Give away a secret fishing hole or don’t?

I found a very small pond to fish today. I only stayed a couple hours and ended up with 23 gills and 2 perch. They were not keepers in my eyes yet, but could be by next season. The fish were very healthy and active and were decent fighting size fish. I love sharing information and have always divulged the location and action information that I find. My dilemma is that this body of water is very small. It could easily be fished out. This body of water lies in a county with no man made lakes and is open to the public. What would you recommend, give up the spot and potentially ruin a fishery by those that don’t practice catch and release, or share the information and hope for the best?

keep it to yourself

I used to live in hayfield and know your dilema all to well.Keep that one to yourself and dont fish it hard or people will see you there.

Sounds like you found a jackpot. I would keep that baby all to myself.

Sounds like you need a second opinion, just P.M. me the location and I will be glad to evaluate the situation.

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Sounds like you found a jackpot. I would keep that baby all to myself.

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Yep, bring it to the grave brother. On a large body of water it may be OK to tell a few but a small pond can be trashed quickly if too many people find out.
remember every person you tell is going to tell someone else.

keep it to yourself it will get out soon enough

Hmmmmmmm where.s kasson minn HMMMMMM.

Definitely keep it to yourself
I wouldn’t even tell a friend until you further investigate this pond…I have a spot where I only told 3 friends…and all of a sudden, there are like 15 people that now know about it. Thankfully, most of those people arne’t hard core about fishing like I am but I learned a lesson..and Gator is correct…every person you tell will tell someone else

As much as it would be great to know along with everyone else I also very much agree with ”keep it under your hat” [don’t tell] because yes it would be ruined in a very short time. Sounds like this could be a place to take your kids someday Jesse. Give them the chance to enjoy catching fish because too many places are being fished out. We just can’t take alot of fish out of small bodies of water and expect them to keep producing for us. As always, it seems a few will ruin a small fishery for everyone else. I hate to say that but unfortunately its been true. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks, Bill

Just incase anyone fails to mention it…
KPD keEp your secret hole to your self…
ENOUGH SAID ……………..

It must have been about ten years now when we came upon a hotspot on a lake. It all started by we were bulding a loghome on the lake and decided to put out an ice shack for a warming house and a place to have lunch break. One day, just for the heck of it we drilled some holes and threw down some lines. Crappie after crappie, we were just slaughtering them, every one of them was huge!!

We decided not to go back to work that day. We kept about a handful of them and just threw the rest back. This went on for about a week. Then another angler came up to the house while we were working and saw a pale outside the house w/ about 10 crappies in there. That afternoon there were about six more houses that moved in the bay and the next day there were at least 15-18 permanants and a ton of portables that swarmed into the bay.

People were keeping everything they caught. Fishing on the lake has not been the same since.

Long story Short….Myself, I don’t mind sharing hotspots, but since you are on a small lake keep it to yourself for now, someone else will probably soon fall upon your hidden secret.

Does it happen to have a very rough road to get in?

Thanks for the advice! I like to share the info I find and always do. That being said this place is just to small to support any kind of fishing pressure, so I thought I would see what others thought on the subject. CatchnRelease, no it is not a rough road, but I know the place your refering to. I went out there once recently, wasn’t real good for me. Attached is a photo of one of the smaller gills, not real big but thought I better take at least one pic before they quit biting.

Thank you

Jesse

Keep it to yourself or otherwise it wont be a good fishing hole for very long and those fish will never get the chance to grow into a real nice fish later down the road..

Just look at some of our posts in the Clearwater lake forum and you will read what has happened to a lake that has been over fished and still today has way to much pressure on it…

P.S.) That is a nice looking Vexlar in the picture…

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Definitely keep it to yourself
I wouldn’t even tell a friend until you further investigate this pond…I have a spot where I only told 3 friends…and all of a sudden, there are like 15 people that now know about it. Thankfully, most of those people arne’t hard core about fishing like I am but I learned a lesson..and Gator is correct…every person you tell will tell someone else

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Hey i held up my end of the deal, i told one person and that was my uncle that lived in Madison, i even asked you before i took him in there.
Nick
On the post topic though i would keep that baby to your self, i found a spot that is pulling up some descent crappies and gills last week and i am keeping that baby to myself, good to find a spot where there are no holes drilled and no foot prints at all in the area.

If I’m thinking of the same place I didn’t think that you were allowed to drive the bumpy road back. As far as these ponds go in the county you speak of, I know a lot of them are privately owned so I would be sure that you have legal access.

Ahh, the age old fisherman’s dilemma, do I share or don’t I share?
My grandpa use to tell me years ago that a good/successful fisherman NEVER EVER gives away his hot spot or secrets.
Otherwise his honey hole will soon be ruined by those who swoop in to take advantage.
In our modern day society, communications is quick and easy with email, fishing forums, etc..
Not like the old days when you would pass on some hot info to a friend and keep your fingers crossed he would keep his mouth shut.
Then there is the ego factor that comes into play, of which I have been guilty of in the past.
On a particular successful day, I was bursting at the seams to tell everyone how good I had done and what an accomplished fisherman I preceived myself to be.
They would sit there quietly and smile, taking in all I had to offer, then run out to get in on the action.
Next time I returned, the so called hot spot/honey hole was void of fish.
This is never more true in smaller bodies of water like those ponds we have around Rochester.
For the most part they have been overfished and maybe even ruined for years because of all the positive publicity.
That and lack of restrictions.
Internet fishing forums like IDA serve an excellent purpose in sharing techniques, philosophies and ideas.
But,,,,,,,,remember what your grandpa used to tell you……..

Dont give it away! If you do it will be gone!!!

If this was in reference to my post Crickschop04 then you are correct! No driving in on that road just a bumpy drag.

Chris

I’m from Kasson originally and my folks still live over there so I go there a bit. I’ve been bunny hunting at the spot we’ve been talking about, but I’ve always wondered about if there were fish in it. I’ve ran into guys out there fishing who said its a decent crappie spot.

I didn’t realize that bumpy road spot held crappies. Not the spot I have been fishing, but maybe I should be thanks for the tip Your right, the majority of the ponds are privately owned. You can fish them with permission of course. Some of these private ponds you speak of hold up to 1 lb gills, 2 lb crappies, and a few large northerns, but good luck getting permission on those ponds. There is one I know of that is privately owned, stocked, and managed, not for fishing at all, but just because. Ahhh only to have enough money for something like that….

Congrats. I didn’t really mind that you took your unlce there, but he still is a human with DNA and one more person knows about it..Which means that he could tell one more person and yada yada..it doesn’t really matter that much, but if it was a more productive spot I would still be the only one to know about it…That spot was a fluke I’d say..Although it still has potential, Its nothing special.

Obviously this is just beating a dead horse, but you should only tell people about places you never plan to fish again. This applies to lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds. It especially means never put it on a public forum like this one. Posting it here or any other message board is the same as telling 1000 people. Any good spot will be worthless within a month.

A few years ago my son and I found a very nice smaller river to fish. I only told my fishing buddy who I swore to secrecy and since we both practice C&R it was no big deal. He took 1 other person there and swore that person to secrecy. That other person never told anyone the name of the stream, but when bragging about the fishing people of course asked where. He just said over near ‘city x’. Unfortunately there was only 1 river near city x so guess what happened. By the end of the year it was no longer worth fishing.

Same answer as everyone else, just thought I’d give another factual example.