If you like watching line get peeled off your reel at warp speed....that would be an excellent choice

dont tell anyone, but 1 time i hooked a fish in this 1 river while standing on a rock along the bank.

I can't tell you how many times I've said..."oh look! it's that high bank on the Queets below the salmon! It's time!!!"

or the Hump, or the Nooch, or the upper Sky, or Hoh or half the other rivers I've only been down once or trice....

This is from Hooten's new book, which is worth the read "Skeena Steelhead" Unknown Past, Uncertain Future, which I thought put it in perspective.


There is one more feature of the changing steelhead
fishing landscape that has had as much bearing on
angling traffic and distribution and angler efficiency
as roads, helicopters and jet boats ever did. I'm talking
www here. The internet offers up instant updates on
water and weather conditions, fish supply, latest and
greatest equipment and techniques, where when and
how to ((get 'em", who to hire to guarantee success,
yada, yada, yada. A digital equivalent of a fishing
Super Store provides up-to-the-minute fishing reports
on rivers from Smithers to Prince Rupert and the
news and availability on anything between rubber
worms and riparian real estate to both neophytes and
veterans. Nothing is left to chance or self discovery
any more. Odds have been shortened dramatically.
What took years for an entry-level angler to learn
a generation ago is mere mouse clicks away. No
apprenticeship necessary. Fish porn proliferates at a
steadily accelerating pace on bulletin boards, blogs
and YouTube. Addicts inflate their egos with kissand-
tell and hero worshippers thrive on their every
word and video clip. Then, when they show up and
find competition around every bend of the river, they
complain about crowding. In the near term the internet
may be the best thing that ever happened in the eyes of
many fishermen. They'll learn otherwise in the longer
term as the object of their affection bears the cost.

Good summary.

" what's that? Where to go?HA! Do it the way it should be done, get a good map, a copy of the regulations, fill up your tank and start driving, my friends........ I'd rather be strapped face down, naked, onto a block of ice with my ex-wife's lawyer with country music blaring over speakers while chewing aluminum foil than sell out my zipperlip streams. Just chant my mantra.. how to always. Where to never.

- bill herzog

I like that. "How to always. Where to never."

Key words..."my zipper lip streams" he might not talk about his zipper lips, but they definitely covered a few streams that I like to fish in detail this year on the show. For instance, two winters ago my buddies and I found a nice pool with a bunch of summer runs holding. We didn't know what we were doing at the time and only one of us hooked a fish. We decided we'd try the hole for winter fish that year. We returned that winter. The three of us managed to hook 8 winter hatchery fish in a few hours out of that hole all the while only seeing two other guys fishing who were also hooking quite a few. This year, two weeks before we were to return to this stream I'm listening to NWWC and here this location described in detail. By the time we got there it was damn near elbow fishing and getting close to reiter status.

Please don't get me wrong here. I'm a herzog fan. It was his books that taught me to read water under different conditions and to fish spoons successfully for steelhead. I also listen to the show while I work on Saturdays. I'm guilty myself of posting pics with too much in the background, especially the pic post I did on my October summer run trip to the east side.

I've learned a ton since I joined this site and met some great friends. I'll stop rambling now, as I've realized that I didn't even say anything worth typing but I typed it so I'll post it.

In summation, here is my theory: Internet fishing forums and outdoor radio shows really are a double edged sword. We love em and hate em at the same time.

electronics in general have made "experts" out of many......

GPS probably more than any other single thing.
Cell phone technology number two.
Fish finders and radar number three.

There's no going back to using triangulation and a weighted depth line and hours of current observations for salt water hot spots.

Couple all that with population growth and well, fishin' ain't what it used to be.

There are still many off the beaten path adventures to be had and in most cases the limiting factors don't have to do with access to information. There is something still to be said for good old fashion blood, sweat, and tears. Some of my favorite places will remain uncrowded not because others don't know where they are or don't want to get there, but because either they can't or they aren't willing to put in the time, effort, and $ to do it.

Drew, zipperlip and hatchery fish in the same sentence? Really?

