Hickory Top WMA 2-July-2026

         Back to Hickory Top once again. The goal was only one bag of trash, but there was one additional item I was going to try to pick up.

      If you go to places over and over again for clean-ups you'll find that you don't get everything on the first, second or even third pass through. This was a bottle I somehow walked past multiple times. Removed it on this trip.

       The water level in Lake Marion is pretty low right now and in most of this edge area there was no standing water. 

       When I got out to where I removed the barrel a couple days prior, I found this non-native Planarian. It is amazing just how far something so small can spread. 

        Spots like this I had missed on previous clean-ups in the same area. It was much of the same as I had been finding. 

         Since I had been through this area before, filling up the bag was going slower than the previous trips out, yet I was still finding stuff.

       Even a full bottle of sunscreen.

          I am not familiar with the product that comes in the tubes. When I picked them up I didn't really look closely and thought they were a pack of small glow sticks, now I am wondering if they are a bait or drink additive. 

       Items like this I would guess were accidental losses. I wonder how much was in this tackle box when it was lost. 

          The only lure found on this trip. On clean-ups like this it is common to find hookless lures. They spend enough time in the water that the hooks do rust away. It isn't too hard to add new hooks, I may try to put this lure back into use. 

         My secondary goal. Can you tell what it is from a distance? This was another item I had spotted before and wasn't able to carry out with me.

        At this point I was at the furthest place in I was going to go and took a different path out to try to fill up the remainder of the bag. Have you ever had the pleasure of using a bucket toilet? Luckily this one had been out in the lake so long no contents still remained.

        This was different. A rubber bait that was shoved into a bottle. The only thing I could think was that it was a way of storing it for fishing so it doesn't dry out after you remove it from the packaging. I only removed it because I thought it was just sediment inside the bottle. 

       Styrofoam just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that become harder and harder to remove from the environment, so I am happy when I can remove big chunks like this before they degrade to a size I can't spend the time picking up. 

      At one point this Prothonotary Warbler flew in to see what I was doing. 

    Full bag and toilet meant the goal was reached, now to get it all back to the car. 

White Ibis foraging on the way out.

Everything sorted and recorded from this trip.

Small items.

Properly disposed of at the dump.

         After this I haven't been back to Hickory Top this month for clean-ups. It has been a bit too hot and the water is pretty low to take the canoe out. I haven't given up, I just had to put things on hold for a bit.