Stream Steward Challange
INSA Stream Steward Challenge 2025 Rules
“Just pick it up”
The Mission:
INSA is seeking to promote a culture of stream stewardship within our local community of smallmouth anglers. Our hope is that this challenge will serve to provide folks with an avenue to personal ownership and responsibility for the resources that we all love and enjoy while we chase our beloved smallmouth all across this beautiful state! We hope to make good stewardship a fun and community building activity. Thank you for your help!!
Who can play?
Anyone who finds themselves on the waters in Indiana is an eligible participant in the challenge. Man or women, young or old, fly rod or conventional tackle, boat or boots, we all can be great stewards of the resources when we enjoy them! It is not required to play, but we humbly ask you to consider making a donation to INSA to help us further our mission of Smallmouth Bass and stream conservation if you will be participating in the Stream Steward Challenge.
Where is the playing field?
We are allowing trash collection in and around any waterway within the state borders of Indiana as eligible locations for clean up! Our hope is to have as broad an impact as possible and so there is no need to travel to a distant stream. Clean up the areas you call home and be eligible for some cool prizes and public kudos for your efforts!
When can you play?
The Stream Steward Challenge will run from July 1, 2025 through September 30, 2025. We are running the Challenge through most of the warm water season and over several months to maximize the impact and allow folks to work at a manageable pace on their home waters.
How do you play?
“Just pick it up” That's the basics of it. Challenge participants will earn points by removing trash and other man made debris from the waters they are normally out fishing. Scoring will be done on a points based system that awards points according to the quantity and type of trash removed. Participants will photograph the items they pick up and then upload those through a google survey which will keep a running tally of points accrued during the challenge season.
Points will be scored as follows
1 Point - each plastic grocery bag, fishing net or mesh cinch sack filled with litter will count for one point.
2 Points - each 30 gallon trash bag filled with litter will score two points for the participant. 3 Points - every tire removed from the waterway earns the participant three points. 4-10 points - every item larger than the previous categories will be scored at the committee's discretion for a point total from four to ten per item. Examples include; water heaters, bicycles, televisions, large appliances etc. The sky's the limit here, if it shouldn’t be there and you remove it we will reward you!
Bonus points - each participant will earn a bonus point for every photo from their submissions that is shared to Instagram stories with INSA being tagged. (This will help greatly to draw others into participating and to create a culture of stewardship in our community. More is caught than taught!) We will reshare your stories as long as your privacy settings allow (Unless you ask us not to) in order to give you the recognition that your efforts deserve! In addition a bonus point will be earned when you participate in any other organizations clean up operations that you submit to us.
What can you win?
INSA is working with an array of local businesses to gather great prize packs for all of the Challenge participants this year. We will crown a Conservationist of the Year for the top participant who will take home the largest prize bundle that we put together from our donors. We will give prize packs to the first and second runner ups as well. There will be a special prize awarded for the most difficult/unique item that is removed from a waterway for the entire season of the challenge. This prize will be awarded to the winner based on the votes of the board of directors and the Stream Steward Challenge committee. INSA will also award intermittent prizes during the Challenge for special categories each month. Those extra prizes will be posted to our social media in advance so participants can compete for them specifically.
All winners will be publicly recognized by INSA and receive their prize packs at our year end event.
Thank you for participating, supporting and helping us to build a community of great stewards!!