Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge - To post or not to post.... that is the question.

Someone recently was complaining about the lack of quality reports and info on the boards. They said that there was a minimum standard for what a real fishing report should include and it was set a long time ago. This got me thinking a lot about the web message boards, and what I've learned using them over the years.

I'm sure everyone's heard the simple phrase: "Times change" it's a pretty simple concept.

I used to take the time to write really detailed reports with locations, pics tackle recommendations you name it. Just the exact type of thing the guy was asking for. I started doing it on Allcoast back in the nineties, was one of the first posters on Bloody Decks and put them up there as well. For a while my reports were so popular that I got offered a job writing a weekly blog for one of the larger websites. I turned down that Job because times had changed. Or more precisely the internet had changed, and by then I could see the writing on the wall.

My early posts would get a few hundred views my later ones were getting thousands. It's not the same thing.

People can talk about standards for a report, but the first posters set the standard before most current uers even got online, and what we found out was that once every fishing internet wannabe in California started reading our detailed posts we couldn't keep posting them.

Have you ever posted a report and then gone back the next day and seen the spot completely overrun with internet fisherman. Or seen a great bite destroyed by a newbies single post? How about a white seabass spawn where the fish were almost wiped out after a few popular posts. Or maybe a thresher bite where 200 sharks were killed in a single day, and guys had them piled up on swimsteps like lumber.

I've seen all those things, and eventually realized I had to make some changes.

What do you really want from a message board? You want attention? You want people to tell you where to fish? When to fish? How to fish? Where the hot bite is right this minute? Or do you think that people should post like they used to, that everything will be great and we'll all go back to some golden age where everyone shared everything?

Well chances are those goals are not going to be easily accomplished, and the last one is completely out of touch with the realities of the situation. The Web got too big, we can't share information like we used to. People can pretend, or act like they don't understand that, but it just shows you are completely out of touch with reality.

I love posting a good report, I enjoy sharing information, I love helping people catch fish, but fishing comes first and I'm more concerned with what's good for the fishery and fishing in general then putting up the most popular report on the board.

Occasionally I still will take the time to put up the kind of reports I used to put up almost on a weekly basis, but only when they will not hurt the fishery or fishing.

Kayaking SBI no problem, Castiac on a slow day when I'm the only one there...cool. La Jolla or any other inshore area when it's wide open for Tsharks or seabass? I'm not going to post that.

It's a personal choice. People have the right to post anything they want to, but personally for me I've learned there are things I can and things I can't post.