Fishing Derby Debris

[IslandSib]

I am sure it takes a hardy individual to brave the cold, wind and rain for some of these derbies. Most of time you hardly know there out there drifting by four and five at time...but, telltale signs are afloat. The worst is the cigarette filters, the bottles and cups are easy pickups but the filters they can't be good for anyone....
Please Remember to Carry In + Carry Out.

[ApS]

Or the National Parks slogan:

"Take only photographs...Leave only footprints."

Or one at a Nikonos (the underwater camera) site:

"Take only photographs...Leave only bubbles."

[KonaChick]

We were all over the lake this weekend and I didn't notice much debris of course maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. We got to the lake Friday p.m. and I noticed the house next to us had 5 boats on the dock. My immediate reaction was not a good one to say the least! I couldn't have been more wrong, howerver. The fishermen renting the house next door were more considerate than most renters that stay there. I figured I would be up at 5 a.m. when they started their boats, but I swear not a sound! I told my husband maybe they paddled to boats out then started them up! I thought late night parties out on the dock sharing their fishing tales...nope, quite by 9 p.m. Anyway my point being these guys were so conscience of neighbors and it was obvious they were doing their best to be respectful of the neighborhood. A huge shout out to them and THANKS!! I hope they did well in the derby!

[BroadHopper]

I agree with Konachick.
Ames farm is just down the road. The people in the fishing derby were a quiet bunch. I think the big reason why you don't hear them taking off at 5 AM is that it is cold out and the windows are closed!
Also, outboards do not have the low rumble that vibrate over the water.

[Island Girl]

One has to go pretty slow to see the butts out there. It doesn't mean they are not there. I saw them.

Personally, I do not think there is ever a reason to throw anything overboard that belongs in the trash.

[upthesaukee]

Unfortunately, the lake sees not only littering from a portion of the boating public, but also from a portion of those who use the lake when frozen, and unbelieveably, from some of the residents.

It was years ago when I was a smoker and smoked filtered cigarettes that I read an article on how long it takes Nature to decompose cigarette filters, and it was literally decades! That was a wake up call (not to quit smoking at that time, unfortunately) and I started to field strip the cigarette butts and would put the filter in my right back pocket of my pants/jeans/shorts. When I would get to a suitable container, I would empty my pocket. (Every once in a while my wife would give me a filter that was clean as a whistle, wanting to know if I wanted to smoke it again now that it had gone through the wash! ) And yes, now I don't have to worry about that back pocket any longer. But just like the comments here, I see them also on the golf course as well.

Smoke if you must and if you've got 'em, but dispose of the butt properly. And in case the message is not out there yet, Winnipesaukee, Winnisquam, Squam, Wentworth, etc are not cigarette disposal recepticals. Nor are streams and rivers. Ooooooops, just stepped off the soap box. Sorry.

[ITD]

Unfortunately for most smokers the motto is: I am a smoker, the world is my ashtray.

[ApS]

I thought the derby went just fine.

There were quite a few of fishing boats on Friday. On Saturday, there must have been five or six trolling slowly all day in the square mile of Winnipesaukee that I overlook here.

With their floating plastic outriggers extending out 50 feet to either side, it was surprising to see how little "empty space" was left over in this one square mile -- while they proceeded at just 2 to 3 MPH.

The overwhelming majority had outboards, so they were quiet, too.

The weather wasn't very good, so I didn't go out looking for debris. Even last year, in nice weather, I found only a cigar wrapper.

[Grant]

We found a can floating in Melvin Bay, and since the only boats we saw during the week were trolling verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly, we assume it was careless fisherman.

The most interesting refuse of the week was the repeated dropping of loud "F bombs" in conversation by a guy on a trolling boat. My brother and I were out trolling ourselves, and had to laugh as we overheard this dude's voice carry over the quiet Lake from a few hundred yards away. He was definitely out to break the HBO "Deadwood" record for most dropped per hour.