Out of line ?

[slonezp]

Sent a message to a guy on a local forum to not post reports on a great fishery. Worried the buckethesds could decimate the small lake.

Was I out of line?

[jbsoonerfan]

Nope, the lake closest to my house is a good one and only about 900 acres. I have caught a bunch of good fish out of it. Up until a few years ago it was a relative secret. On a nice Saturday or Sunday in the Spring there may be 8-10 boats on the lake. Fast forward to this Spring and there might be 30 boats or more on the lake and all of them in the arms and creeks. One or two guys catch some good ones and post on Facebook, then a couple more do the same and before you know it there are FLW guys here filming and posting on Facebook. Cats outta the bag on this one. The last time I was there I went to the back of a creek channel and there was another boat in there. Within about 2 hours there were 9 boats in there. I just left and went to the house. It's not as bad during the week but I avoid it on the weekends now. Not really a big deal, but if not for social media and people bragging I think it would still be a small secret. 

[islandbass]

Depends on how you told him. 
 

for example if you told him, “If you post a report about this lake, I’m gonna kick your donkey, you #*}*{^{^.” That might be considered out of line. 
 

but if you said, “Hey bud, that is awesome that you caught a lot of fish and had a great day and I know you want to share your excitement with others and that is cool. But did you ever consider the ramifications of what could happen to your new honey hole if you let the cat out of the bag? Everyone and their covid-idiot cousins will be out there, fishing your honey hole fishing it dry — you wouldn’t want that would you? So if you want to post a report, go ahead but don’t disclose the location.”

 

true and hopefully persuasive and the honey hole is saved and no one got their feelings hurt or blood pressure raised, lol. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by islandbass

[Bluebasser86]

I've asked people to not share locations before. Lakes that are pounded is one thing, everyone knows where you were, but the smaller, less pressured lakes, I'd like to keep that way.

[Hammer 4]

Nope. I fish local park ponds, back a few years ago, when we ( Cali) had local bass forums, we would post pic's of our best bass, But, we photoshoped the surroundings out, see my avatar, We did this because, before that when we post reports, and or pic's, the next day or 2, there would be a hoard of strangers show to fish, it got to the point where it was pretty bad..so there's that..

 

Here is the real pic.

 

[Cgrinder]

Pretty reasonable. Couple years ago someone on here posted a map of my home lake (popular lake, lots of pressure and recreational traffic) with markers for all the spots he'd seen people fishing around the lake, which put a few of my "secret spots" on blast. I was less than thrilled. With social media and all that I keep things off the internet. Only share the juice with your friends and kindly request they don't hammer your spots.

[basser27]

44 minutes ago, slonezp said:

Sent a message to a guy on a local forum to not post reports on a great fishery. Worried the buckethesds could decimate the small lake.

Was I out of line?

Nope I do it all the time and usually get some response like “there’s more than 10 fish in the lake” 

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, slonezp said:

Sent a message to a guy on a local forum to not post reports on a great fishery. Worried the buckethesds could decimate the small lake.

Was I out of line?

Nope.

And while I post pic & videos of my catches all over - every lake I fish is Lake Menderchuck.

A fictional name. 

Something I started doing as a joke a while ago and have since just kept it going. 

Guys have recognized some spots on occasion and others have reached out to me rather bummed out that they can't 'find' it on a map anywhere. 

When I tell them it's a ruse, some laugh, others get pretty indignant. 

I have since 'shrunk' my bass fishing social foot print considerably to just BR, my FB page & YouTube channel,

just for this reason. 

A-Jay

 

[PhishLI]

Not at all. There's a local guy that fishes at a few of my spots, so we talk. When we do we'll eventually get around to our recent catches, show pics, a little intel, etc, so I know what he's gotten. A few months ago I was at a lake several miles away from our typical spots and bumped into another guy I've spoken to casually here and there. He knows where I fish because I've seen him there a few times, but I've always been vague regarding catches. So he mentions one of my spots and lets me know that some guy posted a few pics of 6ers on Fishbrain. I knew exactly who it was and I was right. I called him up immediately and expressed my concerns.

 

He capitulated and doesn't include locations anymore. The big problem we have here, just being outside NYC, is the red army bucket brigades. They watch the socials and will come and ruthlessly strip a lake to sell catches to certain restaurants in the city. You can go into them and see tanks of bass, bluegill, pickerel, perch, etc. I fish late at night a lot. I'm constantly cutting live lines tied off to trees. They sneak in about 9:30 pm and come back before dawn to collect. Anything and everything gets taken. They'll boldly fill 5 gallon buckets with bluegill the size of a saltine cracker during daylight hours. My crew has the DEC officers phone # stored in our phones, but they never seem to make it there in time to nab them. While I'd prefer that standard anglers didn't flood my spots due to social media spot burning, the fact is these places are super tough daylight fisheries, so they quit fast. I rarely see out-of-towners last longer than a trip or two.

[nascar2428]

Nope, especially if the bucket heads have shore access.

[Born 2 fish]

Not at all I took someone to one spot and asked him not to say anything. Well two days later he was there with another guy and posting catches on fish brain. I expressed my concern and never took him fishing again.

 

by the way where is the lake I’m always looking for a new place ? LOL

[slonezp]

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Nope.

