What intell should a real "fishing report" include?

[TJones]

members feel so intimidated and threatened with all the hate mail ? it kinda sucks .

[BrokeLoser]

Originally Posted by Drake

I used to post up detailed fishing reports, until I saw the impact first hand.

10 days straight fishing last fall with just me and Rob on the water. Hardly any other kayaks and boats out there except for a couple loners. We had a pretty steady bite all to ourselves.

We made some phone calls and some texts to just a few people we know could keep it quiet. After almost two weeks of steady reels peeling, an unnamed kayaker landed two solid trophy fish. He went home, posted it up by 4pm and the post had 1,000 views by the morning. When I launched the next morning, there were 25 kayaks, and no less than 15 boats on the grounds.

Any thread with "LJ" in the post will have 1,000 views in 24 hours. Think about who is watching that forum. If you think its just a few kayakers viewing it a bunch of times, you haven't been paying attention.

Hell, I was fishing when the 3 Sea Bass in 2 hours post went up and within 15 minutes I received 4 phone calls and 3 text messages about the bite.

Look at how many WSB are getting killed up north
The same thing happened on the Iron bite this January. Half a hundred kayaks throwing irons 10 feet from each other.

The internet is killing the fishery. I post my fish weeks after they are caught, and I only post the ones that have a "story" or "comedic value" to them.

All the real fish reports happen on the phone and through text messages within a tight circle of fisherman who have earned a mutual respect from one another because they have showed the capability to find their own info. It's a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" relationship. Not a bunch of parasitic people who only care to paddle out when there is a high % chance of catching a fish.

Great reasons to never post a fishing report Drake...don't blame ya a bit.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by BrokeLoser

Also, with regard to sharing hot spots. Have you noticed that some of the best fishermen...Iceman (Andy) and (Fiskadoro) Jim Day to name a couple generally have no problem sharing detailed information...ironic?

Since my name was brought up.... I think your confusing general info and bite info. I post information but it is really all just general information, and it's never about particular bites, or wide open bites.

Saying something like: BKR is a good place to fish seabass in the spring, or tanker Cs usually hang in the kelp then actively come out and feed when the water hit's 63 degrees is not the same as saying: "The fish are wide open at La Jolla go there right now!!!" I just do not post info on wide open bites, and I haven't for almost a decade.

I'll be straight up...

For years now I've had a group of kayakers who have and continue to claim that I post wide open bite info online, that I'm somehow going to ruin Kayak fishing by telling everyone the hot bites or spots.

They tell everyone that will listen that I will tell the whole world where to go fish if I get the word it's wide open bite, and I'm guessing that chances are you might of even met some of them.

It's a myth, a lie and it was largely started by one jerk who for some reason has hated my guts since day one, and who's also evidently absolutely insane. I'm guessing this will never stop, and as a result I almost never post reports online. Anywhere!!!

As William Burroughs once said avoid the mentally ill. The last thing I want to give is more fuel for this lunatic's and his crazy lynch mobs fire.

I also do not want them to know where I fish, when I fish, and in general I avoid the bigger well known hot bites that I know they will frequent because I don't even want to run into them on the water. I like fishing alone, I also like to find my own fish anyway, so I don't feel like I have to run to the next hot bite or deal with any resulting drama on the water.

No doubt they see this as a big internet victory, like they personally "shut me up". Well it sounds good, but I never posted that much bite info anyway because like pretty much everyone else that's been around online for a long time,after more then a decade online I know there are things you can and can't post.

I mean honestly if you look for my reports your not going to find that many, and none of them are about wide open bites. The last one I posted here was I think was about SBI a place that most people will never fish because it's fifty miles offshore. I may of posted one Lobster report with No Location!! info this last season, but that is about it.

Read my only La Jolla Yellowtail report posted here. It was about two fish I caught on a bite that already was well known and pretty much over, and it was years ago. Most people don't remember that it was also posted the day the weather changed and the wind came up. I knew from the forecast La Jolla was blown out for a week, there was only a tiny amount of squid still there, so the bite was done. There were no crowds, they were not overfished, I think it was a few weeks before anyone even caught another Yellow or seabass in the area.

So bottom line: I'm not sure why you think I post detailed information about bites online, but the truth is I don't post that kind of info and I'm not likely to do it in anytime in the near future.

Originally Posted by BrokeLoser

Their is nothing confusing to me about it...if you're gonna go through the trouble of posting a photo and half-ass report in a forum titled "Fishing Reports" shouldn't it have some real "report" as we know it value? Or, should it be posted in another forum?

