Marty's Drift
November 2003 |
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Fly Fishing the Northwest Show
The FFF fly fishing show at Seaside, Oregon on the last weekend
of September was a good event. There was a good cross section
of exhibitors from the fly fishing industry, lots of good fly
tying demos, great clinics and seminars and a terrific banquet
and auction. Plans are being made for a follow-up show in the
future and the next one will take place in another Oregon city,
maybe Salem or Eugene. It will be a fly fishing event to look
forward to.
ClackaCraft provided the Oregon Council a Fly Fishing Bench
model boat for the fund raising auction. The lucky buyers were
Jim and Donna Mercier, owners of Fetha-Styx custom rod company
in Clyde Hill, Washington. They some of the prettiest custom
rods you find anywhere. Check their web site. www.fethastyx.com.
Jim
and Donna Mercier take possession
of their new ClackaCraft.
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Trash
We
pulled our boat in to shore to take on
the big metal trash. Clean-up volunteers
gather litter and fill trash bags.
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There are times when I go fishing that it is an embarrassment
to say I am a fisherman. Along the bank and at the boat access
areas trash and litter cover the shore. Tackle packaging, beverage
cans and bottles, monofilament line and bait containers all can
be found along our waterways. It's disgusting!
It should not be my responsibility to pick up trash left by
other people, but that is what I wind up doing. Although I am
out on the river to fish, and have an enjoyable day with my dogs,
I turn into a trash collector, the river garbage man.
In September Joyce and I joined a group of rafters and kayakers
on a clean up on the Clackamas River. We floated from Barton
Park to Carver Park, and tried to pick up all the garbage we
could find. We did a pretty good job of it, I think. We collected
bags and bags of aluminum, glass and plastic beverage containers.
These we sorted and separated so they could be recycled. We also
collected some large metal garbage, a car hood, tires and rims,
metal fence posts and irrigation pipe. Since we had the only
hard boat, we got to carry all that heavy metal. We wound up
with over 300 pounds of it when we reached the take out.
The
back of the boat is getting full
of metal debris and bags
of trash.
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I don't think fishermen are responsible for things such
as car parts, but there is one category of litter you can't
pin on anyone but fishermen. That's monofilament. Monofilament
is very dangerous to wildlife. It lasts forever, and it can tangle
and hobble small mammals and strangle birds. These big balls
of monofilament come from spinning and casting reels. I really
enjoying drift and plug fishing, but maybe all rivers should
be made fly-fishing only to eliminate monofilament litter. Either
that or fishermen need to become more responsible about how they
handle monofilament.
Garbage
filled raft with
volunteers picking up trash.
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Beginning in January of 2004 Oregon will initiate a pilot project
for the collection of discarded fishing line. Berkley Fishing
Products has agreed to accept used monofilament for recycling.
Berkley Fishing Products, GI Joe's stores, Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife, and the Association of Northwest Steelheaders
are working together to make this project succeed.
Give Marty a call at: (503) 655-9532
You can also call
Idaho Falls at (800) 394-1345.
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