There are times when I just despair of my fellow fishermen. Yesterday I went to my favorite early-season spot for bass and brim on Lake Hartwell in SC, only to find that a boater had been there before me. This fine sportsman had used the little cove to empty his fish cooler of ice and unwanted fish. Unfortunately, he had an excellent day of fishing. Dead stripers and hybrids littered the shore, floated in waist-deep water while a few had floated out into deeper water. Somewhere, between 25-30 fish covered the area. The hybrids averaged about 4 pounds but ran as high as 7-8. Three beautiful stripers in the 12-15 pound range had washed onto the shore. Four plastic, ice bags, now filled with water floated in the middle of this mess. Apparently, the fishermen had intended to keep the fish but after a day in the sun (and probably quite a few beers) decided that cleaning the fish was just a little too much effort.

Over a hundred pounds of prime fish was just wasted. A large family get-together or a small church could have had a wonderful fish fry. Instead the fish will rot for the next two weeks and make this area unfishable. Damn lazy b**tards!

BTW, I?m 100% sure that this was not a fly fisherman. In all likelihood , these SOBs were deep-bait fishermen who dangle large shad in 60+ feet of water. I?ve run into this behavior once before in Lake Hartwell and many times in saltwater but waste of fine game fish still enrages me. 8T