fishing report-Forum ettiquite

[B Kane]

When posting a fishing report on this board I've noticed people getting admonished for reporting where they fished and how many fish they caught. I for one would like to know where for my future fishing trips and size and numbers so I might judge my catch rate with my meager skills in comparison to someone with more experience. I was also told not to post huge numbers because it would hurt other peoples feelings. So, help me out here with some general guidlines because I have a great report from last weekend but am hesitant to post, "great fishing at X". How do you feel about reports Bill? This is a great board and I will follow your recommendations.

[Scott V]

Post your report and just be honest. And to those people that get upset and try to blast you, they should be banned. This is Bill's board and they have no right to say what can and can not be posted. If they are really concerned they should politely send you a private message asking to no post certain areas and why they feel it should not be made public knowledge. There are some places where I will show the fish I caught but will not give out the location because the place just could not handle the possible foot traffic from posting a report. So post away.

[Jaybinder]

I'm still pretty new here and to FFing so take this as you will. I think it depends on the place. If you post that Sac. is going off, people might not care. When you start talking about small streams or little known areas it will ruffle some feathers.

That being said, this board is by far the friendliest around. There is a board I wont name (down south) that will kick you out if you name names and they wont respond to PMs unless you have been there a while (years).

I posted a pretty specific report last year. I got a couple of PMs and friendly suggestions (they realy were friendly) so I decided to take it down. I guess what I'm trying to say is tread lightly and dont over do it. Or post away.

[wjorg]

I agree with Scott although I personally cringe when I see:

"We got 10 fish today at x-spot using the y-fly."

Pretty soon that fly is worthless when youve got 100 people showing every version imaginable. But than again thats part of what online boards accomplish. You get the good and the bad. I find it interesting though, that we rarely see reports from the guys that are really in the bucket. I've got guys telling me I share too much info, and they arnt even members of this board. What the?

On the other hand being the reciepient of "taliban angling or board ethic committee" orders is no fun. I've personally been an a$$ and have tried to control my ape territoriality and temper when I now may suggest an alternate posting style. I've been fortunate to learn a bit from this board, I dont take that for granted.

The greater question is: Do you post a fishcounter/specific location report to help others out, just tell the story, or inflate your head?(Not you personally B Kane)

[Rick J]

I for one post my fishing reports to inflate my ego!!! I saw a fish looking item at a fly shop the other day that was an actual fish clicker! I did not buy it as it did not go high enough for my typical fishing day.

OK - back to reality - I say post away with, as others have indicated, using a little judgment on the info you give out

[Reno Flytyer]

Posts suggesting that someone caught 135 in a day at any particular spot doesn't help that location, regardless of how outlandish the count is, or how good (or not) the fishery is.
RFT

[wjorg]

I need one of those fish counters with negative numbers, keep loosing or missing the fish lately.

[troutbm]

For me theres certain waters I would never post about and theres others that I'm happy to post about. I guess you have to decide for yourself. Although I will say this, I do beleive 100% that forums such as this do more harm then good, And the real reason the forum is here is to get people into the flyshop. Just one guys opinion. I say this, be general and not specific.

[Hairstacker]

For me theres certain waters I would never post about and theres others that I'm happy to post about. I guess you have to decide for yourself. Although I will say this, I do beleive 100% that forums such as this do more harm then good, And the real reason the forum is here is to get people into the flyshop. Just one guys opinion. I say this, be general and not specific.

More harm than good? I guess it depends on your perspective. I first came here under the old forum format (before 2005) because I found out my dear friend David Lee was here. Since then, I've made more friends, fished with some of 'em, have learned a bunch, have tried to help others when I can, have gone to fishouts, hosted and joined fly tying swaps, and have participated in some great forum and pm conversations. In short, to feel like part of a community and connected to others and what's going on. I am grateful to Bill Kiene for providing these opportunities all these years. And no, I have never worked for the fly shop.

[jbird]

For me theres certain waters I would never post about and theres others that I'm happy to post about. I guess you have to decide for yourself. Although I will say this, I do beleive 100% that forums such as this do more harm then good, And the real reason the forum is here is to get people into the flyshop. Just one guys opinion. I say this, be general and not specific.


I have been here since darn near the beginning. I have never been to Kienes shop (for shame! I really want to!) But it has never even occured to me that this forum is a ploy for business. It would take a pretty shallow mind to entertain such nonsense. Bill is about the coolest guy Ive never met and I would give him every cent of my flyfishing business if I lived near sac.

So youre 100% sure the forums do more harm than good? So what are you doing here?

