Strange Email

[Fisherdan]

I don't post very often, but some posts really get my goat. I live in a suburb of Chicago, and come to Table Rock Lake a couple times a year. Usually once in the spring and then again in the summer. I have been coming down to your beautiful lake for about eight years now. I stay in the Long Creek area near the Rt. 86 bridge. Please do not let a few goof balls taint this forum. I read it year round, and the information gained on this forum is the best I have seen on any fishing forum. I greatly appreciate all the free information I get here. I have taken a guided trip every time I have come down. I know I can catch fish there now without a guide, but I like to learn as much as I can. The guides are like teachers, and the ones I have gone out with work very hard. I have been out in freezing rain, 100 degree heat, pouring rain, they don't complain, if I want to fish they make sure I have the best experience I can and learn as much as I can. You are paying for knowledge, knowledge you could never have, without their experience of being on the water 250 days a year. I have never had a guide tell me don't fish his spots the rest of the week, and in fact, I have had them say if you see me, don't be afraid to come on in. I might stop by and say hello, but I would not fish where they are fishing with other clients.

I found a great computer program called Navionics Hotmaps Explorer. The program cost only 19.99, and allows you to look at the lake and mark way points on your map and download that to your graph. I had a blast doing this and had thirty spots marked within 5 miles of the resort I was staying at to try when I got there. I did not mark any spots I had fished with guides in the past. Throughout the week, I caught over 100 bass and about 20 keepers off these spots, This forum gave me the info I needed before I even got to the lake. My best spot yielded 45 bass, 5 catfish, 3 walleye and some big bluegills, (12 keeper bass) throughout the week, all on night crawlers. I did kind of wear the spot out, but the kids were having a lot of fun. Broken 20 year old St. Croix Legend series rod, (kids), I don't know what I was thinking letting them use it, Night crawlers $125, Lost flourocarbon line $50, lost preserver, $25, Split shots and hooks $10, Finding that spot on my own, priceless. By the way, I only caught fish on six of the spots I marked, I fished them all, but it was very gratifying to do it.

I want to tell a short story, and then I will go back to just reading this forum. I was down in July, and called my guide the day I got down there, Saturday. He told me that the fishing in the area of the lake I was staying was very good, and we would surely catch fish, but he remembered I like to catch fish on a jig. He told me with all the spots I know in my area of the lake, I would not have any problem catching fish during the week. he suggested we go jig fishing further up one of the rivers, saying you can learn another part of the lake. I can't tell you how happy I was he made the suggestion. He knows I would have been happy catching drop shot fish, but he wanted to enhance my experience. My son and I had a great day out with him, I will attach some pictures. Anyway I have great respect for the guides who post here on the forum, who give their valued information for free. Thanks to all of you and don't let simple minded people drag you down.

I could not get the pictures to load, any help would be appreciated.

Good Fishing

Fisherdan

[Phil Lilley]

I could not get the pictures to load, any help would be appreciated.

Good Fishing

Fisherdan

The most common problem is trying to upload images that are too large.

[Fisherdan]

These are the only pictures I could get to load.

Thank you for the help Lilly.

Fisherdan

[Fisherdan]

I figured out how to post a few more pictures.

Fisherdan

[stone9-7=2]

Show me on a map where you're going and I'll start now...

You always catch fish so I'm sure it's a good place.

Your way to kind sir. We don't always catch fish.....

[stone9-7=2]

Nice pictures Fisherdan....

[champ187xr6]

Great pics Dan!

[Tfsh4bass]

Does anyone really have any holes these days? I think you could watch one area of the lake and throughout a day watch 15 different boats hit the same offshore hump. Everyone can read a map, mark a way point on a graph or see a boat parked out in the middle of nowhere. It always cracks me up when people think they have some super secret spot on heavily pressured lakes. Regardless it is usually tough to catch another man's fish because it usually comes down to timing, position and presentation. If someone is fishing "your" spot just move on and find another...plenty of fish in our lakes.

[CBNMO]

Are you saying boats stop and fish where you are? Or that when you leave and go to another spot, that they actually follow you and start fishing there too?

Last time I fished Beaver, I had fished an area for an hour or so and no bites, was gonna leave and a guide boat pulled in and started trolling, not real close to me. I stayed a little longer and saw which side of the drop off they were going to work. Then I headed out. I didn't want to stay long enough to see them catch fish where I hadn't. If he didn't have the side of his boat marked up with his ad, I wouldn't have known he was a guide. Maybe he stopped because he saw 3 boats fishing in the same area, because he fishes this spot everyday, or maybe they found it on the map and just ran 5 miles up the lake to fish there and when they got there, we were there already? No problem either way.

If he fishes it regularly, maybe he thinks I had seen him there before and had come back to fish his spot, no I stopped and fished it because it looked good on the map. I'd never been to this part of the lake before. But he may think I was fishing his spot?

Over the years I've seen rude Pro's and regular Joes. I guess the worst were fishing or pre-fishing a tournemet. Seems better these days than in the past, but it has created a bad image for all of them. Perhaps the bad ones just stick out in your memory, and don't remember all the others that are being polite. Probably goes for Guides and Pros too, they remember the rude people and don't pay attention to the rest of the folks out there?

[ness]

I think some of these guide posts are pretty interesting.

I've used a guide on several occasions (though never for bass fishing) and have a great deal of respect for the skill set required. It's absolutely NOT all about catching fish -- it's about giving the client a good time, and that definition can vary from client to client. I think the very best ones are in-tune to what their client is after, and tries his damnedest to deliver. And if he does that well, the word will spread and he'll have earned new business, right?

I guess I don't see the big problem with tag-alongs. Sure, it's a kinda crappy way to fish -- but there are always people like that around. Whenever you're successful at something, someone's gonna want to glom on to you and get it the easy way. That's just the way it is, so I'd suggest not losing any sleep over it. If you're getting followed by someone and you're with a paying client, how about you just point that out to your client and let them know it's a pretty common thing. Let them know that landing on the spot is only a fraction of the technique -- that presentation, lure choice, whatever are still important. Maybe demonstrate and make them confident that there's value in being on your boat, and not the one next to it or out on your own.

As to the e-mails or phone calls -- just nicely tell them you don't really have any info for them, chuckle and leave it at that. Don't need to lecture or get pissed -- just move along. Your blood pressure will stay in check, and you'll live longer.