Hotspotting ...

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
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… is a term that came up on a thread on the Fishing Reports Forum.

It was used in reference to simply identifying by name a 50 mile long river that is well known in Western Montana ( and probably Northern Idaho ) and is featured on a prominent website on angling in Montana - www.bigskyfishing.com.

The few times I have seen the term used, hotspotting has refered to a particular place or stretch of a stream or river - like the second bend below Harry’s place or the run just downstream of mile marker 18 or the hole below Big Joe Bend, or something like that. So I was surprised to see it used as described above.

Curious how you use the term and what you mean when you do ??

John

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Personally, I never get more specific than a waterbody name, and that only if it’s a VERY well known waterbody. In order words, if I can expect to go there and see a crowd, then I don’t mind naming it publicly.

So, for example, if I was fishing the lower Shoshone, I’d tell people I was fishing the lower Shoshone, because I know there’s already going to be 3-4 other cars in the parking lot when I fish there. I wouldn’t publicize that I was fishing at XXX Access Point.

Even if it’s a river that’s somewhat well publicized, but I can fish it without feeling crowded, I won’t mention it.

So, for instance, if it was a moderately popular river in Alberta, I’ll say I was in Canadaland, but I wouldn’t tell people that I was fishing the XXX River.

If it’s somewhere that I rarely see other anglers, the most specific I’ll get is usually a state. In fact, I’ll go out of my way to attempt to be discrete. I’ll try to avoid showing landmarks that could be recognized on Google Earth, etc. Considering 99% of my fishing occurs in the latter 2 categories… yeah, I pretty much never tell people when I’m fishing.

One of my favorite streams is hidden a long ways from anything in Wyoming. The fishing is good, the scenery is great, and on the most crowded day I’ve ever seen, I saw a footprint. The fact that I can have the whole river to myself, and be surrounded by nothing but nature (moose, elk, deer, still haven’t seen a bear) is what makes it special. In this day and age of easy mass communication, I know it won’t last forever, but right now it’s really special, and I selfishly want to keep it that way. There was a time when places like the Madison River were like that. Now, I have very little interest in going there - fishing around crowds like that just isn’t my cup of tea. So if I can preserve a few more special places for a few more years by not publicizing them, I’m going to do my part.

Now, that being said, I will TAKE certain people to these places, but not just anybody. And one of the first things I do is beg them not to publicize it - because it’s the remoteness and the solitude that makes them unique.

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The term is used quite a bit around here in the driftless area of the midwest. It seems to mainly be used when locations are shared through public internet forums and web pages and available to perhaps hundreds of lurkers. There are no “secret” places anymore (and, in fact, all of our streams are identified in a booklet published by the DNR), but the streams are pretty small and consequently probably can’t take as much pressure as a bigger western freestone stream. You cretainly don’t want to be following another angler as they’ll likely disturb the water enough to limit your success. So it’s pretty commonplace around here to not name stream names in public fishing reports. If you were to name streams and do so a public forum / web page, some people around here would consider that hot spotting and inappropriate. People share more specific information in private individual communications.

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I generally name a stream, but not the location unless its to reference a well-known, nearby easy access point.

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I’ve never used that term, but I grit my teeth whenever any of my favorite spots show up in other posts. And it doesn’t have to be a “turn at this sign and drive X miles and pull over by the big tree”. For instance, most of the photos of trout you post from the Lochsa have enough background in them that I can tell what pool you are standing in, and in some cases, what rock. Not a big deal since I am 900 miles away, but there are places on that river I gave up fishing because everyone said “go to this hole and fish”, and there is ALWAYS someone in that spot. Then again, I can’t see the attraction of standing in the same spot all day, or day after day, and recatching the same fish, either.

I learned long ago the best way to have a river become crowded was to advertise how good the fishing was, and to tell people where and how to fish it, so I don’t do that any more. I take pics of fish, yes, and say I was in a particular river, but I try real hard to not have any identifiers in the photo (although I have had people ID a spot from a single rock in the water), and I don’t get detailed about how I caught em. Most of the time. If someone wants to know, they can always ask, but I am under no obligation to give up hard-earned info to people not willing to put forth their own efforts.

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I guess I am pretty easy going on this. Coming to Denver? Fish the South Platte in Cheesman Canyon or downstream a bit around Deckers. Or hit the Colorado between Hot Sulfur Springs and Kremmling.

But I have some small mountain streams that I only share with out of state visitors. They can’t take the pressure the big rivers can take.

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Dennis -

I don’t think I’ve ever used the term before this discussion, either.

The river mentioned on the Fishing Reports Forum was a Montana river.

