Water & Wildlife Conservation

Spread the word on the importance of preserving our resources

We've all seen it. Garbage. Broken glass. Tires. Heck, you may have even caught some of it. Unfortunately, it continues to be a travesty that our brothers and sisters continue to destroy the valuable lands, streams, waterways that making fishing so much fun. Worse, our reviewers and myself often stumble across mounds of wadded fishing lines, tangled hooks, discarded worm containers and more from "fisherman". If we don't respect and take charge of our waterways, who will?

We are literally on the front lines of the issue.

We're the ones who are often the first to note damage to fish populations with soft catches or changes in established behavior in water we are familiar with. If you fish from shore, how often have you stepped over trash cast aside by some ignorant visitor or worse come across some jerk killing any baby pumpkinskin that hits his line, just for the heck of it. I've even seen maimed fish and birds tangled in wads of carelessly discarded fishing line.

Every life is precious.

It is important for us to respect and teach respect for all aspects and creatures of the environment we live in — if nothing else, for our own survival. If you choose to fish, fish with respect. Have respect for the land, the water and circle of life around it. I'm not saying you shouldn't take a fish, but remember all that had to occur prior to that moment. If you take a fish, have a reason. Fresh fish is amongst the finest food on earth and nothing beats a walleye fish fry out on the lake in the cool evening. However, if you don't intend to eat it, please release it safely.

Five Things I Ask of All Anglers

1. Respect life. Respect the fish you catch, the water you fish in and the land you fish from.
2. Abide by all local fishing laws and regulations. They are in place to help you catch more fish in the future, not restrict you. If you're not sure what they are, educate yourself. Most states and provinces allow free download of the local regulations at their government sites.
3. Use eco-friendly tackle and techniques whenever possible. Most tackle is constructed of plastic, metal, lead and/or monofilament — all of which are not good for our environment. Two simple eco-friendly changes you can make are to substitute tungsten weights for lead and try 100% biodegradable softbaits such as Gulp! by Berkley in place of traditional plastics.
4. Clean up after yourself. Leave the area you just fished as if no one was ever there.
5. Carry a plastic bag for someone else's trash. If every shore angler carried a small plastic bag and grabbed a small piece of trash here and there as they fished...imagine how much trash you might pick-up after plugging a lagoon for over 3 hours. Before you know it, you'll have fished for hours and made the area cleaner with little-to-no effort. Imagine the difference if EVERY shore angler did the same!

These are just five steps to help protect our precious fishing grounds. This site isn't about preaching so this is the closest you'll come to it. But myself and everyone else here at Better-Fishing.com believe conservation is the key to many years of productive and successful fishing for years to come.

For this, I personally thank you and wish you good luck fishing!

Shawn Masters
Founder (email)