There seem to be two camps on this. One camp is extremely helpful to other fly fishers they encounter n the water and another camp keeps their hard-earned knowledge to themselves and expects the others to learn the hard way.
I’m mostly in the former camp. If I encounter another on the water who asks how’s the fishing, I’m perfectly happy to tell him how my fishing day is going and what fly seems to be working for me. If it is a fly I’ve tied myself and I have enough of them to see me through the day, I offer one or two to him.
But I’m in the latter camp when it comes to sharing information on what I consider to be a truly secret spot. If I have scouted out a remote stream that worked well for me and did not show evidence of any (or much) fishing traffic, I only share it with close friends - preferably ones visiting from distant states.
I tend towards the second group. However, if someone comes up to me and flat out asks, most of the time I will help them, to a certain extent. This does not apply to guides or anyone who has been rude or otherwise shown themselves to be unworthy. I will answer direct questions and pass on a tip or two, but I am not out there to offer free guide service to someone who isn’t willing to pay attention to their surroundings and learn what they need to learn. I also reserve the right to not tell you exactly what fly I am using if I am catching fish and they are not. I will reply “caddis” or “blue-winged olive” or something to get them in the ballpark. I have been burned too many times to be uniformly and completely generous.
What I will NOT do is go up to someone who has NOT asked for help and offer “friendly” advice, nor do I take kindly to others who try to do that to me.
There’s a difference between being helpful and revealing secret fishing places. If I encounter you on the river or lake I am more than happy to tell you what is working for me and give you a couple if I have a spare. I also ask other anglers what they are using.
Once took a “friend” to a very good secret spot with the promise he would not bring anyone else in there. The following week I was supposed to return to Prudhoe Bay for two weeks of work. My alternate called and asked if he could work an extra week and have me work three weeks the next trip up, a not uncommon thing. Suddenly I had that week to go back to my secret spot.
Guess who I found there with three of his buddies! One idiot (me) ruined the tiny little spot… Even the road side guide books have it listed now…
I am absolutely in the first camp. I am only too happy to share what I know and share flies that work well for me. I don’t consider fishing a competition but a sport to be shared with others, even people I just met or people I may never meet here on FAOL.
I have no secret spots. In this part of Michigan every place I have ever fished shows plenty of signs of previous anglers in terms of litter and beaten down bank-side paths. I try to limit help to one or two ideas not because I’m protecting whatever knowledge I have but because that seems to be enough to assimilate while on the stream. I have long since lost count of how many leaders I have reworked while explaining about the use of tippet material. That and a quick explanation of mending will let most beginners who were getting skunked start catching fish. I think the most I have done with strangers was trading a casting lesson in the parking lot for beer from a guy who asked for help assembling the kit he had just bought.
I am out there on the water to have fun. I know I will not catch all the fish in the river so it does not bother me if others are catching fish as well, I am happy for them. When my guide and I are drifting down the river and we come across another fly fisher(s) who is fishing unguided, we always ask how they are doing. If they answer that they have not been doing very well and I know that we have, both my guide and I will offer suggestions and give the fisher a fly or two so that person can also enjoy his/her time out on the water.
When I am out on a lake I talk to other fly fishers and ask how they are doing. Many is the time I have rowed over and given them a few flies that were working for me and suggestions on how to fish them.
Make someone happy some time. It is a great feeling.
IF I’m catching and someone asks me what I’m using I will tell them. I might even tell them how I fish it.
Mostly I encounter bait or spinner folks where I go. They will say things like, “I tried that once.” Or “I’ve always wanted to learn…”
I had a secret spot once, too. It was on a very hard to get to stretch of the crick and produced very well every time I crawled to it. Then I was talking to a acquaintance of mine who was a district Judge, he wanted to fish this crick and asked if I knew of any hot spots. I made the mistake of telling him. I even drew him a little map. Now there’s a well worn path to the spot, the foliage has been hacked away and I haven’t caught a fish out of there in 3 seasons. That was the last spot I’ve shared with anyone.
