've only seen fishermen and paddlers.) It's too shallow to move at waterskiiing speeds. I'm pretty certain this trash is from drunk fishermen.

3.) You are the berkeleying man, dude. Nice work. Never ceases to amaze me how berkeleying stupid people are.

Good lord how do you do that in this friggin Florida heat? I'm boycotting the outdoors for another 6 weeks

I appreciate the fact that you are doing this unpleasant task, even though I doubt that we will ever share the same waterway. You are a good man.

How about tubers? This was discussed in another thread, but they definitely do just drop trash in our river. I hate dealing with them when I canoe.

How far from a parking area? Might be kids drinking on the shore and pitching the empties into the water.

Woody wrote: I appreciate the fact that you are doing this unpleasant task, even though I doubt that we will ever share the same waterway. You are a good man.

+10k

Good on you!

We hauled back several bags of beer cans and trash the last time we were out in the boat. Littering should cost people their drinking hand.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Woody wrote: I appreciate the fact that you are doing this unpleasant task, even though I doubt that we will ever share the same waterway. You are a good man.

+10k

And here too. Thanks!

Tubers are trash generation machines and the lowest form of life on the river.

I hope they all get syphillus and die.

I think paintball guns ought to be utilized to identify litterers.

Racer1ab wrote: I think paintball guns ought to be utilized to identify litterers.

Only as long as I can fill them with acid.

Aeromoto wrote: Good lord how do you do that in this friggin Florida heat? I'm boycotting the outdoors for another 6 weeks

Wuss. It's not that bad on the river.....You're in the shade from the trees lining the bank at least half the time.

Let me know when you're done with your boycott, and I'll take you out paddling. You're only a few miles away from me.

In reply to Toyman01:

Meh, I don't really want to permanently maim anyone.

However, velocity can be adjusted as high as necessary to achieve a hit.

Ian F wrote: How far from a parking area? Might be kids drinking on the shore and pitching the empties into the water.

Good point. I put in south of Bartow at Heritage Peace River Landing. There is a boardwalk in a county park that is 2/3 of a mile upstream with a boardwalk along the river. It doesn't get much traffic, so it may be the sort of place teenagers would go to drink. the river twists a lot, though, so I'd expect their trash to wash into weeds further up stream.....I never went north of the bridge.

Ian F wrote: How far from a parking area? Might be kids drinking on the shore and pitching the empties into the water.

I would suspect this!!!

Also. most people that are serious about fishing are good about cleaning up. I think you may be referring to the group of people that are out drinking and use fishing as a excuse to be drinking. In this case no real fishing gets done.

I fish a lot and sure don't want to be lumped in with the beer drinking idiots that claim to be out fishing.

Joey, is a fishing permit required there? It is here, and there is a wildlife officer that polices the area. Pretty hefty fine if you are out fishing without a license. Don't know about littering, but I suspect it's a hefty fine as well.

Rob_Mopar wrote: Joey, is a fishing permit required there? It is here, and there is a wildlife officer that polices the area. Pretty hefty fine if you are out fishing without a license. Don't know about littering, but I suspect it's a hefty fine as well.

you are supposed to have a fishing licence. Is it patrolled? Not often

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Tubers are trash generation machines and the lowest form of life on the river. I hope they all get syphillus and die.

Or Syphilis...either one...

I have never been stopped for a fishing license check. One time I was asked if I had one, but the FWC officer was satisfied with an affirmative response.

The hotel where I work is on the river, and we have a small marina on property. Every night, we have to pick up empties from the parking area. These guys litter everywhere. It really is sad.

Joey and Aeromoto, if either you ever make it this far up the state paddling, let me know. I would like to come out with you guys.

I can believe that the fisherment do this. They allow fishing on almost all the bridges into Atlantic City (except for the railroad and expressway bridges) and they are just covered in dried up seaweed, old clothing/fabric, trash, cans and bottles, and anything else they leave behind from a day's worth of fishing.

Derick Freese wrote: Joey and Aeromoto, if either you ever make it this far up the state paddling, let me know. I would like to come out with you guys.

PM sent

I am high 5 ing toward Florida right now.