The Trash in My Fishing Videos Isn't Always What You Think

Published: Sep 17, 2026

Author: Edmund Winston

If you've watched some of my fishing videos, especially the ones filmed around Olmos Park, you've probably noticed something in the background.

Trash. A lot of it.

People see garbage along creek banks, in the water, and piled up around bridges and naturally assume the obvious: people are littering. Sometimes, they're right. But there's a lot more to the story.

 

Yes, Some of It Is Litter

 

I'm not going to pretend that every piece of trash you see along these creeks got there accidentally. Some of it absolutely is litter: fishing line, bait containers, drink bottles, food wrappers and other garbage. Occasionally, someone simply decides a creek is a convenient place to get rid of something big and bulky. Trash thrown from vehicle windows or left along roads and parking areas can eventually make its way into the waterways.

So yes, fishermen and other people who use these areas are responsible for some of the mess. But that's not the whole story, and in some places where I fish, it isn't even close to the biggest source of the debris.

 

San Antonio's Flooding Is a Huge Part of the Problem

 

It's easy to overlook how much water can move through a creek during a storm. The areas where I frequently fish are particularly susceptible to flooding. The Olmos Dam is relatively close by, and the surrounding terrain funnels rainwater toward the creek.

When it rains hard, water comes rushing toward the creek from roads, parking lots, neighborhoods, shopping centers and yards—and that runoff can carry an incredible amount of material, including trash.

I've personally found entire trash cans washed up along the creek, including heavy metal cans bolted into the ground at parks around town. Think about how much water it takes to move something like that. It's like uprooting a tree.

After a recent rainstorm, I've driven past the creek and seen literally dozens of trash cans from a single neighborhood washed down the street. They ended up against guardrails and sidewalks near a bridge, with even more containers and debris making their way into the creek itself.

Those weren't necessarily people dumping their trash into the water. They were people's trash cans, sitting outside waiting for collection—or stored next to the house—until floodwaters decided otherwise.

 

Floodwater Doesn't Care Where the Trash Came From

 

Once debris ends up along the creek, there's no way to tell where most of it came from just by looking at it. A bottle could have been dropped by a fisherman or carried from a yard several miles away. A plastic bag could have been litter or come from a knocked-over garbage can. A recycling container could have been properly filled and placed at the curb before being swept away.

By the time everything reaches the creek, it all looks the same. Trash is trash.

 

That Doesn't Mean We Should Ignore Littering

 

None of this is an excuse for intentional littering. If you go fishing, take your garbage with you. Pick up your fishing line. Don't leave bait containers on the bank or throw bottles and cans on the ground.

You can even put used soft plastic lures and lead weights in a bag and send them my way. I can reuse and recycle those into Throw Away Baits. And if you see trash that you can safely pick up while fishing, there's nothing wrong with taking it with you.

Even if flooding is responsible for a large portion of the debris, every piece of litter that doesn't get left behind is one less piece that can eventually make its way into the water. But there's an important distinction between acknowledging littering and assuming every piece of garbage along a creek was intentionally dumped there.

 

Don't Judge the People You See in the Video Too Quickly

 

When you watch one of my fishing videos and see garbage scattered in the background, it's easy to think, “What kind of people are fishing here?” or “Why do these people keep throwing their trash everywhere?” Sometimes those questions are justified. But sometimes, what you're seeing is the aftermath of a flood.

People who live nearby may have had their garbage cans washed away. Businesses may have had dumpsters or outdoor containers damaged or displaced. Debris from roads, neighborhoods and shopping centers can all end up concentrated in the same creek. The result can make an area look much worse than it actually is.

 

There's More to the Story

 

When I started getting comments about the trash in my videos, I understood why people made the assumption. If you only see the finished result—a creek bank covered in debris—it certainly looks like people have been dumping garbage there.

But after fishing these areas regularly and seeing what happens after heavy rain, I've gotten a different perspective. I've seen entire trash cans carried by floodwater, neighborhood garbage cans pushed down streets and piled up against bridges, and just how much material water can move.

So the next time you notice trash in the background of one of my fishing videos, remember you're probably looking at a combination of things. Some of it is litter. Some is fishing-related trash. Some comes from roads and businesses. But a surprising amount may simply have been carried there by water.

And that's an important distinction, because the mess you see along a creek doesn't always tell you the story of how it got there.