Giving Out Your Honey Holes

[bassguytom]

7 hours ago, Sam said:

NEVER, EVER GIVE OUT YOUR HONEY HOLES LOCATIONS

LIE IF YOU MUST. IT IS OK TO LIE ABOUT YOUR HONEY HOLES IN BASS FISHING.

I always struggle to find bass and my wife's butt never looks big in anything she asked if it does in. You mean like that Sam? I think I have this one down. 

[New River Addiction]

Good one Bassguytom!!!! lol

[CybrSlydr]

I'm honestly amazed by some of the responses in this thread.

You'd think the fish were made of gold or something.  Utterly ridiculous.

[Tery Songz]

thats true. this aint 1600 where people using twigs with sharp ends to catch fish. now adays there pollution man made chemicals that will blow your mind and just about everything. theres only a few of these virgin bodies of water out there. and giving em out is recipe for disaster

[hunterPRO1]

give people help give people tips, NEVER GIVE PEOPLE YOUR SECRETS.

lets say someone says theyre having trouble catching on a walking bait and ask for help, you can give them that and its great and a nice thing to do,

now lets say they ask for a good fishing spots or "hey where ya been catchin em' " 

i will give help (the best i can) on any lure or on how to find fish to anyone that asks, dont expect me taking you to my best spot unless your family then i just blind fold you.

[soflabasser]

47 minutes ago, hunterPRO1 said:

give people help give people tips, NEVER GIVE PEOPLE YOUR SECRETS.

lets say someone says theyre having trouble catching on a walking bait and ask for help, you can give them that and its great and a nice thing to do,

now lets say they ask for a good fishing spots or "hey where ya been catchin em' " 

i will give help (the best i can) on any lure or on how to find fish to anyone that asks, dont expect me taking you to my best spot unless your family then i just blind fold you.

Well said!

[scbassin]

I learned a very long time ago once you give a spot to a friend pretty soon after it's a community hole. It cost a lot of money to learn a big lake so if someone ask where I caught them I'll them the very general area & leave it at that. There are many who will only fish other people finds & will not look around for new spots. I fish alone during the week 99% of the time & never keep a bass unless I gut hook one.

 

[soflabasser]

On 9/24/2016 at 0:57 PM, lo n slo said:

my cousin is my fishing partner and he knows everything.

just ask him ; - )

My better half knows every single location I fish and knows every single technique I use.She is my #1 fishing partner and she (besides my family members) are the only ones I take fishing with me on a regular basis.Its extremely easy to find a fishing buddy, but its hard finding one that you can truly trust.Too many fishermen love to show off their pictures on the Internet and then they wonder why their fishing location gets more crowded and harder to fish every time they go fishing.

[MikeWright]

6 hours ago, Bassguytom said:

I always struggle to find bass and my wife's butt never looks big in anything she asked if it does in. You mean like that Sam? I think I have this one down. 

I like a big ass though...

[scaleface]

I took a guy who has no boat   .   So we went to  a good spot , didnt think it would hurt any . Another guy with a boat then took him for the sole purpose of  finding out where the spot was  . I heard them talking about it .

 

Dont take people to your honey holes ,if you want to keep them .

[PourMyOwn]

My brother in law and I went to a fairly remote-yet not unknown pond one morning. I caught my PB (at the time) largemouth on a jig I poured, and he caught several fish too. We got back to the ramp and a bank fisherman asked us how we did-I responded with my typical, "We caught a few." My brother in law said to the guy, "He caught an 8 pounder!"

The man then asked me where I caught it. I quoted my father and said, "Right in the corner of the mouth."

I feel like it's ok to ask someone how they did, but never where or with what bait they caught fish.

[Cardiologist]

Just post a no fishing sign one day. See what happens. 

[d-camarena]

On 9/26/2016 at 9:10 PM, CybrSlydr said:

I'm honestly amazed by some of the responses in this thread.

You'd think the fish were made of gold or something.  Utterly ridiculous.

Can you elaborate?

[CybrSlydr]

7 hours ago, d-camarena said:

Can you elaborate?

I think it is absolutely ridiculous how protective people are of locations. Ending a friendship over it? Come on, you cannot be serious. The way some people talk in this thread you'd think fish were extinct and they found the last one on earth to fish and it was made of some kind of gold.

