Photograph: Spencer Durrant
If you happen to spend any time within the fly fishing neighborhood on social media, you’ve most likely seen there are two teams of individuals. The primary carefully guard their fishing spots, going as far as to blur the background of any photos they publish, lest somebody discover a landmark and establish the fishery. The second group is free with place names, telling folks to fish such-and-such creek between the bridge and the dam.
The parents who’re free with their info are labeled “spot burners,” and issues get nasty fast, particularly on Fb. Insults are tossed round, assumptions of character are made, and ultimately, it provides the fly fishing neighborhood a nasty identify. I guess a fast look by way of any fly fishing Fb group will reveal extra arguments about “spot burning” than the rest. Greater than congratulations on nice catches, or tales, or photos of recent fly patterns.
Typically, the unwilling goal of this vitriol is a brand new angler, asking somebody the place they caught a fish, or for recommendation on locations to attempt their luck. These learners don’t know—don’t perceive—that it’s usually frowned upon to ask about the place a fish was caught.
I believe the reticence from most folk at revealing their fishing spots is rooted in good intentions. They most likely labored arduous to seek out a terrific spot, spent a while determining its fish, and would fairly see it keep how it’s than change. Us people are creatures of behavior who aren’t keen on change, particularly the place our fishing is worried.
I additionally suppose that the hand-wringing over spot burning is essentially ineffective.
Secrets and techniques are uncommon in fly fishing lately. With the arrival of mapping apps particular to trout fishing, what little secrets and techniques remained are doubtless accessible to anybody who places in some effort and time to seek out them.
Case-in-point: if I need to discover out all of the lakes right here in Wyoming which have golden trout, I can go to a Wyoming Sport & Fish web site and see the precise location of these waterbodies on a map. Now, which of them have trophy fish in them and which of them don’t is one other matter, and discovering that out requires a bit extra legwork, nevertheless it’s not unattainable. So far as fly fishing secrets and techniques go, I can consider few issues that have been more durable to find than the situation of nice golden trout lakes, at the very least in my expertise.
The fascinating factor is these lakes are nonetheless placing out trophy-sized fish. Even now that they’re widespread data, the fisheries are in respectable sufficient form, largely due to their inaccessibility.
The place spot burning does grow to be an issue is in fisheries that don’t have a built-in pressure-regulation mechanism, like so many golden trout lakes do within the type of lengthy, steep hikes and ridiculous elevation. It’s a well-documented incontrovertible fact that, normally, elevated fishing strain results in smaller fish. Certainly one of my favourite creeks I grew up fishing in Utah was house to massive browns and some good cutthroat. Within the final 5 years, although, the fish have trended to smaller, and the cutthroat are virtually nonexistent. The streamflows and temperatures have stayed largely the identical, however the strain on that little creek has most likely tripled.
That creek was sure to be discovered quickly sufficient, because it’s solely 45 minutes from the Wasatch Entrance. Its saving grace was a nasty grime highway, however these don’t deter the crowds the best way they used to.
All that is to say – spot burning is an issue in some conditions, however the ranges to which I see different anglers lose their minds doesn’t do something to assist the issue. I’m not naive sufficient to suppose everybody holds again their fishing spots out of altruism (I’m conscious that loads of persons are simply imply), nevertheless it wouldn’t harm something if of us defined why they don’t need to give out their fishing spots. If nothing else, the folks asking—once more, a lot of whom are learners—will study one thing extra in regards to the delicacy of a terrific trout fishery, and the better fly fishing neighborhood doesn’t come off as a dysfunctional bunch.
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