Giving Out Your Honey Holes

[Bluebasser86]

I usually post my spots because I've had enough times where the person in the same boat with me couldn't catch fish at my spot. Those bass in that creek will get smart fast, then you're buddy will probably get bored with it an move on. 

[GodfatherOfSeoul]

Had a neighbor brag about a property he bought at a steal of a price and he guy he told went to his friend in the county and blocked it so he could buy it.

Like business, I dont disclose a small honey hole. If it a a good size body of water, I dont mind bc I know many people dont fish the same spots the same way I do. I dont even put the name of my spots on my youtube vids.

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring."

Proverbs 27:1

[ww2farmer]

I fish public water, there are no secrets. I do however have a couple of little known spots on one particular body of water that I will not talk about anymore. A couple bass resource members know what I am talking about. I don't mind sharing information with my friends, but I am very careful on who knows what anymore.

[the reel ess]

I understand your conflict. We have some local FB places that we share info on, but in the last year I've seen lots of pics of either someone taking tons of short fish or big fish that were not going to be released so I'm torn. I want to post a report to my catch and release friends but I don't because I'm afraid of a "bucket fisherman" cashing in on my report.

And some will cash in and take them all. Some can't resist the urge. Last time I ran into a boat full of bucket fishermen on "THE RES", I caught a 5 lb in front of them on a topwater. THEY ASKED ME FOR IT!!! The balls on those guys. I let it swim away in front of them and said NO. I found out later they were trespassing and keeping everything The landowners asked DNR what could be done and they said they'd issue permit cards and patrol the place fi they could get in a  gate. If they got caught it would be trespassing. 2nd time would be a higher charge with jail.

[scaleface]

On 9/21/2015 at 1:54 PM, d-camarena said:

Theres a creek by my house that produces really well for me. I catch 6,5 and 4 pounders regularly. I usually fish alone, im a loner. I discovered this spot a couple years ago when i saw what was supposed to be a dried uo creek on a map. I walked 30 minutes into the woods and found the spot. It was full of water and has a lot of huge bass in it. Ive been fishing it for a couple years now and im pretty much the only one who fishes it. Ive never seen anyone there and ive never seen any recent trash or signs of people fishing there.

I recently met a friend who loves fishing also. And i took him to my spot. Now the problem is he fishes that spot everyday. Seriously he dosent work, hes there everyday. The thing that ticks me off is that he told another guy about it and he is probably gonna tell somebody else.

What do you guys think i should do?

Oh and he claims hes a bassmaster lol he is a newbie. All he does is cast without purpose, but the creek is packed so you can catch fish every cast.

You messed up . 

[Catt]

My "friends" put a higher value on friendship than fishing!

[the reel ess]

BTW, where did you say this creek was?

[Rhino68W]

I recently took a guy fishing at a really good spot on the Trinity River. Just made casual conversation about how crappy it is when people tell the world about your spot. He got the hint and hasn't told anyone.

[Crankinstein]

My strategy when asked about spots is to reveal a few of known spots that are likely to produce some fish and allow the person a good foothold on the lake but not reveal any true secret spots. My local lake is a small 800 acre public lake that's very shallow so there's not any untouched gems as far as spots go but I do have a few that I won't reveal. I also never give out spot and technique at the same time if someone chats me up at the ramp I'll just give them one. I might say something like their hitting topwater good and leave it at that or something like try the backs of coves. I'm not sure if anything really reaches my local crew or not  anyway because everyone I see only ever fishes t-rigs and spinnerbaits along the shore. I literally went months this year before I saw anyone fish anything other than that, 40 degree water to 90 degree water these guys throw the same two baits at the same spots. In your specific case I'm not sure there's much you can do but keep fishing like you have and just hope these new visitors respect the spot and if not maybe search out a new part of the creek just for you.

[einscodek]

a secrets no longer one when you tell someone .. then it becomes "news"

[the reel ess]

My strategy when asked about spots is to reveal a few of known spots that are likely to produce some fish and allow the person a good foothold on the lake but not reveal any true secret spots. My local lake is a small 800 acre public lake that's very shallow so there's not any untouched gems as far as spots go but I do have a few that I won't reveal. I also never give out spot and technique at the same time if someone chats me up at the ramp I'll just give them one. I might say something like their hitting topwater good and leave it at that or something like try the backs of coves. I'm not sure if anything really reaches my local crew or not  anyway because everyone I see only ever fishes t-rigs and spinnerbaits along the shore. I literally went months this year before I saw anyone fish anything other than that, 40 degree water to 90 degree water these guys throw the same two baits at the same spots. In your specific case I'm not sure there's much you can do but keep fishing like you have and just hope these new visitors respect the spot and if not maybe search out a new part of the creek just for you.

Most of the time people ask what they're biting when they should ask where. And not a specific waypoint, but a general zone. Like the first third of creeks, 10' deep.

[Canyon explorer]

Having consistently good bass spots is mostly the results of a lot of time, effort and sometimes really hard work developing deep brush piles so I do not give them out for the local lakes I currently fish period.... I do however give out locations and patterns that have produced for me in out of state tournament lakes that I no longer fish.

