The good the bad and the ugly

I usually only post general locations or lakes where the "bite is on" because I feel that is all the info needed for a serious Crappie fisherman to zero in on the fish fairly quickly. If someone PM's me I will usually reply with more specific information if I have it. I have a few friends on the board that I will PM with detailed specifics regarding where, depth, rigging, color, speed, ect to simplify things and they usually reciprocate when they themselves find a really good bite. I won't post information given to me by another fisherman who wants it "kept under my hat" as is sometimes the case on the smaller lakes. Most of the time I do not fish specific "spots" or "honeyholes" because I troll and therefore am constantly moving. I may start fishing at the boat ramp and end up at the other end of the lake by day's end. Usually if the bite is good on one part of a lake at a certain time Crappie can be caught at many other areas on that lake. If one area gets too crowded it just takes a little effort to find another good concentration of fish that you can have to yourself!! I started out lurking on the board looking for hot lakes to save time and I realize that is why 95% of the people read the boards in the first place. I do not believe putting out information on good fishing is going to hurt the bite for the serious fishermen. It might for the marginal fisherman who always heads for the thickest crowd when he gets on the water. I am catching as many or more Crappie now as I ever have and I don't have to rub elbows and go Pole-to-Pole with a crowd to do it.

My opinion is one of a non crappie fisherman. I say i am a non crappie fisherman because I can go to a hot spot and fish the same baits the same depth in the exact same spot as the person who instructed me on what to do and come back with 1/2 the fish the helpful person caught that gave me the details. However, the 1/2 the fish number that I caught was twice as many as I would have caught without the help. So i figure the real crappie fisherman who could actually put a dent in a hot spot already have their own hot spots and pay little attention to the posted details of someone elses fishing success. My point is, it is us rookies who benefit most from the posted info so your posting details will have a very small effect on your hot spot. However, what you gain from posting this information is more beneficial to you than you could imagine. Such as, I continue to buy a liscense which supports your fish habitat, restocking programs and management, I continue to by boats, equipment, and baits, which helps keep the price you pay down and keeps your suppliers in business. So, My thoughts are post away!

Wow you all still don't get it.....
Wether these people catch the fish or not... If you post where you like to fish they will crowed you out.. If it is crowded no one can efficiently fish. I am not worried someone is going to catch all the fish... Gold creek is still full of fish, BUT YOU CAN'T FISH THE WATER BECAUSE TOO MANY PEOPLE GO THERE DUE TO PEOPLE "sharing" INFO.

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Originally Posted by JigginPoleJoe

Wow you all still don't get it.....
Wether these people catch the fish or not... If you post where you like to fish they will crowed you out.. If it is crowded no one can efficiently fish. I am not worried someone is going to catch all the fish... Gold creek is still full of fish, BUT YOU CAN'T FISH THE WATER BECAUSE TOO MANY PEOPLE GO THERE DUE TO PEOPLE "sharing" INFO.

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Let's say Walmart ran your favorite beverage on sale as a buy one get three free but didnt advertise it, would you want someone to tell you about it before the sale was over?

Is there only 1 lake in Arkansas with crappie? Or, maybe only 1 person posting info and they all crowd up there. Come on up here then, you should've seen Glen Elder last year and I'm sure this year too. Every parking lot full, and so full there was a half mile walk to the water after you put your boat on. We've got the eastern metro boys, the corn farmers from Neb., and the fish hungry, water puppies from Denver, which is about a 8 hr drive all crowded into this lake. This year ice fishing there were up to 400 guys on the ice at the lakes smallest area. The lurkers will find you, they glass you from afar, or drive up to you and tap the WPT button on their graph or just plain ol nose right in on you. And I don't know about you guys, but our local guides are the worst of all, I've seen them almost hit another boat setting there anchors (on your spot). Or if you p^*s them off, they'll sprinkle walnut shells on your hole, and that ones done for years sometimes. Nope, a little info goes a long way, use it to your advantage.

Folks learn to catch fish by fishing with their dad or grandad. Or they learn by trial and error, spending countless hours on the water trying to catch fish. This was before the internet, the most powerful information sharing method ever invented.
THANKS TO THOSE WHO SHARE ON THIS FORUM!
As a person who grew up without the benefit of fishing with a dad or grandad, and as a person who was busy working long hard hours earning a paycheck and trying to raise a family (no violin, please), I am definitely a novice fisherman who is eager to learn. THANK YOU to the fine folks on this forum who share anything and everything to help me catch fish. By the way, I've known Gold Creek was a great place to fish for over 30 years, way before the internet forums. How? Driving on I-40 on a Saturday and looking at all the boats, thinking to myself, "That must be the fishing hotspot".
Now, will someone please adopt me as your grandson and take me fishing?

If crappie fishing was that easy who would need help, are
You all too lazy to get out and work (fish), get out there put you beers down and find em,
When i go fishing it's work, I relax when I get home. I interpret this site to teach and learn how to fish.
Do teachers just give the answers to the test?

I fish Wister lake in Oklahoma during the spawn. I will tell you that by noon on a weekend it is impossible to fish a stretch of bank that has not already been fished that day. Funny thing is everyone still catches fish and I mean limits of Slabs (Current Oklahoma record 4.2 lbs from there last year) A good crappie lake must be fished regularly and hard or the quality of the fish will suffer. My opinion on this matter is this. If you don't want to give out your information, then don't. But no one has the right to judge anyone who does choose to post specifics. Last I heard the lakes in question are public and the sharing of information is a choice made by the person giving the info. The only case I know of where this would be wrong is if someone takes another to a secret honey hole and asks the other guy to keep it quite. In this case it would be a breach of trust to pass along the info, and is wrong to do so.

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Originally Posted by JigginPoleJoe

If crappie fishing was that easy who would need help, are
You all too lazy to get out and work (fish), get out there put you beers down and find em,
When i go fishing it's work, I relax when I get home. I interpret this site to teach and learn how to fish.
Do teachers just give the answers to the test?

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If you consider fishing "work" then you are doing it all wrong anyways. But carry on...

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Originally Posted by slabcrazy

If you consider fishing "work" then you are doing it all wrong anyways. But carry on...

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Where's your fish? How many did you catch this week?