MWCD lake cleanup efforts

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District has been taking advantage of winter drawdowns and shoreline erosion control projects to do some cleanup of debris at the various lakes. It's sad to see how much trash winds up in our lakes and streams, but it's especially depressing to see how much come from fishermen, who should be guardians of natural areas, not despoilers.
I'm talking, of course, about the amount of fishing line collected from lakes. It's inevitable that small amounts of line will wind up in lakes from anglers, mostly because of line broken off on snags but how many times have you hooked onto large clumps of discarded line, or seen yards of it draped in trees along the shore?
If you have to remove a lot of line from a reel, for whatever reason, don't dump it in the lake, take it home with you and dispose of it with your other trash or, better yet, deposit it in one of the line recycling bins you can sometimes find at bait shops or tackle stores:
Anyway, here's the news release MWCD put put out about the cleanup efforts.
More than 1,000 old tires and 20 dumpsters full of trash have been removed over the past few weeks from the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) reservoirs.
Staff members from the MWCD have been removing tires and other trash and debris from inside the reservoirs and along the shorelines at Atwood, Clendening, Charles Mill, Leesville, Piedmont, Pleasant Hill, Seneca, Tappan and Wills Creek reservoirs.
The MWCD has partnered with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) for the removal of the tires for recycling. John Bird, MWCD’s lake ranger supervisor who oversaw the work, said that the winter months offer the ideal setting for the cleanup projects since the lake levels have been reduced as usual.
“This was a complete team effort with MWCD staff members from our parks and other facilities working together to remove the old tires and the trash,” Bird said. “Tires in the lakes that we find usually have either been discarded illegally or were part of old boat docks that fell into disrepair or were abandoned.”
Some of the items removed from the reservoirs and around the shorelines include:
* Metal posts, pipe, wheel rims and other discarded metals that will be recycled.
* Car seats, chairs, household furniture, televisions, bed mattresses and plastic drums.
* Old tools
* A car engine
* Thousands of feet of discarded monofilament fishing line (this can be extremely harmful to fish, waterfowl and other wildlife, as well as presenting problems for boats when caught around propellers).
Bird said that the work also has helped MWCD staff members identify areas where dumping occurred that now will be gated off for more limited access for such illegal activities.
The work is part of a busy winter for the MWCD, which also has been working on shoreline stabilization and erosion control projects at numerous reservoirs
For more information about the MWCD, visit www.mwcd.org.

OBF Winter Meeting

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but I just haven't heard a lot recently and, frankly, this depressing weather seems to sap the initiative out of a person.
Anyway, the Ohio Bass Federation will hold its annual winter meeting and dinner Feb. 5 at the Quest Conference Center near Polaris. For complete details, visit the OBF website at www.ohiobass.org .
At the same time, the Ohio Junior Bass Federation will conduct its annual Bass School, which is free for kids of all ages. Again, find complete information on the OBF site, but here's the basics, as sent to me by Youth Director Mick Sturgill:
Three speakers will cover the following topics:
1) River Fishing - Casey Coffy and Dan Vandine
2) Crank Baits and Weather conditions - Ab Reed and Allen Wayne
3) Rigging Soft Plastics - Doug Clifford
The first session will start at 10 a.m. with one session after the noon break. There will be a 5 minute break between speakers. Bass School is not limited to OJBF members so if you are a Jr. Angler, bring a friend.
If you have questions, contact Sturgill at mtp52@yahoo.com or call him at 740 605-3108.

S.O.B. Schedule set

I guess I haven't been checking the Southern Ohio Bassmaster website frequently enough, because the schedule has apparently been final for a couple weeks. The biggest change involved the Chuck Murrey Benefit open, which moved from MAy 15 to May 8. The Piedmont and Tappan tournaments each moved one day, but those are the only changes.
The final schedule is:
April 23 - Burr Oak
April 30 - Piedmont
May 14 - Buckeye
May 22 - Delaware
June 18 - Charles Mill
June 26 - Pleasant Hill
July 9 - Ohio River, Powhaten Point
Aug. 21 - Muskingum River McConnelsville, Fairground ramp
Sept. 10 - Dillon
Oct. 1 - Tappan
Oct. 15 & 16 - Classic (To be determined)
The club will also hold a Kids' Tournament, a His and Hers event and a Buddy tournament. The His and Hers is July 17 and the Buddy event Sept.18, but there's a typo on the Kids date.
I expect to have a final cranberry Marsh Bass Club schedule soon and I suspect the Y-City Bass Club schedule is set, but it isn't posted yetand I haven't seen any members.