As far as the Lochsa goes, my experience there is much different and much more positive than what you’ve described. But then, I hardly ever see anyone else fishing on the thirty mile stretch I fish and no one ever tells me where to go ( well, you know what I mean ), and there have only been a handful of times over the past four years when I couldn’t fish exactly the place I wanted to fish because someone was already there.

But if you want to test your theory about identifying spots, send me a PM identifying the seven places shown in my last post on the “runoff” thread. I’ll post the results here.

There are very few streams and rivers I won’t mention, but there are a few ( very short creeks that couldn’t handle any pressure ), and there are no particular access points or specific landmarks that I will identify regardless of the size of the crick. If someone wants to know, I will tell them the kind of water that fishes best for me on a given crick but leave it up to them to find it. I did make an exception one time and told a couple guys the best places to fish a certain creek - and the reward was huge !!

As far as some of those really remote places go, if someone is willing to put in the time, energy, and expense to get to them, good for them. Those folks already have at least two or three things in common with me and I’d probably enjoy their company if they turned up there on the same day I did, and the odds against that happening are staggering.

[b]Anyway, maybe some more people will chime in ??

[/b]John

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I thought this was going to be a thread about tying a bright spot into a fly!!!??:oops:

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Tig, if you add a little red to the throat area on a fly that could be a form of hotspotting. :slight_smile: Actually, more in tune with the thread, I have always been very open about where I fish. I don’t own the water, it is there for everyone to enjoy. If I can make it so someone else has a great experience when fishing, so much the better. Larry —sagefisher—

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You can’t hotspot an already hotspot.

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Yikes!! I’m headin’ down that long lonesome highway!

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Nicely put, Larry.

I think there is a regional component to how folks view “hotspotting” as well as the personality traits thing.

The further West someone is from, the more likely he / she is to share information. The further East someone is from, the less likely he / she is to share information.

Some folks are generous to a fault and some are selfish to a fault.

John

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Nicely put, Larry.

I think there is a regional component to how folks view “hotspotting” as well as the personality traits thing.

The further West someone is from, the more likely he / she is to share information. The further East someone is from, the less likely he / she is to share information.

Some folks are generous to a fault and some are selfish to a fault.

John

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The term hotspot around here has a totally different meaning. Hotspot is a place where all the “summer guides” take their clients and if you get in their way they get very hot (since they own the river or so they think). It is also a gas station around here where most baiters buy their worms and beer to leave along the side of the river or lake for us to pick up. lol

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I wouldn’t consider posting a picture hotspotting unless it shows clearly the mile marker or something like that in the background. If you can recognize a place by the background of the picture then you already know the river rather well and aren’t learning anything new. John Scott’s posts aren’t what I consider “hotspotting” or “burning” a spot, they show what types of water he fishes, not giving directions to which rock to stand on or talking about some small stream that can’t handle a lot of fishing pressure.

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I know I don’t normally post in here, but here’s a warm-water Okie’s point of view…

Last year, I started posting some videos of me fishing some of my better spots. Fly, hardware, and bait (I don’t discriminate). I know that other locals are watching my stuff, because I’ve been recognized and greeted by a few folks away from the water.

Now, the spots I’ve posted about are well-known “hotspots” for fishing. But, if I’m in a new area, and catching fish, I generally just take still pictures, with the fish on the ground, next to my foot. This keeps the background out of the shot, so I know some folks won’t go and pillage the hole(s) I’ve found holding fish.

I know a few well-respected guides here in Northeast Oklahoma that will post pictures of clients with nice fish, but they photoshop the background out. If they didn’t do this, they would have 20 more boats pot-licking the fishing grounds within a day or two.

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Really? Please explain your logic as to why the far Western fisherman/fisherwoman is more likely to share a hotspot than we selfish-to-a-fault Easterners?

Thanks.

Bob

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Bob, might that be along the Madison?

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Bob, That was an interesting observation by John, regarding the possibility that people tend to be more open to releasing fishing data the farther west you go as compared to the farther east you go. I hadn’t thought of it in that way and naturally there will be tons of exemptions to that statement, but… There are around 3.3 times the people who live ‘east’ of the west as compared to those living in the west. Depending upon where you draw the line and leaving out the dead center of the country, there are around 62.7 million people living out west. Compare that to 207.7 million back east. BIG difference. Then if you factored in, which I did not, the number of square miles of the ‘east’ as compared to the ‘west’ I am sure the population per square mile would have an even bigger X factor. So, if you live in a very high level population area with very limited fly fishing waters as compared to those of us who live out west, much lower levels of population and much greater number of square miles per person, that may tend to make the crowded side a little more reluctant to give out information. Just a guess on my part however. No real facts to back that up. :slight_smile: Larry —sagefisher—

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old Chinese proverb, those who know don’t say and those who say don’t know…as we say here in the EAST