How about this...

Lets say you spent hours a day, many days a week over the course of a year playing around with ATM's. Finally one day, you found a way to have that ATM pump out free money, all you needed to do was enter a certain code. Would you share that code with everyone on the internet? What would happen? Everyone would be using your ATM now right? What would happen to all the money? You would get less, and eventually it would all be gone. You put in your time and everyone capitalizes on your labor.

And if you think it has to do with said anglers being worried about other people potentially stealing their fish, you're sorely mistaken. Do you think it's coincidence that it's always the same people catching fish, regardless of how many people are out? Do you find it odd that 40 kayaks could be sitting on the squid ground but the same guys who catch fish, catch fish and that Josh and Kevins clients almost always go home with a full bag while the other 36 people go home empty handed?

They were in the same spot, using the same bait...so what's the difference right? Luck maybe? Good Karma maybe? Or did they spent YEARS AND YEARS perfecting methods that others aren't even close to scratching the surface on.

The anglers that you're referring to, the ones who don't post detailed reports aren't intimidated by massive numbers of fisherman ruining their odds. They/We will catch fish regardless of who is out there.

Did you ever think about the impact it has on the fishery? The long term consequences? With the MLPA already breathing down out neck, lets just hand them more reasons to close more areas off. If 1,000 people see there is a good bite going on, and they tell two people, and then those people tell two people...well, you do the math.

If every person who caught a trophy posted up where, when, how, why... sure they odds would swing in favor of the anglers, not like it already isn't...but now you're talking about 500% more lines in the water.

This sport is growing EXPONENTIALLY, I fear for what the next 10 years has to bring. Soon you'll be able to walk from kayak to kayak when the word of a bite gets out.

Sorry to sound like a dick, but it's a reality.

If you want to know what the water temp is...get in your kayak.
If you want to know what the fish are feeding on...catch one and cut it's stomach open.
If you want to know what time of the day they are biting...fish sunrise to sunset

When you catch on, it will all start to make more sense to you. It took me and some other people a while to catch on.


Your post isn't going to make any of us say "Hey you know what, you're right. Next time I catch a fish, I'll be sure to give away every bit of information I know"

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by BrokeLoser

I'm just saying that the idea of a "fishing report" should not become a posted photo followed by; 'Caught this fish in the Pacific Ocean somewhere.'

.... and I'd say you are once again misinformed.

Information posts on how to rig, fish specific tackle, use your finder etc... are great and I personally love helping people giving them things they can try and showing new ways to do things.

Occasionally I'll be at a tackle store and someone will come up, say my name then say something like I really love your dropper loop rig you posted and have caught a ton of fish with it. I met guy at MDR that caught a 40+ pound halibut using a slow trolling rig I came up with and when he told me it made my day. That's what information posting and internet sharing is about, but it's not the same as posting a fish report.

Fish reports have one purpose in my book. It's simply to say there are fish around, get out there and find some fish.

You may think that's not enough but you got to remember that online posting is not the same as talking to your best buddy. It's not a private message or note. It's like a frigging billboard on the freeway. Everything you post here will be seen by hundreds of people, and bite information can end up on dozens of places online after a single post, so you need to realize that what you post can have a huge unintended impacts and honestly there are things you can and can not post.

Take hoop netting for instance. Say you come here and say hey I went to X rocks at these numbers and got a limit in two hours at slack tide. Sounds harmless right.

Say a hundred people see that, say ten of them go the next night and clean up, and then say they post thier catches on thier favorite boards. Next thing you know thousands of people will know about your spot, and it will be full of hoop-netters and divers every time you go out.

Rocks aren't fish. Rocks don't move!!

Everyone who goes to that spot and get's a bug is going to mark it on their GPS and if they do well there they will tell others and eventually when you go to hoop it there will be dozens if not a hundred guys trying to hoop it.

I've seen this first hand at several locations. So I know better then to post hoop locations. I'll post about how to rig or build nets, what floats I like even the best baits, tides and how often to pull your nets but I will not post where I hoop it's just something you should never put online, and I'm not going to show anyone where to hoop until I know they know that as well.

Seabass are equally problematic. They school up and can go incredibly wide open, which also means they can be dramatically overfished.

Back in like 2001 one boat saw squid on the surface in front of Rocky Point and then caught a big seabass over fifty pounds, and posted about it. The next day I was there and got a forty pounder in the fog. Around noon it cleared and there were maybe 30 boats around us, a bunch more posts went up, the next day there were a hundred and fifty boats by the end of the week at least 200 a day. Everyone got fish, I caught one every day I fished it. I posted several of them online, but in the end thousands of fish were caught, everyone with a crappy boat was out there, and it turned into total carnage.

