I get that you're only able to get out fishing on the weekends, or maybe holidays if you're family is cool with it. That's my life too.
For the longest time I've wanted to be an amazing fisherman. Knowing that my lack of available time is not an asset, I've asked for help and got the same answer: "Just put time on the water".
Now I don't disagree and I understand the need to do this. I even try and do it myself but I think its flung around and said as a cop out too. I think a lot of new fishermen/women are put off by this after trying to find fish themselves on a limited space of time.
It's the entire reason WHY I started creating and sharing everything I was doing on #YouTube. It's why I share on any social media application. Don't get me wrong, I hear you guys saying "you want to make money and get famous"... of course I want to make money and go fishing for a living. Why WOULDN'T you want to find a way to make money doing something you love?! That would definitely fix that "time on the water" issue.
I really try and not hold much back. I've given actual spots and had many conversations with like minded people to help them, hopefully, get on fish.
What I've noticed out there though is, not everyone has the same mentality about the spots or the fisheries that I or you do. This makes me second guess if I should share spots anymore.
As a prime example, the Parry Sound Aqua area that was on native land housed some great fall and spring rainbow trout fishing. However, if you'll watch my video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yll709llGfA), you'll notice the amount if garbage that littered that area was tremendous! On top of that we had issues with people travelling to fish this area and either not fishing with a reserve permit OR, even worse, keeping way more than their allotted limit of fish.
As it was assumed would happen, the fishery was closed off to the public and now that amazing fishery is unavailable to anyone unless you're able to launch a boat from within Parry Sound and make the drive over.
I've seen a smaller version of this during the Perch festival, a local festival that's been held in Orillia Ontario for almost 40 years now (check out my entire series I have on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDtbPhjtck&list=PLlDefi3urnCOuZgFOl9bk5ILzWdp6OmCw). The garbage is slowly building and I see buckets full of fish being removed.
With all that said, i cant help but think back to when i first started out, grinding through forums and watching YouTube videos just trying to get a HINT of where to fish. If you're a shore fisherman, like where I started, this task gets even harder as we loose access from shore more and more.
I have changed how i share my spots recently. I don't mind giving locations but I'm trying to be a bit more general with that information. Telling people I'm on a hump or drop off has started to be more the norm. As I start exploring back lakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKDPDy4QfJg&t=214s) that are no bigger than a bowl of soup, i get even more secretive. I'm so scared that these fragile fisheries are going to be over fished or ruined by the garbage trucks that seem to dump their load at the lake.
Know that I will always give you everything I've learned so you can spend time fishing and enjoying the outdoors but know that I may choose to keep exact locations safe between myself and the very few who I feel I can trust.
Why DON'T you share your fishing spots?!