...Just one guys opinion...

[wjorg]

It would take a pretty shallow mind to entertain such nonsense.

So now there are going to be personal attacks against someone who hasnt even violated any forum rules?

I dont agree entirely with the statement but there are elements of fly shop started message boards who promote their own self interest and business, including this one. They would be stupid not to! I WILL ADD Bill Kiene has always been supportive of other fly shops. I see him regularly send messages of support to events at California Fly Shop, he posted a link to one of Lelands videos. I didn't interpret the statement as a viscious attack on Bill or the board.

Even Scott V agress:


There are some places where I will show the fish I caught but will not give out the location because the place just could not handle the possible foot traffic from posting a report. So post away.



Again, I dont agree entirely that board do more harm than good, but the insult isnt necessary. Discourse is valuable. Maybe a more accurate statement might be "online forums may contribute to higher angler hours per year on fisheries?" There is duality in all that exists.

[BillB]

I live nearly 200 miles from Sac and rely(ied) on this board for general, sometimes specific, information regarding Northern California. I have been the recepient of great advice and information from the shop, Bill, and many great posters to this site.

I used to monitor the site to learn about steelhead and striper fishing. I had an unfortunate incident at Watt and shortly thereafter one of the posters presented information pertenant to the case. I originally joined the site to converse with that poster. Since then I have received massive amounts appreciated information. On the down side I have been personally castigated for a post or two but chalk it up to "the way things are these days."

I like to read the post that are, "fishing stories", about the different trips. When I post I "like" to just share a story with others who enjoy fly fishing. I also enjoy the post that may tell about place and type of fly, American on a Bead Head Birds Nest. A post like that doesn't tell me the "rock" but does give me some information before I decide to drive 4 hours to give it a try.

Thanks for all the information I appreciate it more than you can know.

[Darian]

Not that jbird needs any defense but as Insults go, his was quite mild and more a defense of Bill and the purpose of this BB.... :nod: Frankly, I see the latter part of troutbms statement as not well thought out before being posted; in other words, shallow. Not sure if troutbm meant it to appear as a put down of Bill but it did come across that way.... I don't see that as an insult but a critique. :|

as always, posting anything on an open forum involves a risk as you can't see the person making/reading a statement and therefore can't clarify it before someone takes exception. We all need to take time to re-read what we post before we actually enter the info.... Think about the way the info offered may be perceived and if necessary be prepared to clarify or expand comments. Not a perfect world.... But, IMHO, this BB and the others that I follow are all interesting and informative and, once again, what we (as individuals) do with that info is what does or doesn't cause damage....

[wjorg]

I have to disagree.

"IMHO" if there was no internet and no BB's there would be slightly less angler impact on fisheries, especially during their peak conditions where fish may be more readily caught and harassed, frankly.

That dosent mean I want to eliminate them or dont find value in them.

How many people get information off this board who dont participate? You dont know them. Have you ever looked at the Hmong social BB's to get a Shad report? Try it sometime and tell me its impact dosent affect the Shad population. : )

[jbird]

Just remember, For every person who is pissed about their spot being "found out" theres at least one other person that is stoked they found it. Dont tell me youve never been on the "rewarding" side of such a situation. When I want to go fish a new area, what do I do? Research it on the internet, thats what its here for, this is 2010. Information is at your fingertips. Get used to it. Dont let it strip you of the joy of posting a report for many to enjoy. Just be creative with your photos and wording. Its not rocket science.

I have come a long way as an angler in the last decade and I partly thank the internet for it. The worlds a crowded place. Maybe we need a new plague :-) In the mean time, when you see another guy in your spot, say hi! Hes probably stoked to be there. Lifes to short to thumb your nose at him.

[wjorg]

Mcfly....hello? McFly?


Its not about "the spot" being found out. We have no secret spots, you can search for that thread.

Its about angler impact on fisheries. The internet contributes to higher angler hours on fisheries. I can see you guys wanting to jump on the guy for not beeing one of the pod people but there is truth to his point. I wouldnt say 100% of a fly shops BB is to draw sales but a fly shop dosent spend money for no reason. Otherwise they close.

[huntindog]

i have never understood the mentality behind a ..."I got xxx numbere of fish fishing between point a and point b, using fly yy..." post and putting up bunches of pics to prove it. I love it when that post also includes a "best of all we didn't see anyone there" comment at the end. Putting it out there for the world to see just seems counterproductive to me.

