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No Fishing Allowed... Who's to Blame? by Don Dziedzina
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Just west of our Lincoln-Way area is a small park in the town of Marseilles. It’s called Shehorn Park and located by the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial on the banks of the Illinois River.

It’s a nice place to fish as the waters there offer a variety of fish that can be caught. But unfortunately, the park has been plagued with debris and garbage.

The claim by the Marseilles City Council members is that after much effort to keep the park clean, it’s the fishermen and women who frequent the area who are the culprits that leave their garbage behind. As a result, a 3 – 2 vote shut down the fishing at the park. No Fishing Allowed.

Ed Scarber, a Marseilles bait shop owner brought to the City Council a petition to keep fishing open at the park. But the document with signatures of two hundred concerned citizens from Marseilles, Aurora, Joliet, Morris and Chicago made no difference.

As of last week, the City of Marseilles web page, www.marseillesil.net had a survey, asking if the fishing should be banned at the memorial park. The count was that sixty-nine voters said yes ban the fishing, while fifty-one said no to the ban. That surely doesn’t seem to show a lot of concern. With the number of votes being only one hundred and twenty, and the fact that there is no big spread in the numbers, it sure exhibits a “who cares” attitude.

Scarber doesn’t want to give up though. Sure, he needs fishermen to keep his business alive and well, but he too sees that this is an up hill battle.

The city along with Scarber has been providing bags to anglers at the park to collect their garbage. It has been noticed though that the fishermen are just using the bags to hold their fish instead.

It surely does not seem that this is something that will change for the good of the fishermen who visit the banks of the Illinois River at this park. Would it be good to have the ban lifted? Of course it would. No one wants to see fishing spots taken away. But it will take some effort by many.

People may have to volunteer helping clean up the park after unsportsmanlike visitors come to the park and leave litter behind. Maybe Scarber should forget about petitions and sign up helpers instead. The question is, how bad to the people want to fish at this park?

The City of Marseilles seems to have had it’s fill of garbage so it’s up to those who want to fish there. They’ll have to clean up after themselves or have some volunteer clean up the mess left by others.

Is this an isolated situation? I hate to say it, but I really don’t think so. I get to fish many different bodies of water here in the greater Chicagoland area. What’s really scary is being on a river like the Illinois, Calumet or Chicago Rivers after a rain storm.

After a big rain, the river levels go up and with that, water captures what’s sitting on the banks. Travel a river after a rain storm and you won’t believe the trash that’s floating in the water.

I’ve fished many of the park district and retention ponds here in Lincoln-Way. I am proud to say that in most cases, the banks are pretty clean. But there are seen on occasion bait containers, pop cans, and plastic bags. It really isn’t that bad, but when I do see that, I often ask myself, “Why couldn’t they just take the trash home or put it in that garbage can over there?”

It’s time that we take a moment and reflect on the thought that our ponds might be closed by the Park Districts and City Councils because of a similar situation like that in Marseilles. Does it take that much effort to use a garbage can? No. When we take our kids fishing and we see that they left something behind other than their footprints, we have to correct them. We need to teach our kids that leaving garbage on the banks of a pond is not good. We also have to show them by example.

It does not take a lot of effort to keep our ponds, lakes, rivers and streams clean. Us older anglers who remember that old public service announcement on TV where and American Indian had a tear rolling down his cheek as he watched our waterways being polluted with garbage. Let’s learn from that commercial and the sign that is now posted at Shehorn Park in Marseilles that says
”No Fishing Allowed.”

Keep our waters clean and we’ll always have great fishing not that far away.

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