We shared the info online with the best intentions and it turned into a slaughter, we fished them out, and I've never seen another seabass in that spot since then.

I've fished some epic bites since, but honestly I have not posted a single post about a wide open seabass bite since then. Once was enough for me.

I've put up a few posts about solo fish, usually early in the season before they start spawning, when they are hard to get, but that's it.

If you want to share some general report info, that's cool, great love it, but the details you want should not be posted online, especially for major bites. I think the more experience you get the more you will realize that. You just can't share all the details: location info, time, and other details about hot bites online. It always turns into a problem.

Just my take though, Jim

[467echo]

Ok, ok, I'll give him the info he wants. There are in LJ every month, every year, and the have been posts about them. What more do you need to know?

[jorluivil]

How about someone post info on a where the hot bites are and we'll see what that place looks like this weekend.

[ful-rac]

Fishdope $169 a year

Will tell you everything you need to know, then you dont have to deal with the jerks around here especially me, and you dont have to worry about people not posting up reports to your liking.

[dorado50]

Originally Posted by Fiskadoro

.... and I'd say you are once again misinformed.

Information posts on how to rig, fish specific tackle, use your finder etc... are great and I personally love helping people giving them things they can try and showing new ways to do things.

Occasionally I'll be at a tackle store and someone will come up, say my name then say something like I really love your dropper loop rig you posted and have caught a ton of fish with it. I met guy at MDR that caught a 40+ pound halibut using a slow trolling rig I came up with and when he told me it made my day. That's what information posting and internet sharing is about, but it's not the same as posting a fish report.

Fish reports have one purpose in my book. It's simply to say there are fish around, get out there and find some fish.

You may think that's not enough but you got to remember that online posting is not the same as talking to your best buddy. It's not a private message or note. It's like a frigging billboard on the freeway. Everything you post here will be seen by hundreds of people, and bite information can end up on dozens of places online after a single post, so you need to realize that what you post can have a huge unintended impacts and honestly there are things you can and can not post.

Take hoop netting for instance. Say you come here and say hey I went to X rocks at these numbers and got a limit in two hours at slack tide. Sounds harmless right.

Say a hundred people see that, say ten of them go the next night and clean up, and then say they post thier catches on thier favorite boards. Next thing you know thousands of people will know about your spot, and it will be full of hoop-netters and divers every time you go out.

Rocks aren't fish. Rocks don't move!!

Everyone who goes to that spot and get's a bug is going to mark it on their GPS and if they do well there they will tell others and eventually when you go to hoop it there will be dozens if not a hundred guys trying to hoop it.

I've seen this first hand at several locations. So I know better then to post hoop locations. I'll post about how to rig or build nets, what floats I like even the best baits, tides and how often to pull your nets but I will not post where I hoop it's just something you should never put online, and I'm not going to show anyone where to hoop until I know they know that as well.

Seabass are equally problematic. They school up and can go incredibly wide open, which also means they can be dramatically overfished.

Back in like 2001 one boat saw squid on the surface in front of Rocky Point and then caught a big seabass over fifty pounds, and posted about it. The next day I was there and got a forty pounder in the fog. Around noon it cleared and there were maybe 30 boats around us, a bunch more posts went up, the next day there were a hundred and fifty boats by the end of the week at least 200 a day. Everyone got fish, I caught one every day I fished it. I posted several of them online, but in the end thousands of fish were caught, everyone with a crappy boat was out there, and it turned into total carnage.

We shared the info online with the best intentions and it turned into a slaughter, we fished them out, and I've never seen another seabass in that spot since then.

I've fished some epic bites since, but honestly I have not posted a single post about a wide open seabass bite since then. Once was enough for me.

I've put up a few posts about solo fish, usually early in the season before they start spawning, when they are hard to get, but that's it.

If you want to share some general report info, that's cool, great love it, but the details you want should not be posted online, especially for major bites. I think the more experience you get the more you will realize that. You just can't share all the details: location info, time, and other details about hot bites online. It always turns into a problem.

Just my take though, Jim

Likely the best and post I've read from you Jim...well stated,right on bro!

[alanw]

I prefer to find good fishing spots from being on the water, talking to other kayakers, dropping by the local tackle shop, etc.. than on the fishing report forums.

As for this thread, I see good in both arguments.

Hot bites/spots shouldn't be posted on the net, to protect the fisheries.