And while I post pic & videos of my catches all over - every lake I fish is Lake Menderchuck.

A fictional name. 

Something I started doing as a joke a while ago and have since just kept it going. 

Guys have recognized some spots on occasion and others have reached out to me rather bummed out that they can't 'find' it on a map anywhere. 

When I tell them it's a ruse, some laugh, others get pretty indignant. 

I have since 'shrunk' my bass fishing social foot print considerably to just BR, my FB page & YouTube channel,

just for this reason. 

A-Jay

 

When I post positive reports of that specific lake, I post them in a thread dedicated to my home water. Which this is not. My home water gets a ton of pressure and is large enough to sustain that pressure. I post negative reports in this lakes dedicated thread. This lake is only a couple hundred acres. Used to have a decent musky population and a real good bass population. Both have dropped significantly in the past 15 years from harvesting and weed kills. It is the absolute best panfish lake I know of. Thru stocking programs, the musky and bass are rebounding as are walleye. I see the way the bucketheads harvest fish from my home water. This lake is 5 minutes from there. If word got out they would surely destroy the fishery.

[Catt]

Totally depends on the body of water  ?

[12poundbass]

Everything from now on was caught out of Lake Michigan, problem solved. 

[slonezp]

The way the forum is set up every post in the reports thread defaults to "latest posts". Every time a new post is made it goes to the top of the list. More people will look if it's always at the top. It wouldn't bother me as much if each lake had its own subthread and you had to search for the particular lake to get the latest post for that lake. You'd have to know what you were looking for.

[Dens228]

There's a quarry by me that I go to all the time.  Unless you know it's there you could drive within 1/2 mile your entire life and never realize it.  I've caught a lot of 5-6 pound bass out of it over the years.  Within the past two years YouTube fisherman have made a few videos fishing there.   I used to be able to go there and maybe see one other person fishing, on a busy day two.  Now.....................there are times you have to wait to launch or come back in.  A weekend is not even worth the effort. 

[NHBull]

Your fine!

 

Truth be told, it's part of the game.

 

Not many things bug me, but one of them is when I spend a ton of time searching for that 2 meter rock pile, and friends expect me to take them there.  Think I may come up with a lake lime AJ. I like "lake Alornot"

[Armtx77]

My fishing mentor growing up was a local guide and this reminds me of when people who ask how many we caught when we were putting the boat in t he trailer:

' it was pretty bad out there'  

''We caught 3-4 dinks under "12"

'River is too high or too low"

 

My favorite is when he would ghost a Hooksett, drop to one knee, stick the pole into the water about half way and proceed to land a fish that was not there. He would even come to the back of the boat and high 5 me.

 

I never tell them how many or where I caught them. Both involve hard work and time...why give it up?

[JediAmoeba]

Social media has really changed things.  I see a lot of guys filming on YouTube and local guys will recognize the place, comment where it is and then the place gets blown up.  Its kind of sad that you have to guard so many places nowadays 

[NHBull]

Many in my area will move the boat, change the angle and hashtag a public cove.  Guy trolling on the big lakes have this down to a science

[Oregon Native]

Your fine.....remember living out west and fishing northern California....anglers of less ....hmmm...would fish the bent rod pattern a lot.  If ya saw someone with binoculars.....oh poop.

Learned to be pretty tight lipped.

Now pushing seventy and my oh my how things are changing....Now also be careful that you don't offend someone by keeping secrets....

Sorry....I ramble

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Well you have the right to ask and he has the right to still report if he chooses. I took off my location to stop pm's from people wanting to know the spot I was on. Also on other forums I turn off PM's altogether I notice a number of other members joining from the same town. There is one pond I go to and very rarely will see another fisherman there. In over 40 years fishing there maybe 5-6 times someone was there so I understand not wanting to tell. Also on other forums I turn off PM's altoghether.

[CrankFate]

Where I am, it doesn’t matter. The fish are impossible to catch, so there’s rarely a problem with other people fishing. The biggest problem is the guys posting fake reports to draw people out to go fishing. Or worse, those that post pictures and reports for places they do not fish to intentionally draw as many people as possible to all the well known spots. Yes, the well known spots around here are really the best.
 

This time of year is notorious for fake reports. Any bass report in my area that reports catches going back before this week, is almost certainly a fake report by someone who’s not really a fisherman and who is most likely laughing at all the fools who flock to all the known spots because of their false reports.

 

No, you are definitely not out of line. There’s rarely a problem with other real fishermen who know what they’re doing. It’s all the morons that overrun every known spot with dull hook, rusted spinnerbaits, whenever someone posts a fake report on the internet that are the problem.

[Crappiebasser]

That was not out of line at all. I’ve done it several times myself. I’ve noticed when someone posts a nice catch on our local forum there’s a ton of boats where the picture was taken the next day. 

[TnRiver46]

Well I guess I’ll chime in from the other side. Yeah, little out of line. I’ve had people do that to me before and I wasn’t thrilled about it. If you don’t want me to dance, tackle me before I get to the end zone. I’ve had my own friends get mad at me for posting picture of Tennessee caught fish in Tennessee fishing forums. Oh the horror. If you aren’t catching anything, it’s not because of me