I will post a pic now and then, especially if it has my son in it...somehow I find that to be acceptable (i realize that may by hypocrytical so go ahead and slam me on it) but I will never give too many details. I will be quick to offer the info if someone PM's me and I appreciate it when an online friend drops me a note about a good fishing hole. That is much different than allowing every online lurker to view the info. I have seen great fishing reports cut and pasted into other fishing forums that get far more viewers.

All this being said, I am leaving on a trip to catch golden trout today. I got the info for this trip from a PM from a person on this board (thanks Bob). I will probably post a glory pic of my 9 year old son and I with a golden trout when I get back. I certainly will not devulge much info as to how/where it was caught, I think I owe that to the person who emailed me the info. This person chose not to display the location on the board and clearly there is a reason for that.

Some spots are worth keeping secret.

BT

[DFrink]

I was waiting for someone else to say what I was thinking. Thanks Huntindog, you saved me some typing.

Dan


i have never understood the mentality behind a ..."I got xxx numbere of fish fishing between point a and point b, using fly yy..." post and putting up bunches of pics to prove it. I love it when that post also includes a "best of all we didn't see anyone there" comment at the end. Putting it out there for the world to see just seems counterproductive to me.

I will post a pic now and then, especially if it has my son in it...somehow I find that to be acceptable (i realize that may by hypocrytical so go ahead and slam me on it) but I will never give too many details. I will be quick to offer the info if someone PM's me and I appreciate it when an online friend drops me a note about a good fishing hole. That is much different than allowing every online lurker view the info. I have seen great fishing reports cut and pasted into other fishing forums that get far more viewers.

All this being said, I am leaving on a trip to catch golden trout today. I got the info for this trip from a PM from a person on this board (thanks Bob). I will probably post a glory pic of my 9 year old son and I with a golden trout when I get back. I certainly will not devulge much info as to how/where it was caught, I think I owe that to the person who emailed me the info. This person chose not to display the location on the board and clearly there is a reason for that.

Some spots are worth keeping secret.

BT

[Darian]

Walter,.... I do agree that finding info about fisheries on the internet may have an increased impact on a particular fishery but wonder if this concern isn't a bit too late.... :confused: The reason I come around to this is the shear number of print copy publications that target all of our fisheries along with the same number of videos, websites and TV programs that do the same. :neutral:

Seems to me that over the course of my life I've seen a description of every fishery (fresh/salt, NorCal/SoCal), what works there and how to catch the fish involved. Some of the more remote locations have been reported on in great detail and numerous times. Yet, they're still very remote and relatively unused. On the more accessible locations, it's unrealistic to think that we're gonna have them to ourselves (given that there are so many people who fish in Calif). :neutral:

Soooo,.... Post or don't post. It's not a big deal.... :smirk:

[leemar]

The WHOLE reason to have a message board is for information. With technology these days these message boards are great for asking and answering questions about our passion. If you dont want to post your secret spot thats ok but to not answer someone because they are new or something like that is stupid in my opinion. I cant think of any real flyfisherman that doesnt get reved up about checking out great photos about fish and streams and lakes.

[Bob Laskodi]

Dawg, you darn well better post some pics of your kid with his first golden or else I'm gonna cut you off from my honey holes!!!!! ;>}
As far as posting reports go, I love fish porn better than real porn, (truthfully, I really don't look at posts w/o pics and find posts w/o pics pretty boring) but I don't like X marks the spot reports. Especially on small fragile waters. Post pics (lots of them please!) but you don't need to say the specific place they are.

[okisutch]

stripersonline.com has a great policy of no posting any locations and location posts are almost always taken down. The dysphemism for posting locations is "spotburning". It works. No anxiety about folks sending spot names out in the searchable internet ether. But every board is different. Another smaller and more intimate board I frequent does not censor at all and even encourages blowing up spots and that worked for me when I was learning the area.

I'm not sure what works. It does suck when someone announces your good fishing to everyone. But it's nice to get word on a good spot without doing any legwork.

[Rick J]

my favorite spot of all time on the Trinity is located 13.2248 miles below Junction City - third rock down from the top of the pool. I have hooked over 40 steelhead from this rock one morning - lost track when my clicker heated up and stopped working!!!

[wjorg]

Argggg....there goes the neighborhood!

That is my rock, I put it there!

: )

[michaeln]

I just returned from a two day trip to a lake I hadn't fished before. Caught decent numbers (somewhat short of my target of 135 in a day, but still fun) of clean, beautiful hard-fighting rainbows up to 19", and near as I could tell none of them ever heard of a copepod.

I used lots of different flies and techniques and had moderate success with all of them.

Ahm tard and sunburned and really glad I went!