Reports should at least contain some info.. general location on the earth, type of bait and method used, general conditions.

These are things everyone would consider relevant information, without giving specifics. There are some that drive many miles to fish and I'm sure they would appreciate at least some info on current conditions.

Without info the posts are just a picture followed by a dozen chest-bumps and butt-slaps.

I do agree there should be another forum just for showing off your catch.

[lowprofile]

we have bragging boards, its the 30, 40 and 50lb club.

a good report gives 8 digit coordinates and pics of fish, launch condition and bikini wearing women. or just the fish and women in bikinis.

[BrokeLoser]

Originally Posted by Fiskadoro

Since my name was brought up.... I think your confusing general info and bite info. I post information but it is really all just general information, and it's never about particular bites, or wide open bites.

Saying something like: BKR is a good place to fish seabass in the spring, or tanker Cs usually hang in the kelp then actively come out and feed when the water hit's 63 degrees is not the same as saying: "The fish are wide open at La Jolla go there right now!!!" I just do not post info on wide open bites, and I haven't for almost a decade.

I'll be straight up...

For years now I've had a group of kayakers who have and continue to claim that I post wide open bite info online, that I'm somehow going to ruin Kayak fishing by telling everyone the hot bites or spots.

They tell everyone that will listen that I will tell the whole world where to go fish if I get the word it's wide open bite, and I'm guessing that chances are you might of even met some of them.

It's a myth, a lie and it was largely started by one jerk who for some reason has hated my guts since day one, and who's also evidently absolutely insane. I'm guessing this will never stop, and as a result I almost never post reports online. Anywhere!!!

As William Burroughs once said avoid the mentally ill. The last thing I want to give is more fuel for this lunatic's and his crazy lynch mobs fire.

I also do not want them to know where I fish, when I fish, and in general I avoid the bigger well known hot bites that I know they will frequent because I don't even want to run into them on the water. I like fishing alone, I also like to find my own fish anyway, so I don't feel like I have to run to the next hot bite or deal with any resulting drama on the water.

No doubt they see this as a big internet victory, like they personally "shut me up". Well it sounds good, but I never posted that much bite info anyway because like pretty much everyone else that's been around online for a long time,after more then a decade online I know there are things you can and can't post.

I mean honestly if you look for my reports your not going to find that many, and none of them are about wide open bites. The last one I posted here was I think was about SBI a place that most people will never fish because it's fifty miles offshore. I may of posted one Lobster report with No Location!! info this last season, but that is about it.

Read my only La Jolla Yellowtail report posted here. It was about two fish I caught on a bite that already was well known and pretty much over, and it was years ago. Most people don't remember that it was also posted the day the weather changed and the wind came up. I knew from the forecast La Jolla was blown out for a week, there was only a tiny amount of squid still there, so the bite was done. There were no crowds, they were not overfished, I think it was a few weeks before anyone even caught another Yellow or seabass in the area.

So bottom line: I'm not sure why you think I post detailed information about bites online, but the truth is I don't post that kind of info and I'm not likely to do it in anytime in the near future.

WOW!
This is what's happening among the fishing community...accuse a guy of being helpful to others and he gets offended...sad.
Jim, you may need to read my post again. I didn't say anything about you giving specific information related to "hot bites" or wide open bites. I said:

"Also, with regard to sharing hot spots. Have you noticed that some of the best fishermen...Iceman (Andy) and (Fiskadoro) Jim Day to name a couple generally have no problem sharing detailed information...ironic?"

I'm not trying to throw you under the bus but I've read your posts on another site where you gave some pretty good information on how and where to fish Catalina. I've used your information and have done well at the island with it...Thanks for that. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Even if people post the most detailed report, it wont help you catch any fish and that's exactly why this thread exists....because you're not catching fish on your own.

[lowprofile]

Originally Posted by Drake

Even if people post the most detailed report, it wont help you catch any fish and that's exactly why this thread exists....because you're not catching fish on your own.

your so blunt. This is America, were all about hand outs!

but this is true. knowing yesterdays bite wont help you today.

and more times than not, "yesterdays" bite is really last weeks, or last months bite.

i cant tell you how many times i went after yesterdays bite and came back skunked... shoot i remember a morning chasing Drakes "20 minutes ago bite" and striking out. as he pedled home with 3 on the PA before the sun could shed light on the west side of point loma.

[BrokeLoser]

Originally Posted by Drake

How about this...

