Eddie Olschansky is one of the many anglers to fish the Cuyahoga River from his kayak. Unlike most fishermen, he always comes back with a catch. Sometimes, he nets small mouth bass or catfish, but more often, he’s fishing for trash.

“I’ve always been a person who will pick up a little bit of trash off the street if I see it,” he says. “If I was having a rough time catching fish, it was never difficult to come back with a net filled with garbage.”

When he first started navigating the crooked river in 2014, Olschansky just couldn’t paddle away from all the plastic bottles and beer cans. So, the fisherman turned environmental activist started Trash Fish CLE, a unique grassroots organization dedicated to cleaning up the river. Soon after, he became obsessed with fishing for trash, quitting h

See Full Page