Lake Secrecy

belletaine wrote:

Grouse nailed it. With social media the word spreads like wildfire.

That’s what happened to pool 4. I wish I could charge a fee for the Ia boats coming through my town

desperado wrote:

JR, I’m confused
when at Baymont Inn and Suites, “what kind” of beer should a guy drink ?

Since you asked Coors Light and tell em Carter sent ya…. If I’m there I will buy ya one.

wkw wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>belletaine wrote:</div>
Grouse nailed it. With social media the word spreads like wildfire.

That’s what happened to pool 4. I wish I could charge a fee for the Ia boats coming through my town

Thats what make the world go around people buy bait,gas,licenses,boats,rods its the invisible hand method that we live in if people aren’t coming to your town for fishing, or some kind of reason they aren’t going to help your economy I say bring on the people so should you

I’d definitely drive to Mandan for the walleye fishin, but wouldn’t walk across the room for a coors light

Personally I’ve never not identified lake, area, presentation, etc for any fish that I have caught. Then again I’m not asked a lot nor am I fishing any hidden gem lakes.

The comment has been made about large lakes and for the most part it’s true but remember the leech lake musky rampage or the crappie boom on red lake.

I spend the vast majority of my winter fishing time on more remote lakes in Northern MN. It is typical to see zero other fisherman, or maybe a lone group in a day. I like it that way, and that experience would NOT be possible if I named names regarding the where’s and when’s. There is absolutely NO benefit in naming a lakes name on any lakes except the large fisheries…..

Dan wrote:

“Billy caught this 38-inch northern using a jig and minnow on an Alexandria-area lake

Billy is a liar. There are no fish in the ” Alexandria area”.
DT

So your angle is give up the spots, its good for the economy?

Phil pretty much nailed it. I’m still chuckling about my ’07 Winni Panfish Report.

Link without photos

There were about 15 of us and we all kept “some” fish. No one had a limit and all 15+” crappies where released. If we all kept 10 fish to take home there would have been 150 fish on the cleaning table (there was a picture of a large amount of fish)

A week or so after the report went up, I received a call from a Winni local. His points of his call were…

* He has been fishing this area for 15 years and pretty much has been alone.

* He felt the fishing report was going to turn the lake into a Red Lake (it was going to be fished out). In fact, he said it would be fished out within two years of my report.

Now at first I thought it was a joke call, but the fella was serious. As he became more angry that we (I) could ruin not only his spot but the whole lake, I started to ask him questions like…

We ARE talking about BIG Winni here right??

So you’ve been fishing this LARGE bay for 15 years, don’t you think it’s time you let others have the fun you’ve been having?

The end of the conversation came when he said to check back in two years when it would be a dead lake.

Damn I wish I would have saved his phone number.

BTW Tamarack Bay just before ice out produces some very nice panfish. See the folks at Tamarack Lodge.

Laura and Jeff are very good people and they have a very nice resort.

Hey JR
wow, I just re-read my reply from last night … that just didn’t come out right
please grant me a mulligan on this one?

I’m sure we’d enjoy having a beer, and I’d buy … especially if you let me pick the brand/flavor

Technoly and the entitlement attitude has made a large part of society lazy and unfortunately anglers are not immune to this. The real travesty is that so many who are in this group who would strip a lake in a spring or winter are the same ones who trespass and leave their garbage behind. And they by far outnumber all of the anglers who are not ethically sterile.

Some lakes can handle fishing pressure and some can’t. I’ve seen numerous lakes in South Dakota get fished out in one winter because word spread. But all of those lakes are much smaller than Winnie. I’m guessing thats why the IDO crew choose to say the names of certain fisheries and not others. I’m guessing the calls they get about ‘hot bites’ would end pretty quick if people thought they weren’t responsible with the information.