Fish in public waters are a publicly available natural resource available to everyone and staking some kind of personal claim to a location so only you can fish it is incredibly selfish.

So what if they bring someone along and "your" spot is no longer "secret". There are a lot of fish in the world, isn't part of fishing the challenge of finding them rather than repeatedly hitting the same spot over and over? Isn't that like... Fish in a barrel?

I just wholly disagree with most of the attitudes shown on here. That's why in my fishing report threads I supply pictures of the locations so if others head out to where I am, they might share in whatever luck I had.

[scaleface]

I dont take friends to my good mushroom spots either .Theres a  wooded valley where II have found over 100 old coins with a metal detector . I took a friend and guess what happened ?

[soflabasser]

59 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I dont take friends to my good mushroom spots either .Theres a  wooded valley where II have found over 100 old coins with a metal detector . I took a friend and guess what happened ?

My guess is that your friend invited lots of people to your old coin location and it's now hard to find old coins?I won't be surprised either if your friend gave you his word he wasn't going to share the location but did it anyways.

[scaleface]

40 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

My guess is that your friend invited lots of people to your old coin location and it's now hard to find old coins?I won't be surprised either if your friend gave you his word he wasn't going to share the location but did it anyways.

I dont know if he took anybody but I know hes been back and there are several other people hunting it since . Connecting the dots I'd say he told others .

[soflabasser]

19 hours ago, scaleface said:

I dont know if he took anybody but I know hes been back and there are several other people hunting it since . Connecting the dots I'd say he told others .

Doesn't surprise me one bit that you noticed more people coin hunting after you showed your friend the place.It seems that the type of people that get  angry about others not giving spots are usually the type of people who are not willing to put in the time needed for them to find their own locations.

[primetime]

I learned to not take people to good spots that are hidden....Fishing alone gets boring so even if someone promises they will never go back with anyone, they can't help it, they will tell someone the same thing you did, and eventually you will notice changes in your "Spot" like Logs stacked up so they can reach new areas, start finding baits in the trees, and big fish learn, if you find a spot that is awesome and the bass have never seen lures before, be very careful. Even if everyone is releasing fish, they become lure shy, I have messed up many spots being generous, but the good thing is for every spot you think is great, a better one is right around the corner. 

With Google Earth, it is impossible to keep spots hidden now unless you find Sloughs that are near rivers that flood, if you have a river that floods, those are the woods you want to explore, big bass will head into the wooded areas and then hold up in small pools, if they have shade and cover, they can live and grow large. 

Here is a quick tip...Some of the best spots are Public parks that you assume are garbage. Sure, people fish them often, but the people fishing them are not targeting Bass, plus the local DEC stocks these ponds to make them good for fishing. Some of my best spots are Public lakes that if you google online people say "Don't bother"...lakes can change in 1 season, that lake with all dinks that are stunted, could be money 2 years later.....

Most people who visit public lakes or ponds fish with nightcrawlers or shiners on the bottom and weeds are a bad thing. I also never take fish out of the water for pictures, all it takes is for one car to pass by like say me and I am at that place the next morning b4 work.

[Ktho]

6 hours ago, primetime said:

. 

Here is a quick tip...Some of the best spots are Public parks that you assume are garbage. Sure, people fish them often, but the people fishing them are not targeting Bass, plus the local DEC stocks these ponds to make them good for fishing. Some of my best spots are Public lakes that if you google online people say "Don't bother"...lakes can change in 1 season, that lake with all dinks that are stunted, could be money 2 years later.....

Most people who visit public lakes or ponds fish with nightcrawlers or shiners on the bottom and weeds are a bad thing. I also never take fish out of the water for pictures, all it takes is for one car to pass by like say me and I am at that place the next morning b4 work.

Woah way to blow up my spots!! Public park lakes are definitely way overlooked and more often than not are diamondss in the rough. 