Lets say you spent hours a day, many days a week over the course of a year playing around with ATM's. Finally one day, you found a way to have that ATM pump out free money, all you needed to do was enter a certain code. Would you share that code with everyone on the internet? What would happen? Everyone would be using your ATM now right? What would happen to all the money? You would get less, and eventually it would all be gone. You put in your time and everyone capitalizes on your labor.

And if you think it has to do with said anglers being worried about other people potentially stealing their fish, you're sorely mistaken. Do you think it's coincidence that it's always the same people catching fish, regardless of how many people are out? Do you find it odd that 40 kayaks could be sitting on the squid ground but the same guys who catch fish, catch fish and that Josh and Kevins clients almost always go home with a full bag while the other 36 people go home empty handed?

They were in the same spot, using the same bait...so what's the difference right? Luck maybe? Good Karma maybe? Or did they spent YEARS AND YEARS perfecting methods that others aren't even close to scratching the surface on.

The anglers that you're referring to, the ones who don't post detailed reports aren't intimidated by massive numbers of fisherman ruining their odds. They/We will catch fish regardless of who is out there.

Did you ever think about the impact it has on the fishery? The long term consequences? With the MLPA already breathing down out neck, lets just hand them more reasons to close more areas off. If 1,000 people see there is a good bite going on, and they tell two people, and then those people tell two people...well, you do the math.

If every person who caught a trophy posted up where, when, how, why... sure they odds would swing in favor of the anglers, not like it already isn't...but now you're talking about 500% more lines in the water.

This sport is growing EXPONENTIALLY, I fear for what the next 10 years has to bring. Soon you'll be able to walk from kayak to kayak when the word of a bite gets out.

Sorry to sound like a dick, but it's a reality.

If you want to know what the water temp is...get in your kayak.
If you want to know what the fish are feeding on...catch one and cut it's stomach open.
If you want to know what time of the day they are biting...fish sunrise to sunset

When you catch on, it will all start to make more sense to you. It took me and some other people a while to catch on.


Your post isn't going to make any of us say "Hey you know what, you're right. Next time I catch a fish, I'll be sure to give away every bit of information I know"

You make perfect sense with everything you said...well, almost everything.
Your ATM metaphor isn't really that accurate as it relates to my original post. As I've already said you shouldn't give coordinates / ATM codes and I'm not saying anyone should be required to post a fish report but if you're going to post in a forum titled Fishing Reports why shouldn't you include the standard information that 99% of fish reports would include. If it doesn't include said info how can it be considered a report? It's nothing more than a hey look at me photo. Why is it such a tall order to expect a report to read something like this: (previously posted)
"6/19 - I caught this 32# yellow in 63' of water about 400yds NW of the big boiler rock at about 7:30am on a sardine 3oz dropper loop, 65# braid and a 20# 4' mono leader."

I just don't get it.

[vincentek9]

a fishing report can be anything and everything. from "skunk" to "here's a pic of a massive fish that i caught and i wont tell you anything else"

if EVERY report had..
1. fish caught
2. hook, line, weight, lure, bait used
3. specific location caught
4. depth caught

then.. poachers would hit a gold mine. and our honey holes would come up dry very fast.


best way to get great intel and a great detailed report: you make friends. if you share info with someone to help them hook up... they owe you a favor when they find a hot bite.

[BrokeLoser]

Originally Posted by Drake

Even if people post the most detailed report, it wont help you catch any fish and that's exactly why this thread exists....because you're not catching fish on your own.

That's quite an assumption...you sound so matter of fact...you don't know me or anything about me yet you somehow know I don't catch fish on my own. I'd suppose you know this because I don't post any hey look at me pics and or spend to much time here trying real hard to make internet friends?

[bus kid]

57 reasons to just quietly fish on my own and never post a "report"

Originally Posted by jorluivil

its just fishing.

I take that back make it 56

Originally Posted by BrokeLoser

You make perfect sense with everything you said...well, almost everything.
Your ATM metaphor isn't really that accurate as it relates to my original post. As I've already said you shouldn't give coordinates / ATM[/COLOR]

I just don't get it.

Think deeper...

Even if you don't give away the ATM codes, but someone finds out theres an ATM giving away free money...people will still try to figure out how...

Here, I'm going to throw you a bone.

This is a picture from monday night at 7pm. Everything you could ask for is right in front of you... will this help you catch a fish? Do you even know what you are looking at?

Depth, temp, and coordinates are right there for you. Take this info and see if it helps. Looking forward to your detailed fish report now that I've given you everything you're asking for.

[bus kid]

57 reasons. now im just bumping my post count.
BTW
Drake can you clean your screen next time you take a pic the salt makes it hard to tell if thats a 3 or a 8