Sharing Secrets

[briansII]

Our local paper has a Weds., fishing report section. Every week, the report starts off with "Roger's Remarks". Lately i've been enjoying his comments on catch & release recommendations at a local reservoir. Last week was another goodie. Don't share your spots with just any "friend".

http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/outdoor ... 78726.html

Have you given up a spot to a "friend", only to find they blabbed about it to others.

Somewhat related, I read something in Backpacker mag about published destinations. I can't quote anything.....I was 1/2 asleep in a plane when I read it, but the gist was(I think), some complained of articles published on rarely visted destinations. The complaint was.....well, the same we have on our cherished streams. Too much exposure, increases crowds. Backpacker followed up, and did in fact find some increases in the area. One source attributed the increases to fly fishing reports. This is where I nodded off a few times. What I can recall was Backpacker kinda covered their behinds by saying the increased traffic only helps promote protection of the area. True? Sounds familiar. Anyway, in the same issue they had an article covering destinations to find solitude.

briansII

[flybob]

Brian, It has been my experience that those who share do so with the knowledge that inevitably, the word will pass on.
But at the same time, they are sharing with you hoping that you would use the same prudence that they feel they have.
Where would we be if nobody shared their "special places".
We ALL have learned and experienced really great fishing days due to the "Sharing" aspect.
On very few occasions we stumble onto those ridiculously GREAT places, and we hold them near and dear, for a while at least, but in the end you find out the you were probably the last to know about that place!

So here is my motto:

If you don't want the word out, don't share it.....
If you want to share it, expect it to get shared!

Don Henley once wrote, "If you call someplace Paradise, Kiss it goodbye"

JMO, good post!

Now where was that little brushy creek up by you with all the big browns?
Bob

[NorcalBob]

I'm assuming (based on the gist of the article) that "Roger" shared his favorite fishing hole with an avid reader of his newspaper column and not with a regular fishing buddy/friend. If he did that, he's a moron!!!!
And if it was a regular fishing buddy/friend, that person would be getting this from me!!!!
I have several different "levels" of sharing information. For the really good "honey holes", you better be a really good friend!
And no one has ever gotten my trophy redband "honey hole" out of me!!!!

[Papasequoia]

And no one has ever gotten my trophy redband "honey hole" out of me!!!!

I'm relieved to hear that you never found that GPS tracking device I placed under your car last year. Now, back to my Heritage Trout pursuit!

On a serious note, this is a serious topic. A couple of weeks ago I took my boys on a fishing trip. I brought them to one of the first places they ever went fly fishing. It was a place of small, wild fish. Three years ago, they were extremely plentiful, small, wild fish. This year, they were much, much scarcer. We visited holes where they had pulled out at least 8-10 fish each previously. Now we got one fish total out of these holes if that. Although drought conditions the last couple of years may have contributed some, I have to conclude that growing popularity of the area, based at least in part on knowledge obtained from the internet, was also a contributing factor to the diminished resource. On the way out we saw four people with spinning rods going in. That's the main reason you didn't see a report here on that trip. I think everyone has to decide for themselves the best action to take, but it is good to discuss it like this every once in a while.

[briansII]

Bob. Bob. Yup.

briansII

[midger]

Short answer--Yes. Funny this should come up here as it is a concern all of us should have when posting. A similar topic is beng discussed elsewhere and this is what I posted there:

Here's my take on this subject. I compare the well known, well publicized waters as ladies of the night. They're in every bar, all the GIs know them, and their telephone numbers are on every crapper wall. You know the ones--For a Good time call Suzie, Rosie, etc. When folks hit these waters and post, it does little harm (additional anyway) as everyone is probing these waters just like the bar girls. What I find ironic here though, is that folks are dumbfounded when the pressure increases on these larger, more familiar waters after they post lots of pictures of their conquests. Duh! What would you expect. Publicize it and they will come. Doesn't matter if it is via internet, magazine article, even word of mouth. What's the old saying? "Loose lips sink ships, eh" What do you expect.

Now with smaller, more fragile waters, I equate these to the preacher's daughter. Sure you may get lucky with the young lady, but why would you kiss and tell? What do you think the damage would be to her reputation? What does you blabbing say about your sensibilities and your ability to keep things to yourself? These small streams are just like this. Why put pictures that make it easy to identify the location? Are they necessary? Same goes for fish pictures. Why show every fish you catch? Surely fish mortality goes up the longer you keep these fish out of the water, and let's be honest, if you've seen one small rainbow, brown, golden, brookie, dolly varden, cutthroat, etc, then you're probably good to go and additional pictures don't really add anything to the report. I'd much rather see a report that talked about the food eaten, memories made, friendships renewed, etc.

Again, if you divulge locations, they will come. You may not be wholly to blame for the additional crowds, but you have to admit, you are partially to blame. Oh, and when you kiss and tell, don't be too surprised if Suzie isn't as willing to give it up in the future.

Just sayin.

[flybob]

Mike, l love your analogies!

[castaway]

My next post about one of my fav. little honey holes will be titled, "Suzie's Little Creek"

[RichardCullip]

My next post about one of my fav. little honey holes will be titled, "Suzie's Little Creek"

"Little Suzie" I like that. Last I adopted "Bishop Creek" as a code name for places I wanted to disguise. "Little Suzie" might be this year's code name

[briansII]

Short answer--Yes. Funny this should come up here as it is a concern all of us should have when posting. A similar topic is beng discussed elsewhere and this is what I posted there:

Here's my take on this subject. I compare the well known, well publicized waters as ladies of the night. They're in every bar, all the GIs know them, and their telephone numbers are on every crapper wall. You know the ones--For a Good time call Suzie, Rosie, etc. When folks hit these waters and post, it does little harm (additional anyway) as everyone is probing these waters just like the bar girls. What I find ironic here though, is that folks are dumbfounded when the pressure increases on these larger, more familiar waters after they post lots of pictures of their conquests. Duh! What would you expect. Publicize it and they will come. Doesn't matter if it is via internet, magazine article, even word of mouth. What's the old saying? "Loose lips sink ships, eh" What do you expect.

Now with smaller, more fragile waters, I equate these to the preacher's daughter. Sure you may get lucky with the young lady, but why would you kiss and tell? What do you think the damage would be to her reputation? What does you blabbing say about your sensibilities and your ability to keep things to yourself? These small streams are just like this. Why put pictures that make it easy to identify the location? Are they necessary? Same goes for fish pictures. Why show every fish you catch? Surely fish mortality goes up the longer you keep these fish out of the water, and let's be honest, if you've seen one small rainbow, brown, golden, brookie, dolly varden, cutthroat, etc, then you're probably good to go and additional pictures don't really add anything to the report. I'd much rather see a report that talked about the food eaten, memories made, friendships renewed, etc.

Again, if you divulge locations, they will come. You may not be wholly to blame for the additional crowds, but you have to admit, you are partially to blame. Oh, and when you kiss and tell, don't be too surprised if Suzie isn't as willing to give it up in the future.

Just sayin.

That was good!!

Like the comment about fish pics too. I'm wondering if you've gotten positive/negative feedback on the other forum. The other fishing forums I read, inevitably have a thread about this same subject.....on a semi regular basis. There's always been two camps. Seems to me....but I can't be certain, that one camp is growing. Maybe that camp has better fishing........and better beer.

briansII