People are booking trips to Lake Erie after James posted the picture of that sumo walleye and the show hasn’t even aired yet. Lake Erie is huge so its not a problem. Go get em!!!! If that were a 500 acre lake… big trouble. I think there is a delicate balance of sharing too little or too much. Kudos to the IDO team for dancing down that line with some grace. Not all shows do.

love this topic because on one hand, Grouse is correct, but on the other hand, JR is also absolutely correct.

we had a body of water that was relatively easy to get to, was somewhat well known but didn’t get a lot of pressure. people who did fish it woud hunker over brush and just wait. well one about 3 years ago, a buddy of mine and I put on a clinic and basically displayed to the 10-15 guys there the blueprint for how to catch the crappies in this 10 acre borrow pit. word spread and the fish are now as skittish as humanly possible and the place looks like swiss cheese. that year I heard 3rd hand stories about these 2 guys that just put on a display for the rest of the guys there. catching 12-14″ slabs one right after another (really 9-11″ fish). we became LEGENDS. lol.

But the thing is we slayed that dragon in our minds. we won. time to move on and we have.

there is the want when we go to our favorite small spots that are fairly secretive to just turn around when there are people there but there is no guarantee these people are going to be able to replicate what you are doing. that day that we clobbered those crappies wasn’t the first day by a long shot that we had done so it was just the first day we had such an audience. those guys tried to replicate what we were doing all around us and were having not anywhere near the level of success we had. most didn’t have flashers, and most didn’t have the bait we were using. but you know they went out and got it! we didn’t have a problem tellign them what to do or showing them how. I would even walk my lx5 over to their hole and show them where the fish were and how to catch them.

but when it comes to walleye fishing? pfff i ain’t telling nobody anything. the funny thing is, I’ve kept my “hot spot” on p16 a secret for YEARS. I call it mine because I’ve never had to fight anyone to get to it. YET!! I’m always lamenting how people don’t think pool 16 is really all that good of a pool! I want it to have the notoriety but refuse to show why its such a good system! do I really want it to have the popularity? no guys pool 14 is the better pool. yeah go fish that instead.

everything changed attitude wise or at least started to change, when the final FLW tourney came to davenport. Guess you found MY hot spot. Danny Plautz. Throwing cranks at that dam outlet by the power dam. the spot I’ve never seen anyone else fish the way I fished (lots of shore guys fish within proximity but its not the same) he’s fishign it the exact same way. AND ITS ON TV. OH NO MY SPOT. well he won the whole damn thing there and I was certain it was over for me. but alas, I’ve never again had to fight anyone for that spot. and amazingly there is still fish there.

in the end, people will continue to do most times what they’ve always done. this year we went out to that spot and we caught 4 pig slot fish right in front of 2 guys anchored up catfishing and another guy trolling around 50 yds from us jigging. they saw us hoist the fish in the boat, high five, hoot and holler. the next day we went back, didn’t catch any big fish but a few eaters here or there. THE SAME BOATS WERE THERE STILL DOING THE SAME THING THEY WERE DOING YESTERDAY.

i guess there are spots I’ll give up and there are spots I won’t. but when I do inevitably lose a spot I don’t’ fret as there will always be a new spot somewhere.

Back in the mid 80’s there was a sun down walleye bite on gull lake. There would be us and a local guide that would show up after his trip was over. This went on for a few years. A fella that came up with us one time, came back with other friends the next week and after putting the hurt on the walleyes, went to Marv koep’s bait store where they took pictures that were sent to the outdoor news. He gave pinpoint directions to the spot. Needless to say, over the next 10 years, the number of boats on that spot was ridicules. I haven’t been back there for 7 or 8 years, but I would think that it is still getting pounded. Gull lake is large enough to handle the pressure, and this bite only lasts a week or two, but you will see people there all season. Even if that guy didn’t let the cat out of the bag, I am sure someone would have figured out what we were doing there and posted it somewhere on the internet. In this day and age, secret spots don’t stay secret for long when somebody else sees you catch a fish. I was brought to this spot and had no involvement in finding it, but understood what would happen if/when the word got out.

“…I’ve never again had to fight anyone for that spot. and amazingly there is still fish there….”

