Foster Clean-up

[Dan Thiem]

I would like it to stay on Sunday. If travel dosen't become a factor for some people.

I think the warm up did us a favor by melting some of that snow revealing more garbage to pick up. And this morning everything froze again. We'll just have to wait and see what the weather man gives us.

I'll keep watching this thread and you let us know Tom.

Thanks, Dan.

[CrappieJohn]

I'm still on for Sunday as well, but I am going to be watching what nature hands us too.

[Dan Thiem]

Went out this morning and fished a little.

In between bites I walked around the shore and trail area. I saw a lot of garbage. Mostly glass bottles. A few empty propane cans. They probably were last years because they were rusty around the threads. Any ways, there is trash there and it does need to be picked up. Lets just hope that the precipitation we get today doesn't bury it again.

[CrappieJohn]

I just got off the phone with Rick and he isn't seeing any more weathet activity where he lives than what we have had here. The driving is not the nicest, but is managable, so I think we will call it a go unless we get throttled overnight. I'll be up early and checking everything out good and will post a cancelation in the morning before 8 if we have to change the plans.

Again, I would urge everyone who is thinking of participating in this to check the site for any last minute things, but for now it is a GO.

[CrappieJohn]

At ( last night I put 40 lbs of ice melt on the driveway, which incindentally is about fifty feet and largely up a very steep incline, and another forty this morning. I've been able to chip and chisel two ruts in the inch of ice and managed to get the van out....the pick-up is a lost cause. After another run to Menards for more ice melt and a bite to eat, I should be getting to Foster as planned at 11. The weather has things pretty well socked in as far as a genuine clean-up goes, but hey....we can still fish. I guess for those who want to venture out we'll do what we can as far as cleaning can go and then just have some fun. I'll bring the hand-outs for the brave. The only question I might have is why couldn't we have gotten this crap when the weather was fifty degrees? Oh well, just another of Minnesota's 19 seasons to deal with. Lets go have some fun!

As a note: bring cleats if you have them!

[TedM]

Good morning Tom and all! I'm pretty thoroughly iced in here, but the salt is *starting* to work. I hope to see you around noon, despite the ice ... forecast is for bright sun later, so may melt some of the surface ice.

This is such a great idea - hats off to Tom and all of you regulars. tm

[CrappieJohn]

We had our day! Not a real big crowd , but a good group to be with! We did manage to pick up seven bags of trash, but lots moree had to be left because of the ice. Ironicly, the bulk of the trash came off the shorelines.

I want to thank Dan Thiem, Uffdapete, DownToEarth,Ted M., along with MetroJoe and his two sons Dan and Nick. Another young guy out there with his dad jumped all over the idea and was a big help. His name is Seth Siewert and I applaud him for stepping up like he did. Everyone there merits a big thank you.

We were met by the media as well, both the TV and newpaper. I was a little surprised to see all the attention, but it is for a good and worthy cause. Hopefully it will do some good. And to think these kids will get this kind of recognition!

The fishing was sort of slow, but fish were caught. Sunfish, perch, crappies and a trout were taken, with the trout being caught by yours truely while the camera was running! 14" rainbow.

I just want to say thanks once more to all of you who were able to make this event given the crummy weather yesterday and last night. When asked by the newspaper reporter of FM, I told him that we are a big family and I think he senses that with all of us there.

This was good and I'll be doing another. Thanks to all of you guys who helped and a big thank you to FM for the support!

[Dan Thiem]

We did have our day!

Finally got to put some faces with the names.

Had a good time b.s.ing with everybody.

I learned a trick from some motocross friends about sheet metal screws and ice. Sure glad I did because it was very slick walking.

Was glad to see Andy (down to earth) eventually get that "monster" sunny that was messing with his waxie.

Metro Joe and his boys were also pretty busy with crappies and I saw a real nice sunnie come up on Joe's line. Way to go!

We fished the north/northwest shore in about 30 feet of water. The flasher was picking up alot of marks around 12-15 feet.

I'll let Tom tell everyone what he caught the trout on.

Very funny how C.T. caught that trout. Almost as if it was right on que. T.V. camera filming and reporter with his microphone.

All in all I would say it was a great sucsess. Thanks again Tom for being the trail boss on this and getting it put together.

[Down to Earth]

The outing was definate a great time. With the group we covered the whole parimeter of the lake picking up trash. My most unique find was a pair of swimming trunks. Uhm? Wonder what was going on there this past summer??

Fishing was fun. This was my second time ice fishing in about 15 years. The cool part was I actually caught a fish this time, well make that 2. Granted they were only very small sunnies, but fish non the less. Thanks to Dan who marked some fish for me on his Vexilar. After having them toy with my waxie for what seemed like forever as Dan mentioned I finally brought the "monster" to the surface. Dan gave me a quick lesson on Vexilar reading as I had never seen one in action before or how to read one. I suppose if I catch on to this ice fishing thing I may have to buy one. Thanks everyone who participated.

Andy

[uffdapete]

It was good to meet a few more FMers and do what cleanup we could. While the ice coating prevented us from getting a lot of the debris, if it had been colder and we'd had all that moisture in snow most of what we did find would've been under snow.

I talked to Fishmeister from the Rainy Lake thread last night and they've got a lot of snow for anybody anxious to put some miles on their snowmobiles.

Again a big thank you to Tom for putting this together. The city of Rochester should thank you too.

[metrojoe]

First of all I’d like to thank CrappieTom for pulling this all together. The weather made travel tough around my house, but I can’t imagine what it must of been like trying to get around in Rochester. I don’t think I would have made it down there if my truck had been covered in that much ice. I arrived a little late, but I have to say seeing the handful of guys that showed up walking around the lake with trash bags in tow, in my mind, made a powerful statement. Hopefully it reminded the other fishermen on the lake of their responsibility.

The boys and I had a great time. Those were their first fish of the hard water season this year. They were really excited about the tackle and having their pictures taken. It was great meeting all of you and I look forward to the next get together and after reading some of the posts for the backwaters get together I may have to head down there with the boys again.

[CrappieJohn]

Hey.....all of you guys made it happen.

[CrappieJohn]

A very nice article is Thursday's paper. FM was specifically named as the sponsor of the clean-up! Good promo! A big thanks to Cub Foods, Gander Mountain, Kttc, KAAL, and the Rochester PostBulletin Newspaper for all they contributed to this very important cause. And too the Rochester City Parks and Rec Department....a thank you for allowing us to help you!

Most of all, thank you to FM for the time and space to promote this event. Thank you to all who took part in this event. Time is something,that when spent, we can never get back. Those of you who gave up some of their time to help out there will never get that time back, but maybe, just maybe, the message reached a few that if we don't fight to clean up what we have today, we may never get back what we had....a clean environment. Again...I applaud all of you!

[Dan Thiem]

There was quite a few fishermen rubber-necking us wondering what we were doing. I imagine it might have left an impression on some people that saw us.

[stillhunter]

Had just finished reading the article and was going to pass along "kudos" to Tom from FM, who had some very thoughtful statements in the article. I am hazarding a guess that it may be Crappie Tom???????that I have had the fortune to read advice posts but have not had the chance to meet. Family obligations prevented me from being there that day and I feel that I missed quite an event. Great PR for the fisherman. All that participated should be proud.