Thread: There is the largest of pachyderms among us

Originally Posted by bird down

Boat bottom, I would honestly just like to see the boats spread out. The fishing is good on all 4!! Yes, I said 4. I've said this before but I think it's important so I will say it again. The whole outdoor industry is going in the direction of instant gratification. Sad to say but I have friends that won't go until I tell them there biting and where to go. Whatever happened to fishing? Did they rename our beloved sport to Catching? Do the butt whippings not make the good trips great! I guess not for most people. But nobody was born a pro and the good stuff doesn't come from a book. It comes from defeat. I'd like to see less people chasing reports and maybe these lakes wouldn't have those bad bad down years. When there all producing and 90% of folks are on the worst one! ? There is a problem

I will say, we may not see eye to eye on everything, and that is only to be expected, but this is spot on my friend. Maybe it stems from watching so much outdoor broadcasting. I really believe that many people don't realize the time and effort it takes to film a fishing show, and as with anything on TV, even outdoor shows dabble in a bit of "Hollywood Magic". A simple 30 minute episode may take several days of filming to get all the footage to edit together. Yes it may seem that they just wore them out but the eight fish they show may well be the only eight fish they caught all day. Even if the footage looks like the fish came in fast and heavy, it may have been several hours or days even, edited together. Some people become indoctrinated, maybe even subconsciously, into believing that this is what the fishing is all about, and this type of action should be expected. Or even worse, if you don't catch them like they did then your trip was a failure. How many times do we see tournament anglers struggle to catch seven fish? And that goes from the top down including the country's premier teams. You made a comment about people who wait until they hear a good report before going to that lake and I see this too, even with guys that spend tens of thousands of dollars on boats, electronics, tackle and such. I also notice that they can be the unhappiest group of angler as well. I have been repeatedly asked why, even though I live in MS, have I not fished any of the Big 4. My answer to that is simple, I will make it up there soon but I want to put the time in learning one lake first before I branch out to fishing others. I bet there are some anglers who could hardly claim a "home" lake. We see guys posting a limit or a stringer of big fish and some people assume that we are doing this day in and day out when the reality is that it was posted because the angler was so excited to have pulled it off. Just as you said, "it's the butt whippings that make the good trips great". Barnett would appear to be on a super hot streak with its reports as of lake but she is the same old lake doing the same old thing, and she can be a tough old bird sometimes. When guys like DonDon, 4thethump, Dee, or MSslab on this forum or well known MCC Barnett anglers like Rabbit or Pat say they only caught a handful then you know it was a tough day. But I am sure some people read the reports went out and were upset when the lake didn't just give up 30 14"+ fish. There are no participation awards in fishing and you don't fill a cooler simply by showing up. If you can't enjoy just being on the water and putting in the work then I don't see how fishing would be very much fun.

When looking at guides for a new lake, one thing that is a red flag for me is "if we don't catch a fish then your trip is free". Even guides aren't magicians and I expect them to strike out too. I don't want a guide that is so focused on catching that one fish so he can get paid, that he neglects the most important aspect. I want to see an attitude of, if we don't catch fish you will still have fun! It's about the experience, the learning, enjoying Gods wonderful creation. When talking to guides, especially ones who fish for species that I already know a thing or two about and on lakes or areas of the coast that I also fish, I like to tell them to call me on an off weather day. Call me when a client cancels due to the conditions, we can all catch some fish on good days but I want to learn what to do when the weather doesn't play along. I can't tell you how many times I saw my own clients sneaking gps's along for the day. I would tell them, don't focus on exactly where we are fishing but let me teach you WHY we are fishing here today.


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Im gonna be transparent for a minute and some may not like it...but whatever. I love reading this site but I rarely post pics on open forums of what lake I caught fish on anymore because of several reasons. I know post them for my memory and friends to see on facebook because every tom, dick and harry don't have access to read my post and constantly pm me for more info. Folks don't want to fish anymore unless they KNOW EXACTLY where they are.

My favorite lake in Mississippi to take my kid to fish at because of the #'s has almost gotten to the point my dad(65) and his friend(68) have trouble parking relatively close to dock during the week. This week and last week was evidently 2 other states Spring Break because that is what all the truck tags have written on them. Let me be very clear, It is a public lake and whoever wants to pull there and fish has as much right as anybody else so I am not bashing out of state fisherman. But I have had 2 boats come by me and ask do you know ScottV and I say "yes".....then they say what color boat does he have I am wanting to see where he fishes. I asked them, "do you have his phone number?".....they say no we have just seen him post pictures and know he know how to catch em on this lake. So in essence, the have simply watched the internet from another state. Determined there was lots of fish in a lake from watching what was going on with the post here and decided to travel over to a lake they had no idea even existed and went to trying to follow someone around.
I started to text ScottV and let him know but I did not. Knowing how good of an individual he is, he would have probably let them follow him all over the lake. Man I feel like that was a negative post......I guess what I'm saying is I don't have any trouble telling people I trust where the fish are (I communicate with several on here that fish multiple lakes in our state) but I don't care anything about making the sport I love and am trying to teach my 3 year old now an more difficult to do. I have a kid to teach how to fish, not an adult.