good luck OAF, everyone else can suck it.. Eh?

[Jerry Rapp]

heck, I was hoping FW would organize a smallie fest at Bennett.

[Flysmallie]

1 hour ago, Al Agnew said:

But I realize that it's SOMEBODY'S spot, somebody who isn't going to be happy if twice as many are fishing it.

That somebody is actually Cricket. At least he's the one most dialed in to them that I have seen. 

My perspective is a bit different. My favorite spots are on some very popular rivers that get fished hard. They still produce fish. More pressure hasn't hurt them over the last twenty years even with known poaching. Or maybe I've just gotten better? (doubtful)

Plus my spots that I keep to myself aren't really in jeopardy if I shared them with everyone. Because I can bet most of you would never go in there and that just means it way too difficult for a bunch of poaching. True jungle fishing. 

But probably the biggest reason I will continue to share is because I tend to move on rather quickly. Good spots are fun to find so I'm always on the search and looking for new things. I guess that's what I enjoy most about this adventure, finding those spots. And it doesn't have to be a whole river, or run, it can just be a small little spot, that may not be there when I do return. 

So if you don't want me to know your spots because I'm deemed a squealer then fine. I can respect that. 

My dad once told me, "you are better when you find your own fish". It wasn't just some general statement, he was talking directly to me. So that's what I try to do. That's what everybody should do. But I don't mind giving someone new a kick in the right direction. 

[Flysmallie]

26 minutes ago, ness said:

FTFY

 

bully

[rps]

Interesting thread. Several very decent points of view. I fish a combination of community holes and places I have found that not many others fish. If you are in the boat with me, I do not hide the specials, but if I am posting, I merely describe the depth, the nature, and the technique without identifying the location. That is my personal choice. No one can or will tell me what to do. Others may agree or disagree. I do not care. Could I suggest that all should recognize that the choice is only their own?

[Chief Grey Bear]

One point of interest. Forums such as this are fast becoming less and less important in the media world. We here are too old and stubborn to change and we've made many great friends and foes here. And we like to keep up and communicate here. We will never leave. 

BUT we are the  dinosaurs of the Internet age. There is far more honey hole info passing in other more popular forms of media. 

Spend some time  searching different Facebook pages and you will find a wealth of fishing information.  Everybody is a fishing hero on Facebook.  They have almost taken a picture of every stream mile in the state of Missouri and posted it for the world to see. 

Somebody earlier this year said that to catch a large smallmouth in the Mac River, it didn't matter how good you were, you had to know those fish.  Well I hate to tell you but there are a lot of people that know those fish then. 

 And it is not just Facebook either. Snapchat and  Instagram are just as bad.  You couple these three together plus the new trend of kayaking and it is just brutal out there on the streams. 

 Nothing safe, nothing sacred!

[fishinwrench]

We have guys on this lake, that if they ever see you fishing a spot that they like to fish, they automatically assume that you saw THEM fishing there, or someone told you about it....and that's why you're there.   That's some seriously vain crap.     

Lot's of people fish Zone 3 at Bennett Spring in the Winter, and lots of those people have "accidently" caught a couple smallmouth and had the light in their brain get turned on.   A bunch of years ago WayneSWMO saw a couple guys stringing them up, and not being 100% sure if that was legal or not..... but assuming that it wasn't, he reported it and the next day they busted one of them. Didn't write the guy a ticket but made him turn the fish loose and instructed him not to do it anymore.   I believe they have re-written the code since then and you can definitely get fined for it now.  

Broadcasting that there are Smallies in the stream isn't going to result in many more winter fly-fishermen at Bennett.   Sorry but as secret as you try to keep it you're not gonna have THAT PLACE to yourself.  

[fishinwrench]

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I can float just about any river and tell you where the best stretches are without even wetting a line.  

So can most of us here.  Right?

[Al Agnew]

Yep, the other social media are notorious for guys posting hero shots and blabbing about where they caught them.  Nope, there are no secrets.  But there are specific places where the fish are more concentrated and vulnerable.  Most of them are known to many, some to a LOT of people.  It still doesn't mean that we need to be making them known to even more people.  Just because plenty of people fish a particular spot and so far the fishing hasn't suffered, doesn't mean that twice as many people fishing it wouldn't make it start suffering.  The fish populations are finite even if self-sustaining, and we all know that more fishing pressure usually equates to poorer fishing.

Wrench, to an extent you're right.  If you understand Ozark streams, you can tell which stretches have better habitat.  But there is always that fishing pressure thing.  Some stretches that have very good (and obvious) habitat are poorer fishing because it's so obvious to everybody that they are such good habitat.  I know a bunch of pieces of water that DON'T look obviously good but flat out produce fish, in part because of subtle features, and in part because they AREN'T obvious.

 

[rps]

3 hours ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

One point of interest. Forums such as this are fast becoming less and less important in the media world. We here are too old and stubborn to change and we've made many great friends and foes here. And we like to keep up and communicate here. We will never leave. 

BUT we are the  dinosaurs of the Internet age. There is far more honey hole info passing in other more popular forms of media. 

Spend some time  searching different Facebook pages and you will find a wealth of fishing information.  Everybody is a fishing hero on Facebook.  They have almost taken a picture of every stream mile in the state of Missouri and posted it for the world to see. 

Somebody earlier this year said that to catch a large smallmouth in the Mac River, it didn't matter how good you were, you had to know those fish.  Well I hate to tell you but there are a lot of people that know those fish then. 

 And it is not just Facebook either. Snapchat and  Instagram are just as bad.  You couple these three together plus the new trend of kayaking and it is just brutal out there on the streams. 

 Nothing safe, nothing sacred!

 

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

We have guys on this lake, that if they ever see you fishing a spot that they like to fish, they automatically assume that you saw THEM fishing there, or someone told you about it....and that's why you're there.   That's some seriously vain crap.     

Lot's of people fish Zone 3 at Bennett Spring in the Winter, and lots of those people have "accidently" caught a couple smallmouth and had the light in their brain get turned on.   A bunch of years ago WayneSWMO saw a couple guys stringing them up, and not being 100% sure if that was legal or not..... but assuming that it wasn't, he reported it and the next day they busted one of them. Didn't write the guy a ticket but made him turn the fish loose and instructed him not to do it anymore.   I believe they have re-written the code since then and you can definitely get fined for it now.  

Broadcasting that there are Smallies in the stream isn't going to result in many more winter fly-fishermen at Bennett.   Sorry but as secret as you try to keep it you're not gonna have THAT PLACE to yourself.  

You are both accurate. Except for one thing. The decade fish - the one you catch once a decade, if you have earned it and if you are lucky - does not come from a internet post. Just saying ...

[Chief Grey Bear]

10 minutes ago, rps said:

 

You are both accurate. Except for one thing. The decade fish - the one you catch once a decade, if you have earned it and if you are lucky - does not come from a internet post. Just saying ...

You're right it doesn't come from the internet. By the time we C&R it, it's seen a thousand and one casts. It just happen to like your presentation.