Growing up , a typical fishing trip with one of my portogee uncles always began at the bait shop. More than anything , I remeber throwing sandworms and squid off the West Wall. In those days , there was no real recreational fishing as I know it. We went looking for supper. The hope was that for $2.00 in bait , you could come home with $10 in fish filets. The cost of the bait was a major expense (talking late fifties and early sixties). It was considered traditional to leave any remaining bait behind on the rocks for someone who came along to fish after you. That would save the next person the cost of bait and provide bait for younger fisherman who had little or no money in those days (when I was 12 , we collected bottles and got 2 cents apiece. Takes a lot of bottles to be able to afford bait). Anyway , her in lies the problem. People who leave their bait behind these days are accused of littering. I was wondering if people still leave their left over bait behind for the next guy or is that now a tradition that's gone its way. I'm thinking that leaving the bait itself is OK but that the wrappers and bags are the source of litter. I'll admit that in the old days we left the bait behind in its box (squid and worms always came in a box). So whats do people think about the tradition of leaving bait behind for the next guy?

Because of how sensitive this has become in recent years, I will offer the bait to other people before I leave and will throw it out if there are no takers. Most people are not fishing these days purely to feed the family. People can generally afford the bait but we cannot afford to lose access. Saltheart, I know if you were to leave bait it would be because you feel its the right thing to do, helping a fellow angler. The majority of people these days do it out of carelessness and selfishness, someone else's job to clean... This will cause us to lose more fishing spots than the one or two per year that me be opened by various state agencies... These days its probably best to throw it out...

I disaggree john !! We should leave all junk behind for the next guy to clean up.Who feel's like hauling out all that trash after a night of fishing.Let the next guy take care of it.

The seagull's also do a wonderfull job of beach cleanup.As for the boxes,once they are washed into the ocean, "I can't see it from my house".It just to difficult to carry that stuff out!!

In case you were wondering where all of the trash ends up, it's right down the street from my house. I live in East Providence near the Seekonk River. If you ever accidently drop something in the water, you may want to check at the bottom of my street. It seems like everything dumped into the ocean ends up there. There's nothing like taking the dog for a walk down to bold point and seeing dirty diapers, plastic bottles, all sorts of boating paraphanelia, and just about anything else you could imagine floating by. Kind of makes you think a little bit as little brown crabs side step into the brown seagrass looking for little brown morsels to eat. Yuck!

Saltheart, I always first offer my unused bait to other fishermen. If they don't want it, I'll feed it to the seagulls. I take my bait out of their bags at home, chunk it and put it into a plastic container (with a small icepack on really hot days). I bring the bags the bait came in to the beach and put it into one of the many trash cans before I begn fishing. My experience in Ogunquit is that virtually all of the people who fish clean up after themselves. The only slobs are some of the lazy tourists who don't make the effort to chase down their food containers that blow away in the wind. I think the key in Ogunquit is that there are a lot of trash cans that get emptied before they fill to overflowing.

That's a big point MartyK!!! Most of those trash cans are not emptied frequently enough, not an excuse for sloppiness but it could help...


#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&, who are you kidding. You don't bring any trash out with you, just eels and they come back if you have any left over....

Yes people,the post was a sad attempt at humour.I never take leave trash.I only leave my footprints and, The drag marks from a huge striper!!

I'd like to expand on this topic a little. I have left more blood on the beach in my three years fishing than I probably have bled the other years of my life. Fishing is like a contact sport to me. Hell, I played hardball baseball until I was 47 and wasn't injured as much as I have been fishing. I can recall at least three times last year when I cut myself so badly chunking bait that I needed stitches, but didn't get them because it was more important to keep fishing. If I was in warmer water, I would have attracted sharks. When I had a smaller sand spike, I probably fell over it 10 different times while fighting fish (once I fell over it twice on the same fish which turned out to be a schoolie). Now that I have a big sand spike, all I do is crash into it but at least I don't fall. Probably the worst part about fishing is when the waves break just below my midsection. This is my recreation. Going to the beach bloody and getting pummeled in the groin by waves while waiting for fish that may never show up. Yet, I love every minute of it.

That's the spirit MartyK!!! I know a certain well known fisherman that fishes hard despite the fact he is short a couple discs in his back - often painfull and I have also seen said individual, who certainly knows better, stick his hand down a large Bluefish's throat to pull out a good plug and come out with a severly lacerated hand - and kept fishing <img src="/Images/biggrin.gif"><!--e7-->... Personally I still go even with trashed knees and a screwed-up back, even when its painfull or just keep fishing after falling off a rock causing major pain to a limb or two... Pain does not stop us from fishing... I have been lucky though (knocking on wood as we speak) not to have a hook go through my hand or any body part beyond the barb...

The general consensus seems to be that since there are more fisherman today , and since the bait comes in plastic bags now , that leaving the bait behind should no longer be done due to the considerable litter problem. The thing to do appears to be to offer leftover bait to someone who is already there but not to leave it for someone who might come later.
One thing that did come up that I'm not sure I agree with is the throwing away of the bait in trash cans. I think the wrappers belong in the trash barrels but the bait itself should be thrown into the water (just my opinion). A trash barrel full of two week old rotting bait has to smell less than sweet. I believe the crabs do a fine job taking care of anything edible that gets thrown in the water.

Agree on kicking excess bait into the water...

Like everything else, it depends on the situation. I fish an area of the beach which gets used by swimmers starting about 11:00 on hot days. If I threw my unused bait into the water, I don't think they'd appreciate it. If there are no swimmers it's a different story.