Here's a thought. I don't really expect anyone to take me up on it, but you never know.
I have a few spots in St. Clair that I've discovered on my own that end up being decent spots from year to year. I'm sure many of you have as well. I propose an information exchange of some kind. Perhaps a "St. Clair Spot Posse". Members who participate would agree under penalty of certain death not to share this info with anyone other than people in the posse. We would also agree not to fish the spots heavily the week prior to or during a tournament where another angler will be competing. In other words, we'll respect the spots.
The benefits are obvious. We could all learn some new spots on St. Clair. We would also be able to help each other do better in tournaments by being open with info prior to tourneys and helping get one another on fish. Perhaps we could have a password protected forum of some kind and only allow members who have achieved "Big Fish" or "Master Angler" status on GLB boards. That way we won't have to worry too much about newbies signing up and revealing our spots to the world.
I know it's a crazy thought and I don't think anything's been done like this. But it could be really cool if we get good participation and the guys/gals all show a high level of integrity.
Thoughts? Who'd be interested in something like this?
That's an interesting proposition - kind of like a 'Combat Fishing' -like board? I wonder how many would do it and how you would keep it fair?
I'd be willing to help figure that all out if guys were serious about doing it. We'd have to have a "no lurker" policy kind of like Limewire. If you don't share, you can't stay.
Well, that would not be a problem if I made a new board that allowed only registered members by password only - guests couldn't read it and only people with the password could get in, but you'd have to have some kind of entry 'requirement' so everyone seemed to be sharing fairly.
Is anyone else interested? Rev - maybe you can drum up some support over the next couple of weeks? See what happens...
Does the mile roads, Clinton River channel mouth and Metro point count??? (community holes)
They are spots right? Now everyone give me the GPS coords of your spots holding the 4's and 5's.
Seriously - How specific are we talking? I don't think anyone is going to reveal a small boulder field in the middle of the lake that is loaded with toads. At least until they made a fortune fishing that spot for a summer and cleaned it out.
I have my doubts, but I would be willing to give it a try.
I don't think community holes would count. Perhaps we could have a rating system where each member rated a spot and one of the choices could be "Community Hole", thus affecting the rating of the sharer. Kind of like an eBay rating system.
I hear ya smbassman, people may not want to share the kinds of spots you're talking about. But in my opinion, main lake spots replenish themselves all the time on St. Clair. I personally believe it's a myth that spots get cleaned out since smallmouth are such roamers. Largemouth spots are obviously different. But in fairness, I understand that this is a common belief and there's nothing we can do about it.
Personally, I do share such spots with people, but that's just me. Another facet of something like this though would be the limited number of people involved. This wouldn't be an open board with tons of people on it. So if we all share a healthy amount of spots with a limited number of people, spots shouldn't get hammered and everyone benefits.
In my first post on this topic I said "I don't really expect anyone to take me up on it, but you never know." So I have my doubts too, but wouldn't be it a cool thing if it worked out...
i am interested as well... i just got my captain's license, and don't need spots with 4's on it, just a lot of 2 pounders would be great... i have plenty of spots as well, most in the st. clair river, though.... most of my lake spots are seasonal,, i caught about 21lbs in a tournament in May near selfridge, but that only lasted a couple weeks there,,, also caught 17 1/2 lbs (with my partner's fish, would have been close to 20 lbs) on June 18th in a tournament, but that spot is now dead... spots are great, but may only last a week or two, and then they are dead. i am willing to give it a try. let me know what happens, thanks, derrek
Not a fan of sharing spots. A lot of times, especially on St. Clair you share a good spot or area with a few other guys who found it and figured it out on their own. Sharing with a few guys who found the spot on their own isn't a big deal, because if they can find it they are good enough to have other spots that they use. When someone who isn't as good a finding their own fish is given a spot they tend to milk it and overfish it, because they have no place better or new to go to. Also telling one guy is like telling three or four guys, as a result these spots become community holes pretty fast. I've seen some very good water get burned out very fast on St. Clair in a hurry. It doesn't bother me that the spots are gone, I can find more fish but it bothers that guys who didn't put the time or effort into finding the area are the ones burning it out. Not saying don't share information, but remember when you get specific that you may open up an area to more people than you intended. I've seen some good anglers get pushed out of their own water by this, and it wasn't right.
-Matt
Quote from: nitroderrek on June 29, 2006, 04:32:33 PM
i am interested as well...? i just got my captain's license...
Congrats D. If i get on a mess of 2lbers out there, i will send ya the WPs. Good Luck, man!
PB himself :-\'
People will not share spots if they are fishing a lot of tournaments. Rev's idea is good but only for C & R. I fished one tournament last year out on St. Clair and previous to that the last one I fished out there was in 2003. When I go to St. Clair, I go for fun. That means catch and release. I have shared a lot of spots with a lot of people I know because I don't care about making money or BFL or FLW or BASS or NBAA or any of the other organizations out there running tournaments. I absolutely love bass fishing more than life itself at times. I only fish one tournament a week. I have sponsors that take care of me for that and would probably give me more if I wanted to fish more tournaments. But I don't.
What I DO care about is fishing for bass with my kids and family. Those are special moments and that is my "rush". I go a lot by myself, too.
My daughter loves to explore and since I fish with her most of the time, we go exploring. So we find a lot of spots on St. Clair that have held some quality fish over the years. I have been fishing St. Clair since I was 6 years old with Uncle Bob. :D He had many different boats. We would drift across Lake St. Clair from one end to the other when the water mucky and catch everything that swam in that lake. I can tell you all that back then in the 1960's that water was TERRIBLE. You would wonder how you could catch fish in that lake. The water was BROWN. :'( You could not see a foot. But there were quality fish. A lot less quality fish. No where near as many weed beds. All the boulders are still in the same places. :o But Uncle Bob and I had some good times fishing. I fished with him until I was 17 when he and my aunt retired and went to Florida.
Any way there are spots out there that I fish and watch all you St. Clair tournament guys blow right by me. I think I told that to Wayne Carpenter at the Novi Show after his seminar and I won the raffle of those real cool tubes he sells. My daughter and I have caught and released some real nice hogs out there over the last 5 years. We have had some great times. I hope she takes that tradition with her to her family. She asks me all the time how I know all these spots and spend countless hours while we are fishing telling her Uncle Bob stories about drifting across St. Clair from one end to the other...... North,South, East, and West. I will share some spots with people if the people are not fishing tournaments on them. If you are, then all you are going to do is wreck the fishing for me and my daughter and then later my son when he is a little older.
Before I get off my soap box I would like to say that Wayne Carpenter's stuff about St. Clair correlates with my fishing log book. Fish on St. Clair can be in spots you would never ever think of them being. Any way I am done now and am relinquishing the soap box to whoever would be next.
BD ;D