Should you Broadast exact fishing spots?

I post on a few different forums,  reports about my trip to various waters flies and what luck I have had. I tend to share my experiences on the water freely with those who ask, having amassed over 50 years on the water and tying bench. I was a bit dismayed a number of years ago, when after a few reports I found poachers working the exact spots I described and immediately after. I was rewarded when I returned to the favorite spot with empty bait containers (on a no bait river), and fish guts and parts scattering the area. Very focused work and incredibly damaging to the Trout population.

On that stretch of water the very next day I was able to report to fish and game a poacher taking 13 trout on a set line. He was caught and charged but there are a great many more at work. Poaching is a business and can be a very lucrative one dominated purely by greed.

So no problem, just less focused reporting for me on forums and of course just the regular chats with friends I know that respect the resource. I now see more and more young angler’s posting exact places where they fish. They are proud and excited wanting to show their prowess. But remember not all people who read your forum posts are fly fishers with the well being of our natural resource in mind. There are those that will use your proud post to find good areas and milk them for their financial gain and our fisheries decline. A bit of care in fishing reports will go a long way and still get your message across.  I love reading others fishing reports but a bit of care goes a long way.

I am posting this as a cautionary note only, poaching is on the increase whereas the number of wardens is on the decline and those left are faced with massive tracts of land to patrol. Although it is only a very small number of people who damage the fisheries they can wipe out whole streams. We need to step up and report those who break the law and all become wardens of the waters in any way we can.

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