WAS fish there! Im on my way down now and ill be sure to twitter all my pics at #fishinghotspotsexposed

im being a smartass naturally. Good topic for discussion

A friend I was fishing with took me to a location on the St Croix. Told me not to tell anyone. Not only have I not told anyone to this day, but I have never fished there since the day I was with him.

Turns out he saw a boat there and blamed it on me. He hasn’t fished with me since.

There are people that want to allow others to enjoy (fishing) life as much as they do. Then there are others that want to keep their smiles to themselves.

Which thought is right? It’s up to the individual.

And that’s what makes the world go round.

there’s a certain spot on pool 3 that I’ve never been back to or told anyone else about either

I got lots of GPS spots and ways to “fish” them if anyone is interested.

I’m afraid if I did, the ghost of some old native crow god might impart some bad ju-ju on my next night-fishing excursion

^^ BK found the hotspot of this discussion, to each their own.

“Worrying (about a fishing spot) is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but doesn’t get you anywhere.” -Shawshank

I know some guys that are retired and have the time to fish whenever they want. A few years ago a small lake had a crappie boom and 3 or 4 guys fished it 3 & 4 days a week and kept limits every day. I called the CO and all I got was lip service. Told him the guys names and where they were from. He told me if I couldn’t give him which day and the car license number he wouldn’t do anything about it. Just lazy. I asked one of these fisherman what he did with all the fish. He stores them till fall and trades them for Elk meat from a friend out west.
That is why you never tell anyone about a good bite on a small lake. Most people just abuse it.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

A friend I was fishing with took me to a location on the St Croix. Told me not to tell anyone. Not only have I not told anyone to this day, but I have never fished there since the day I was with him.

Turns out he saw a boat there and blamed it on me. He hasn’t fished with me since.

There are people that want to allow others to enjoy (fishing) life as much as they do. Then there are others that want to keep their smiles to themselves.

I also was shown a spot for a good bite in the fall for smallies. The only time I go back there is with my friend. I show pictures of what we catch and people want to know where and all the info is a general location. You guys know the spot—-just north of the big stump.

Which thought is right? It’s up to the individual.

And that’s what makes the world go round.

desperado wrote:

there’s a certain spot on pool 3 that I’ve never been back to or told anyone else about either

…That’s one spot BK keeps in his back pocket. … …rrr

Tom Sawvell wrote:

Technoly and the entitlement attitude has made a large part of society lazy and unfortunately anglers are not immune to this.

I think you’re absolutely right.

The good news is that because of this lazy, “I want a sure thing” mentality, IMO has actually made the fishing BETTER in many out of the way places.

I’ve spoken before of the little river I’ve found in northern MN. Mile after mile after mile of peat-stained walleye and sauger water and the angling pressure on this river could probably best be expressed in angler seconds per mile per year. In other words, zero pressure. We fished this river on opening weekend 3 years ago and saw no other anglers.

Why doesn’t anybody fish it? Because nobody’s talking about it in the internet and even if they were, you can’t drive a 22 foot walleye rig with a 300 HP and 6000 gagigawatts of electronics up the middle of it to get to the fishing spots. You can hardly drive a canoe on it without hitting a rock every 100 feet.

I know there are many other spots like this.

Grouse

river rat randy wrote:

…That’s one spot BK keeps in his back pocket. … …rrr

he’s probly gonna have to install a rear-facing radar to watch his six for night stalkers

LOL! I have one already. The G3 radar shows a trailing vessel like a sore thumb!

I’ll tell anyone where my Pool 3 or Pool 4 spots are… unless you’ve already told them Randolf.

We have maps in the bait shop. Including the HotSpot maps that show seasonal location locations for many species of fish.

Then there’s the MN DNR studies that will point the angler in the right direction as well.

As in many types of fishing just knowing the spot doesn’t mean an instant live well full of fish. A perfect example would be the tv show where the guide was spot on the spot using the same gear as the tv host and the guide ended up with somewhere around 30 fish during the filming. TV host standing right next to him? If I recall he landed one.

I seldom give spot on the spot reports in the media but more general areas. Most guides don’t.