I have two rivers close to my house in downtown Green Bay - the Fox and East rivers. Both have good walking trails that I regularly walk to get some exercise. The Fox is a world class walleye river because fish from Green Bay come up to spawn. There is some speculation that the next world record walleye will come from here. With all the great fishing there are times when the river is packed with fisherman - particularly in the spring during the spawn and again in the fall for a smaller migration. People lose a lot of baits and if they are floating crankbaits eventually they will break free or the hooks will rust. I frequently find them when out walking especially if I am hunting for them.

Yesterday, I found seven stickbaits and some other assorted lures. I clean them up over the winter and give them away at a fishing derby to the kids. Lures that have been in the water too long and are unrepairable are used for casting practice or get put on my Christmas tree.

Posted as an idea to help pass the time while getting some exercise.

The picture represents some of the lures found this year.

Nice work!

Lost many myself only to find them walking the shoreline on low tide months later. How do I know they are mine? I make them and paint them myself. lol

Nothing fancy just a painted stick with an eye and some hooks.

Green Bay, thats pretty neat. I have a nephew that walks the dam at a lake. It’s amazing the number of lures he finds. Love the idea of giving them to kids.

WTG, bait are not cheap anymore.

We used to use a canoe and get loads along the Potomac and it's feeder creeks.

Yep, when living in TN. I always looked forward to the CORPS to start the fall pull down of Lake Barkley and KY. Lake. (5 FT) Spent several weekends in the boat looking for and finding many lures and tackle. When the lakes dropped enough we would find miles and miles of bait lines that had been left. Figured I had lost enough myself to make it worthwhile.

this year I got hung up at a local lake. Used my retriever to get my lure back and when I did there was another attached to it. Deep diving Crank baits. Best catch I made that day.

Nice.

When we were teenagers we would swim along the river banks at popular fishing spots. Lots of old snags in the water. We would find the line and follow it back to where it was hooked up. At the end of the day our pile would look more like the group of stuff on the left in the op's picture though.

A great morning out looking for lures. The water was down about a foot and no wind after several days of being windy.

Wow

I was beaver trapping at Moraine State Park a few years ago. While in an inlet on the east end of the lake, I gathered up about 50 bobbers that were beached when they drew down the lake for the winter.

When I fish Pymatuning, it’s not unusual for my buddy and I to lose 20 slip bobbers a day to bottom snags. We recover some...the Amish snatch up a few....the rest have to end up in a eastern cove somewhere.

Went down to the river to get some jigs for fishing later this summer. A good day to gather in the crop. Ended up with 95 jigs, a Mepps Spinner, and a crank bait.

There seems to be a theme with what kind of jig/plastics are used. Or the same guy found a ton of snags.

Nice haul.

Those look like first or second cast hangers. I would put a trail cam on the opposite bank and get some footage of people losing their minds. lol

Had a buddy that lived on a popular fishing lake, he sunk a burnt bed box spring in between a couple stumps sticking up where everyone casts, attached a cable on a crank on the bank and cleaned up. Kind of a jerk move, but effective.

I'd lump up somebody doing that!

I used to walk the shores of Blue Marsh Lake in southeast Pennsylvania years ago during the annual drawdown months and found many dozens of crank baits. Now I walk the shores of Lake Hopatcong in northern New Jersey and find many more. Bomber Long A’s seem to be very popular on that lake, they are about 70% of what I find. Most of them are like new but I bought various size treble hooks and split rings to swap out the rusty ones.

Here’s what I found last year:

Some tool did that at a popular spot below a dam here. He was never caught but if he was things wouldn't go well for him.