[blckshirt98]

Out here in Cali I keep spots on the hush hush only because there are so many people that have no respect for fishing as a sport nor any regard for the environment.  If anyone posts up pictures with a location of where there's a hot bite on a local forum, the next week that spot will be covered in trash, and fish nowhere to be seen.  It's gotten to a point where nobody posts reports anymore.  If the majority of people on forums knew proper catch and release/take methods, and, cleaned up their trash, I'd be more willing to share.  As it is almost every reservoir I go to is littered with shards of glass from broken bottles, and, plastic food and tackle packaging.  I heard some guy talking about how he would catch his limit of bass, put them in the a cooler in his car, then come back and catch another limit.  There are people out here that have no regard for conservation and if they could catch 200 fish to keep, they would catch 200 fish to keep.

[DrMarlboro92]

On 9/21/2015 at 5:00 PM, Ratherbfishing said:

Threatening to remove his family jewels with a pair of rusty pliers is probably too extreme, huh?  You should have blindfolded him and frisked him for a GPS before taking him there.  I'm afraid the cat is probably out of the bag.

My dad has a friend that took us to a "pond that doesn't exist" that had tons of huge fish in it. There was no blindfolds involved, but there were many promises, lots of turns and a few extra miles driven, no stops and a contract written in blood. 

Great pond, and I eagerly wait to be invited again. This is how you treat your honey holes...

[Ratherbfishing]

1 minute ago, DrMarlboro92 said:

My dad has a friend that took us to a "pond that doesn't exist" that had tons of huge fish in it. There was no blindfolds involved, but there were many promises, lots of turns and a few extra miles driven, no stops and a contract written in blood. 

Great pond, and I eagerly wait to be invited again. This is how you treat your honey holes...

He didn't make you ride in the trunk, huh?  :  )

[Ratherbfishing]

On 9/30/2016 at 6:15 AM, CybrSlydr said:

I think it is absolutely ridiculous how protective people are of locations. Ending a friendship over it? Come on, you cannot be serious. The way some people talk in this thread you'd think fish were extinct and they found the last one on earth to fish and it was made of some kind of gold.

Fish in public waters are a publicly available natural resource available to everyone and staking some kind of personal claim to a location so only you can fish it is incredibly selfish.

So what if they bring someone along and "your" spot is no longer "secret". There are a lot of fish in the world, isn't part of fishing the challenge of finding them rather than repeatedly hitting the same spot over and over? Isn't that like... Fish in a barrel?

I just wholly disagree with most of the attitudes shown on here. That's why in my fishing report threads I supply pictures of the locations so if others head out to where I am, they might share in whatever luck I had.

I don't recall anyone suggesting actually ENDING a friendship over this.  Not a GOOD friendship, anyway.  And certainly no one is telling YOU what to do.  If you want to share, share away.  But some of us only have a few really cherished holes and sharing them with anyone (which quickly becomes "everyone"} is basically the same as rendering them no better than anywhere else.  Even IF those who go there practice catch and release or selective harvest (fat chance of that), those fish will usually become pressured and reluctant to bite.  Unless a lake is privately owned, staking a personal claim to a spot is rude, stupid and, well, illegal.  But not SHARING good spots only makes good sense.    Let people find their own good spots (or not).  The band The Eagles have (or had) a song called "The Last Resort" and one of the last lines is, "Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye."  Nowhere is this truer than with good fishing spots.

[primetime]

I like the concept of "Pond Trading"

We have so many lakes and ponds in Florida that do not have names, not private, and luckily there are plenty to go around, but I do have a few that I like to keep secret and only show certain people if they are willing to show me an equally good spot. I find that works best but I usually like to take a new friend I have never fished with to an OK spot just to see the reaction, but on the bigger lakes, I share as much as I can because if other people did not explain how to break down big lakes to me, I would still be lost.....

I never give up spots that a boater takes me to when I am a non boater. I don't feel comfortable going back by myself unless I get permission. Some people take this stuff really serious, and I like exploring anyhow. The lake I fish most often is 9 Miles Long and full of Canals and hidden Brushpiles, so if I am at the ramp and someone asks for advice, I will always point them in the right direction, kind of give them an idea like "I would fish the Inside Weed Edge, Points, Hit the canals, or Look for birds and bait, but I am rarely concerned on big lakes because I tend to find new spots on almost every trip since bait moves.

Small Water is a different deal, especially if you have worked on the forage base,culling, and are trying to grow a Lunker. I have a few ponds I work on and for those I only take my closest Imaginary friends.