Whackin' and Stackin' Raritan river 5/29/16:

[AndyS]

Hit a section with a buddy of mine to do a clean sweep in the Bridgewater area.
Fishing is good down river, Somerville (who can't spell) seems to be off limits.
Fished a few spots on the 30th around Raritan but got skunked.
Took 4 tires from the river to Mavis Tire and Auto, no charge for disposal.
Somerset County Parks is helping with disposal also.

[River Renegade]

Nice work on the cleanup and for landing a few bonus stripers to. A great way to cap a day off.

[Almaink]

It kills me that in this state, some land we own we can't use. Municipalities seem to think of themselves as individuals when in reality they are owned by the people and have no right to bar us from any public land. Nice light tackle fare you found there. I was up to my waist in the Big D at Scudders Falls last night looking for some of them small stripers, but got the skunk.

[acabtp]

what's the deal with the somerville part being posted? i thought they were trying to make that all greenway through there

[AndyS]

They are making a Greenway through there, but in the summer months parties get out of hand down there. Took us 5 years to clean up the mess along the river. Already there are broken chairs and left over beer bottles and aluminum trays of rice and beans discarded in the brush.

[FASTEDDIE29]

YEA BUDDY!!! Thank you!:D

[kcritch]

Looks like a good outing there capt. You wet wading yet or is the water still too cold? Hot days to be wearing the waders lately.

[Moz]

Stripers in the Raritan any size are awesome. Thanks to Andy and the volunteers who's efforts help make it a sustainable body of water for them.

When did "whacking and stacking" become a catchphrase around here? I liked Fast Eddies "Go big or go home" a lot better but that's just me and my unshakable rockbass habit....

[acabtp]

They are making a Greenway through there, but in the summer months parties get out of hand down there. Took us 5 years to clean up the mess along the river. Already there are broken chairs and left over beer bottles and aluminum trays of rice and beans discarded in the brush.
thanks. unfortunately that's pretty much what i figured. f'n people... oh well

[dakota560]

Andy it's great the work you do as a guardian for our waterways. Your efforts are an inspiration to all who know you. What boggles my mind are apparently how many people dump tires in our waters and parks! Does it cost that much money or is it that inconvenient for people to dispose of tires properly? Your efforts address the resulting problem but not the cause. Curious on your thoughts about what the state or municipalities can do to remedy the problem of dumping other than surveillance and stiffer penalties, if there is anything. Whatever the fines are now they don't seem to be a deterrent as it appears from your footage to be absolutely out of control! You're fighting a good fight my friend, just wondering if there's a different way of attacking the problem. Wonder what would happen if people were paid money to return tires like soda bottles were years ago.

Again thanks for your vigilance helping out the environment!

[Chrisper4694]

andy, awesome! and glad you got some stripers!

had a thought though, cleaning up the garbage is great but the source (all the scumbags dirtying up the place) needs to be addressed...what can we do about that? i feel like you could be the insider for the law enforcement giving them inside tips and they could bust the garbage dumpers and make more money then giving speeding tickets haha.

maybe they could deputize you with the authority to hand out littering tickets!

[Heronimo42]

Andy Schrute- Assistant to the Deputy Sheriff...

[Mark B.]

Andy it's great the work you do as a guardian for our waterways. Your efforts are an inspiration to all who know you. What boggles my mind are apparently how many people dump tires in our waters and parks! Does it cost that much money or is it that inconvenient for people to dispose of tires properly? Your efforts address the resulting problem but not the cause. Curious on your thoughts about what the state or municipalities can do to remedy the problem of dumping other than surveillance and stiffer penalties, if there is anything. Whatever the fines are now they don't seem to be a deterrent as it appears from your footage to be absolutely out of control! You're fighting a good fight my friend, just wondering if there's a different way of attacking the problem. Wonder what would happen if people were paid money to return tires like soda bottles were years ago.

Again thanks for your vigilance helping out the environment!



Betting that there aren’t too many modern day tires being discarded in NJ’s rivers.

The riverine tires are OLD,……..& there are layers upon layers upon layers of them that continue to surface as each layer is removed.

It would take 100 lifetimes to remove all of them.

[AndyS]

MANY of the tires are very very old. Some have big white walls, some are the very narrow type. We get a lot of tractor tires, probably been in there for 50 years. Yes there are layers upon layers of tires, it didn't help to have a junkyard on the banks way up river also. Very few tires we find are new, really, who mounts tires in their garages anymore.