This is the end, my friend...

I am going to stick around these forums and keep posting,

BUT I made a mistake in posting pictures of our bragging fish in part because where we fish is way too public and we have picked up a set of those who track us around the waters anyway ending up crowding us off our fishing spots. Fact of life in the deep Metro I guess. Forums like this carry a pile of lurkers who converge on any publicized bites making it difficult to impossible to continue to work them.

Last evening we were only able to return to a favorite spot because the wannabees had all given up on it and left it open after a couple of weeks of their failing to take fish there. In another area where we fished first last evening, as soon as we started to take anything we got crowded off that location, too. All that was was a few dinks in the first place, but that was more than the crowd around us was doing, and the next thing we knew bobbers were splashing right in front of us and still taking nothing except our fishing spaces. I for one am not going to get into a fight over a fishing spot. I will move and have easily a dozen and more other places to fish within short driving distances on some half dozen or more local lakes.

There is a certain amount of satisfaction in being able to see the wannabees come up empty, but that also means that we have to do some cruising to find open fishing opportunities and that is a real drag. So no more pictures of either us nor our fish nor the backgrounds in the pictures that point networks of lurkers to where we fish. We get watched closely enough as it is and still have trouble shaking the trailers and would be copycats. The way we fish takes some space more than crowds of followers allow us. We actually had a situation last summer where we moved to a different lake after taking one nice fish and within minutes of getting there had someone who recognized us congradulate us on the fish we had just taken on the other lake. It does not pay to underestimate how rapidly word travels these days with the number of cell phone networks that are looking for easy fish.

If that sounds rude of us, we will not make any apologies. We do not like fishing shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of splash down bobbers that pay no attention to our casting lanes or personal space, and we are tired of having to drive around from spot to spot to find enough open area to effectively work for our fish.

I don't mind sharing techniques, not at all, nor being friendly on the water, in fact that is one of the benefits of shoreline fishing, but I wish folks would go out and work out their own spots and develop their own techniques like we did over the past better part of a decade. We worked through our own share of skunks and over our own learning curve and that continues as we keep experimenting with new offerings and new patterns, and while that definitely had important help from others, it is not something where we crowded others out either. There are crappies all over the place, more than enough, including some real slabs, without stepping on others' toes.

There gets to be a point where one comes to resent a bunch of strangers trying to horn in on what one has worked hard and carefully to develop. But I aint about to fight over no fishing spot; I will just move and catch my fish some other place. When the wannabees and their meat buckets finally give up I will come back. I just no longer intend to encourage them to seek me out and crowd me out. Bear in mind that I do not claim to own the water or fishing rights to any specific part of it over any other fisherman, since these are public waters with public access, but I would very much like it if people quit trying to move right into my hip pocket and horn in on any bite I happen to find, especially those that are looking to fill a meat bucket.

That is bitchy enough, but the beginning of last evening was not pleasant. The end of the evening turned out real good and we had that all to ourselves, but I still got a bad taste in my mouth from how it started.

Very much understandable. Talk fishing/techniques and enjoy the site. Nobody expects anyone to give up their spots...certainly not I.

I admit to being more of a lurker than contributor to this forum (still learning) but I'm not one of your shore-fishing followers. I fish almost exclusively from a kayak and to me the sweet spots I'm after are the one's that the power-boaters can't touch, perhaps because of lack of public access, or water depth, etc. Anyway, the editorial at the end of the latest Kayak Angler magazine covers this very topic - hot spots being revealed on internet forums. I looked for a public digital version of the article that I could cut-and-paste here but couldn't find it.

Anyway, the article covers both the humorous side and serious side (in terms of annoyances) of followers descending upon a honey hole. Part of the problem is, it's counter to our nature as anglers to keep our good fishing stories to ourselves. I've read that on some forums, moderators have deleted posts just because they revealed a hot spot. I'm not advocating that here, just making an observation. No1Son I hope I hear about your more successful fishing trips here, and I for one won't be offended if you guard the sweet spot with utmost secrecy.

Still learning? Those of us who aren't still learning could just as well hang it up. For that matter everything I learn brings up two or three new questions. I hope it never stops.

Sounds like a couple weeks ago when we found a spot on a spot and boats were trolling by admiring my son's catches, since they were just getting dink sunnies. An older fellow told him nice catch, to which he said "we're catching them every cast!" at that point I pulled him aside and had a conversation regarding how you thank the person for their kind words and keep fishing. A minute later, our fishing buddy called to be picked up for the landing miles away. I knew the boats were going to pounce and decimate the spot(I could still sight plenty of crappies down there. We begrudgeny took off, and later came back to see the one boat (only room for one there), literally on top of the spot, pulling out snags, pushing and moving around the brig timber coverage, and yes...decimating the spot. Funny thing was, they didn't seem to have caught anything. By time they rolled off it, it wasn't anything close to what it was that attracted those fish to it. Thank you for continuing to share. I'm sorry you had to deal with that the other day. Maybe there is some restraining order that can be issued to your stalkers. ;) Other deturants would be wearing blaze orange prison jump suits...carry and place a stuffed skunk next to you...

P.S. just ignor the gps tracker I've stuck to the bottom of your ultralight rod.

I knew there was something weird about that one rod; so I set it aside at the house a while back. Didn't you wonder why it never moved! :)

Really I'm not a hard-a**ed dude... I know some who are and would get at least close to violent to protect their "rights" at least as they see them, but what the hey I aint no musky hunter.

I typically never take pictures of my spots or locations i always wait till im home and when people asked me where i fish i give them about enough information just to tell them but im not giving any srutcture information

This is an issue with our society today. Very few original anglers exist any more. I don't cross "t"s, dot "i"s, and really tend to leave a lot out of posting if I am on a bite somewhere that I think can/will get plundered by the lazy. Everyone wants the where and hows handed right to them. My home lake will crawl with people like this and they'll motor right up and ask if the fishing is good. "Fishing is fishing". What color am I using? Ya, i'll tell them but since I make my own plastics they won't have what I have. Where can I get that bait?...can't, its a custom-made one. We can thank the parents who 30 years ago catered to their kiddies whining about "I want it and I want it now". 80% of today's anglers lack in learned techniques, are lacking in simple understanding of the quarry they chase and fall back on relying on all of the tech toys to do the work for them. When they fail they can blame the weather or the toys, and rightfully so because as an angler they have failed miserably to learn in a natural order that which gives all of us old farts a distict advantage over them. We know because we took time to learn years ago. That's why we fish the way and where we do. If we don't give this info, these dorks are going to stay in the dark because none of them will slow down enough to learn anything relevant.

CT,

I am not so sure that instant gratification is so much the problem to my way of thinking, although fishing seems to have more than its share of it, as is too much lack of just plain common courtesy.
There have always been far fewer experts than participants in any recreation, and I think that is to be expected and is pretty normal in the course of things, but the willingness to horn in on others' performance is really what twists my gut. That is no doubt every bit the fault of failure in upbringing as anything else. I really think you have put your finger on the source. For me it has gotten to the point that I need a reason to trust before I share. I didn't use to be that way, but once burned twice wary I guess, although it has taken more than just once in a few things.

There really is nothing that I do well that I learned all on my own, and I regret that I do not trust far too many to share as well as has been shared with me. There has been good reason for that but I certainly wish it were not so.