[bassguytom]

Myself and my brother were taking out a cousin of ours that was in from Ohio and does not fish much. My brother was at my house and my cousin showed up. When we left in the truck to go to the lake my brother pulls out a bandanna and tells my cousin to put it on as a blindfold. My cousin says "are you serious?" I in a very serious tone said yea we're serious about our fishing and can't let anyone know where lake X is so just put it on until we get to the lake. He did a it! We did everything we could do to not burst out laughing while we were in the truck. The lake is 2 minutes from my house and we said take it off. When he realized we were at a lake he has been to many times before he just started laughing. We asked him why he put the blindfold on and he said you guys seemed really serious like you were some kind of Philly mobsters or something. We laughed our ass off all day and still to this day he says never go fishing with those 2. I am always willing to help someone fish but stop short of telling them spots that I have found by putting time on the water in at.

[Big C]

I don't tell anybody particular bodies of water nobody knows about.  I share good spots on lakes, but not true "honey holes"  The reason being, a known body of water has no secrets, an unknown body of water is a secret.  Point and case, there was a highly productive pond right under everybody's nose in the middle of a Yuppieville park. It's actually an irrigation pond for like 20 soccer fields.  One day we caught over 100 bluegill of the biggest bluegill I've ever seen.  As hordes of people walked by asking how we did we unfortunately told the wrong guy (I could tell it was a mistake when he skipped away rubbing his hands together singin' about a fish fry).  We trumped one mistake with another, disclosing the super secret bait (Bar-S thick cut balogna).  He obviously told his friends who told their friends, now you can hardly buy a bite in that pond.

[WPCfishing]

I'll share information with family and friends regularly. Occasionally I'll give a stranger a tip if they're fishing with there kids.

Aside from that... nada!

[tholmes]

I'll tell others where I've caught fish, no problem. But if someone tells me "their" spot, I won't tell anyone e;se.

 

Tom

[scaleface]

Hers an example .I took this guy fishing  . He doesnt have a boat . We have a good day fishing this spot. One day I'm talking to another fisherman. He  tells me that he took the same guy fishing and he showed him the spot where we fished . It was no big deal but just goes to show .

[the reel ess]

Hers an example .I took this guy fishing  . He doesnt have a boat . We have a good day fishing this spot. One day I'm talking to another fisherman. He  tells me that he took the same guy fishing and he showed him the spot where we fished . It was no big deal but just goes to show .

Hey, when you're out there and you don't have a fish, where are you gonna go? Where you know there is one. It's human nature.

 

Two people can only keep a secret when one's dead.

[wytstang]

I don't share honey holes ever.

[MFBAB]

No, you just can't do it. 

 

Now, having said that, there are levels of importance involved as well. 

If you are fishing a big lake it's one thing, but small spots, you just have to use common sense. 

 

Another thing, I've got some good friends who just can't keep info to themselves.  Some of my best fishing buds, I just can't say certain things around them or take them to certain spots, because I know if I do they will blab about it, or worse still, post it on the web. 

 

You have to understand, you aren't just sharing it with that one person most of the time....they tell someone, then that person does, and so on until too many people are sharing too small of a spot. 

If it was truly a 1-to-1 deal I wouldn't have a problem, but not many people are that trustworthy. 

A big lake can withstand that better than a small pond or creek. 

 

 

Another BIG part of this:

To me, the fun of fishing is largely: FINDING MY OWN FISH!!

That is where most of the satisfaction comes from, for me. 

Why would I ruin that for other people by giving them specific info that they would appreciate infinitely more if they had earned it? 

 

I know everyone doesn't see it this way, but I would rather strike out trying it my way than to go straight to "someone else's" fish and catch them good by just doing what they told me to do.  Whoopee

 

 

Also, just to clarify:

I will always help anyone who asks for info on getting started, setting up equipment, what to use, etc...I just try to avoid turning those special low-traffic places into community holes. 

[roadwarrior]

Is that my reel in your avatar?

 

 

 

[MFBAB]

Is that my reel in your avatar?

 

 

 

Ha ha, that pic is really just a screen grab I thought would be funny.

 

I did however, have a massive birdsnest a couple of weeks back.  I was making a hard cast to skip under a dock or something at Pickwick around Grand Harbor and the hook hung up on a guide somehow in the back-cast.

It looked almost as bad as that pic

[the reel ess]

 

Another thing, I've got some good friends who just can't keep info to themselves. 

I was kayak fishing a reservoir with my best friend. We caught two very nice bass. His was his personal best. There was another boat in there with three bucket brigadiers in it who didn't see us catch them. They come out of a cove and we chit chat about how we're doing and soforth and my buddy says "We just caught two over 5 lbs right here!"  I caught another good bass in front of them a ways down the bank that they asked me for and I declined and let it go.

 

Later I asked him why he said that because they'll certainly be sitting on that spot next time I go. He said he was so excited he couldn't contain himself. Plus he doesn't fish there much anyway. I fish there once a week. I told him he needs to act like he's been there before.

 

But they got their privileges revoked soon after anyway because they angered the landowner. They were actually sneaking in that time.

[D3FT]

I took a buddy fishing near my mom's house in a creek that I grew up fishing. The creek had a couple spots that saw the occasional fisherman but I showed my buddy some out of the way spots that were very hard to get to if you didn't know the area well. So one day I went to visit my mom and saw what looked like my buddies truck parked near the woods, I asked my mom about the truck and she said it had been there several times in the last few weeks. After a short hike in the woods I found my buddy and some guy he works with fishing away with big smiles on their faces. I felt cheated on, turns out he had been showing all sorts of people my "secret" spots and they were showing their friends and so on. Not cool!

[garvin]

Choose the friends to share your secret fishing spots with the same care you would give to choosing someone to hold the other end of the rope if you were scaling a cliff.