[SHigSpeed]

I just returned from a two day trip to a lake I hadn't fished before. Caught decent numbers (somewhat short of my target of 135 in a day, but still fun) of clean, beautiful hard-fighting rainbows up to 19", and near as I could tell none of them ever heard of a copepod.

I used lots of different flies and techniques and had moderate success with all of them.

Ahm tard and sunburned and really glad I went!

OOooh, oooh! I know where that is! It's <*BANG*>

...

thud...

_SHig

[amoeba]

When posting a fishing report on this board I've noticed people getting admonished for reporting where they fished and how many fish they caught. I for one would like to know where for my future fishing trips and size and numbers so I might judge my catch rate with my meager skills in comparison to someone with more experience. I was also told not to post huge numbers because it would hurt other peoples feelings. So, help me out here with some general guidlines because I have a great report from last weekend but am hesitant to post, "great fishing at X". How do you feel about reports Bill? This is a great board and I will follow your recommendations.

well - I'm not sure Kiene posted his response; here's mine:

1. the times you will notice "admonishment" for reporting numbers, at least from me, is where they aren't believable - the catch numbers are too large, for those systems, and the source is always a guide, with an epilogue of their available dates and how much they charge, and "oh by the ways, I'm offering a discount". It's self-serving and, frankly, alot of it is mis-information. Maybe they are counting strikes as fish caught. But they aren't caught fish. Very few of us have the assertiveness to call them on it - even though I have - but I've gotten a fair number of private messages in support of my posts doing so.

I know this is fishing and where there is fishing there are fish stories, but some of this stuff goes way over the top, especially with the guide ads to follow. Nobody believes it.

2. I have some familiarity with the systems you have been fishing, and the numbers you report as caught, for those systems - does in fact happen. You can post GPS locations and exact patterns and show photos of them. Or say nothing. Your choice.

3. Some things are better left unsaid. At least with 40 million people around, and 1-2 million licensed (and unlicensed) fishermen.

For example, I hesitate to discuss the last two small streams I fished; both within 2 hours of Sacramento, in which I hooked 70-100 fish in 4 hours, landing at least 30 in each, and not another fishermen seen - not a car parked; nothing. Perfect wading flows when everything else was awash in snowmelt. Did I find out about these from a fishermen ? (no). How about from a fly shop? (no). Did I find them myself? (no again). Do I want to talk about how I found out about them? (no, for the third time, but not on the internet).

[michaeln]

OOooh, oooh! I know where that is! It's <*BANG*>

...

thud...

_SHig

No, but it's down the road apiece from there.

[jbird]

Mcfly....hello? McFly?


Its not about "the spot" being found out. We have no secret spots, you can search for that thread.

Its about angler impact on fisheries. The internet contributes to higher angler hours on fisheries. I can see you guys wanting to jump on the guy for not beeing one of the pod people but there is truth to his point. I wouldnt say 100% of a fly shops BB is to draw sales but a fly shop dosent spend money for no reason. Otherwise they close.

Ohhhhhhh! Yeah, The EXTRA pressure on the water. The IMPACT on the fisheries...

The internet contributes to higher angler hours on fisheries? How many shots were consumed before this conclusion was drawn? Before the internet, people actually went out and FOUND the spots. Which means, they spent more hours IMPACTING THE FISHERIES.

Once again Walter, how about some facts?

*headesk*

[wjorg]

I dont drink. Pour me one of yours though. But then again alcohol makes you agressive? Take it easy dude, its not a personality contest. You would obviously win.

I think people who invest thousands of hours of time finding good spots on their own dont do to well at first, and once they do, they're not gonna write a cliff notes cheat sheet for others.

Just in my fishing career Ive seen the ressurection and demise of the Lower Stanislaus. Ive got local friends there who have noticed the reduction in larger fish, they correlate to the arrival of tons of weekday bay area fly fisherman(like me) who constantly discourage fish from eating the bugs most available, to the shrinking of the fish.

I forget the book, but one guy sits on a cliff watching guys catch trout. After being fooled by the same type of bug, the guy notices the fish switch to something different all together or stop eating that day. We have a growing salmon population on the L.Stan and trout that are getting smaller, dosent make sense. You have my theory. Although it could be entirely something else.

You would have to be drunk to think there was more angler impact in the recent 10 years before the internet. Yes, years ago when the fishing was outstanding, there was more angler impact. But not just before the internet.

Guide advertising shoots up, online bookings, online credit card transactions, information research and ability to self direct new adventure with minimal effort in research stages, publicly searchable BB's, Blogs detailed ad infinitum, easy and infinite access to online fishing reports...