Here it is pretty much like rainbowchaser described, there are no secret spots. Every stretch of water I fish in Missouri is listed on a map in state publications. They also have the well worn trails. There might be a couple that lack the trails but there’s a reason for it. Fish are few, far between, they are very, very difficult to get to and what fish are there need to be left alone. They have enough to contend with just to survive without an angler adding to there challanges. When meeting another angler, which really isn’t very often, I enjoy a good conversation. Suprisingly out of the few encounters not many have asked what I’m using. The inevitible “how ya doin’” is asked but rarely what one is using. I don’t ask it either, mostly I don’t care. I fish exclusively bamboo and silk and more often than not the conversation quickly turns to the rod and line. I guess it’s an uninteded distraction…lol! Might be something to consider! If I had a “secret spot” I doubt I would share it but info on flys and technique…sure, why not.
More than happy to share flies and info on flies/hatches; general stream info on popular, well known waters, too. Little blue lines (actually one’s a pretty big blue line but it’s a bit of a drive from here or there) that I’ve come across I’ll mention to people I know and trust; any “secret spot” that someone has shared with me I won’t talk about or fish with anyone else.
I am in the first camp
If there a fly fisherman struggling to catch fish but most important they practice catch & release, sure I will offer my two cents worth and give them fly I am catching fish on.
Back a few weeks ago there was this family down on the river, the husband was fly fishing and not catching anything. I walked over to them and struck up a conversation while WarrenP was trying to get his number 20th fish (didn’t happen by the way…LOL). After talking a short bit I found out they just moved in town and this was new water to him, so I pulled out a [COLOR=black]Fluorocarbon furled leader a fly I was catching fish on and hooked him up. Within 10 minutes he caught his first fish. During our conversation I invited him to our next fly fishing club meeting and lone behold he was there at the club meeting. It feels good to do a good deed and hopefully everyone will pay forward. I have found out over the years fly fisherman are the most helpful on the river and willing to give advice if there not part of that upper elite group. [/COLOR]
Helping someone on the water is one thing (although no one who’s seen me fish is likely to ask for my help :(); telling anyone about “special spots” is quite another, for the very reason Hap mentioned.
Sharps? We fishing the same Missouri? There are all kinds of places, many not well known, to fish! Usually, I am of the bunch that will share places, furled leaders, flies, and techniques with whom ever asks me. Usually …
That is usually the guy in the boat who float right on top of me. The guy I see who probably knows the most about the Hooch is John Scalley of A River Through Atlanta guide service. He usually says hello and ask how I’m doing and using and tells me the same. I see him with “Anglers” who can barely hit the water with the line, but he has them catching fish.
My answer is just about identical to “oldfrat”. The older I get the harder it is to get to my secret spots but by the time I’m ready to share the few I have, my memory will be too shot to be worthwhile.
Best,
Steve
I’m perfectly willing to share knowledge of fly fishing, but in all honesty, I look like a hobo angler when I fish and no one ever seems to ask me. Generally I get looks that say, “please don’t talk to me”…and that’s okay. As for secret spots, I have none except for one smallmouth river that shall never be mentioned online, but when I’m on it and people ask me if it’s any good, I tell them the truth.
I expect so Betty but I probably should have better qualified the places I fish most of the time. That and I automatically assumed trout were the intended quarry. I fish the Blue Ribbon areas almost exclusively and almost as exclusively here around Rolla. There are a couple I have been to way the Sam Hill and gone that are so tiny you wonder how the trout survive. Those are the ones I meant that don’t have trails…or they didn’t a couple years ago. I hope they’ve been left alone as fragile as they are. I know you fish Bennet and have fished Montauk so I’m sure you’re familiar with how the trails are out of those parks, down the Niangua and the Current. Meramec is the same…a blind man could follow them. Cardiac and Suicide…they get hit plenty. So do the Blue Ribbon areas around here and the others I’ve been to. Once in a blue moon I’ll hit a Red Ribbon area but…they just don’t hold the same attraction and White Ribbon areas…well, if you get there before the local worm dunkers do you can have some fun. They are a put and take fishery so that’s ok…I don’t like to eat the stinking things anyway. Now if we throw warm water into the mix…I have more private water to fish than I can get to. I would not have to hit the same spot twice every 3 years and I’m talking about creeks. I have two places of approximately 3/4 mile each on the upper Bourbeuse I have wanted to hit the last 2 years and haven’t made it yet. Same with an entire mile of the way upper Meremac…haven’t been able to get to it either. According to the owners no one fishes them as they tell me they never see tracks around. From what I’ve seen of them I doubt a poacher would hit them very hard for a bunch of longear. They’re all pretty skinny water. I only fish one body of still water and that’s the neighbors lake when my wife wants to go.