Non-fishing report, sort of...

Originally Posted by Aaron&Julie

Looks like I'm posting in the right spot for this, afterall the fishing forum really isn't about current fishing reports anymore, except by a handful of fishermen. The 3 things this forum does do:

1) Report how successful "Newbies" are once they've tried "Darkhorses" guide services. Usually these reports are a month old, more or less, too old to be of any use to anyone, unless they need a good guide.
2) Gag posts. Some are even believable, to the point a person doesn't know if they are reading an accurate helpful post, or just fluff that some find funny.
3) Venting reports. Usually bitching about something, some where, some day.

With the 1/2 day boats nailing yellows almost every day for a week or more now, even nailing 3 WSB, along with yellows the other day, you can't tell me there are not kayak fishermen who frequent this website who've scored, and scored well over the last couple of weeks.

To each their own.

I guess I'm posting this on #3 above, the venting report. Julie and I don't need reports to do well at La Jolla. Hell, we don't even use a Fish Finder, yet our freezer is full of fish, clams and lobster (ok, only a 1/2 dozen left now).

My point is-the fishing forum used to be a resource for "fishing" (as in current) information. Not so much anymore.

It's rather sad and pitiful and mostly useless. We'll keep looking here for tidbits of information, but it doesn't seem to have what BWE used to have, integrity, honesty and info that could benefit everyone.

I guess if you're in one of the cliques, you really don't need BWE at all, you're buddy will hook you up with the latest 4-1-1. How cool. Instead you can post your gags and rants.

We always paid it forward (for free), what we learned or picked up from others, and still do when properly asked, usually through PMs.

It's amazing how the overall mentality has changed on this website.

Aaron, I'll be the first to admit I am one of those people who are catching fish and not posting them anymore. Why?



People aren't willing to contribute, just leach fish dope. Look at the count of "views" on fishing report threads vs any thread about helping build a bait tank, a cart or even this thread.

In the beginning of the summer, I went out and fished LJ on a Friday afternoon. There were 2 kayaks. Me and Rob. I caught 3 yellows before 7am. I called a few people, let them know the bite was on.

Saturday, there was maybe 9 kayaks. I caught one, Greg caught his almost slam and few random people caught fish. Most of them made it on the internet. That following TUESDAY morning, there were 50 kayaks and 15pb sitting on the squid grounds. People don't want to put the time in to work for fish, find their own bites and experiment. They don't want to fish, they want to catch. The internet is the worst thing that could happen to a fishery.

Think about all the yellows that were killed this summer because word got out there was a squid bite. 80% of the people who fished the squid ground would have paddled right past it.

While I understand your standpoint we should be helping people out, this is how I look at it. If you PM me where was I, what bait did I use, how deep was the water ect when I caught my fish.... I tell everyone the same thing. "Come fish with me on the water and I'll do my best to help you out." You can't catch fish from behind a keyboard. While I'm not the most experienced LJ fisherman, and I haven't been fishing here for as long as 80% of this board, I came to SD with one goal. CATCH FISH. So you know what I did? I spent 5 days a week on the water, even if it was for 2 hours before I had to get to a 9am class.

Now this topic came up a while ago regarding timely reports. Most people got their panties in a bunch because they assumed it was about competition. That's not the case. How do I know? Because when there were 80 kayaks on the water and fish got caught, it was by the people who normally catch fish. Same faces putting fork in the boat constantly. It's not competition. It's about the preservation of the fishery. Think about how many more fish there would be out there if there was no posting of fishing on the internet.

You can talk about cliques all day, and yeah it's like highschool out there. But the point is people are more willing to help you these days when you're a familiar face on the water, not just a familiar poster on the forums. The last few months a few noobies I've never met have come up to me and been like "hey you're Drake right? I saw your fish on BWE" and then follow up with questions. I respect them being on the water not on a computer. I'll go as far as to tie knots for them, give them bait, tell them to follow me to where they can find bait and even lend them my squid stick if they don't have one. I gave a guy a handful of sabikis the other day because he didn't have any. The same way Greg Andrews did for me when I first started here, or when Ryan and Steve said "follow us to catch some fish" the day I caught my first WSB.

I'm not the only one. One of the infamous banned members who got the boot for the drama a few months ago, who will remain unamed was on the water a few weeks ago. He was doing well, had two in the boat early. A new guy went up to him and asked him some question. Said banned member said "stay close." baited his hook for him and dropped it down. Got hit on the drop and passed the rod to the guy who landed his first YT. The guy was on a total stoke.

The internet is a great resource, but not even a 10th as valuable as being out there.

Ok i'm done.

[lambadmin]

I'm with Dave and Andy on this one.

I'm turning off the reply button, 'nuff.