The internet = easier access to information that has always been available. These days those that want to know have to invest far less than in years past. This isn't specific to the fishing world. The same can be said for most other aspects of life on this planet as well. For example, my first trip to the Alaska Range in the early 2000's, which wasn't that long ago. There were no guide books, very little published about climbing routes and peaks, and sketchy maps at best. If you wanted info about a peak, place, or route, you needed to talk to someone that had been there so that is what everyone did. The quality of information you got depended on either your ability to develop rapport, your resume, or who you knew. Now there are a handful of guidebooks, dozens of internet sites and chat boards with up to the minute conditions, and move by move info on most any route that might strike an average Joe's fancy. As a result, there are a lot more people in the range and on the published routes than even just a handful of years ago. When I hear people say that the range is "crowded" I just laugh though.

Granted, your backyard streams or favorite hole might not be what it once was, and getting away from the crowds might take a little more imagination, but it can be done. Broaden your horizons, plan an adventure and carry it out, and embrace the weekend warrior stuff for what it is, cheap entertainment.

How does the old saying go? "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone." I would be curious to know how many here have never altered their decision making process based on, or even gone directly in search of "where and when" info on this site. It seems funny to me that so many are quick to criticize something that we have all made use of at one time or another if not on a regular basis.

That's not so difficult Coley, if you happen to be an old fart. Every river I've fished since the internet, I also fished before the internet. That's why I posted earlier - mainly as a joke - about the PP crowd being so stingy, cuz I haven't learned one single new fishing hole as a result of the forum.

Fair enough. Perhaps you have nothing new to learn in the "where" category. How about the "when" and "what/how?" categories?

Coley,

The what and how catagories have all been been bait thuggery, so my salmon fishing has taken an uptick, as have some less savory aspects of steelhead/trout fishing.

Sg

lol

You gonna be OK after getting down in the mud like that?

It's hard to stir the mud unless I get in it. Come on, doncha' have a zinggg or sumpin'?

i can deal with the fact that the population is growing, and good fishing areas are decreasing. with our society, it's just kind of a fact of life.

when reports shouting out the where, when and how get put up on the net, the mentioned areas get overrun by slob fishermen. they show up, leave garbage all over, piss off land owners, then once fishing cools off, they disappear until the next hot report comes out.

there are plenty of places that are known, or were known in the past that can offer good fishing under the radar. i've seen first hand many, many times how pressure can be light and fishing good, then comes the online reports with all the glory shots and a full writeup, all of a sudden out come the report chasers.

if anything, it's altered my fishing habits to focus more on the early and late parts of a run where there are enough fish around to make it worth the effort, with a lot less pressure than the peak of the run.

I agree.....pretty tough, in my area of the State.....to having not been to or fished a river or body of water. Gone are the days of being completely alone on most bodies of water.......but what is even more amazing to me, is the ages of many I see on rivers today.....where is pride of doing a job and earning a liveyhood, and not living on the "public dole"?????????

How to never. Where to never.

With each click you become more anxious about whether you're doing it right, in the right spot, to become the next Legend weeping over a "20 pound" "hawg" who is for some reason named "Ike".

Guide books, news papers, radio etc., though around long before the Internet, do not spawn the same variety of collective fish lust. I swear some anglers fish mainly so they can post photos of their catch online and bask in the e-accolades that follow. My only regret is that I participated in some of this before my frontal lobe had fully matured.

Fishing forums have their purpose - providing a means for organizing efforts to help fish, or for organizing against forces that threaten to destroy fish/fishing, for example. The unfortunate development is that fishing reports on fishing forums seem to have become one of those forces.

Before you post your next report ask yourself how much telling a bunch of strangers about it will add to your enjoyment of the trip. If the report is for your friends, email it to your friends or give them a call.

Or not.

-IS

I kinow the internet, magazines, radio shows have all done their share but I feel there is one other factor.

That is the popularity/acceptance of people using Spinning Reel set ups.

Before you all laugh, think about it. When many of us 1st started, it was "learn to use a baitcaster". As many of us know, it is'nt always easy for people to learn on and use. Now I go to spots where I would never see anyone fishing with a Spinning Reel and not only are they using them, but they are out numbering Baitcasters. And some of these spots are those "out of the way" spots we all love.

So when I see the bigger crowds, see 8+ people in a spot where I rarely would see 2 and 5 of the 8 are using Spinning Reels I have to ask;

If these people had to rely on using Baitcasters, would they be here or would the frustration have gotten the better of them. My guess is that a lot of them wouldn't be there.

Kevykev,

Talk about thinning out the crowds, imagine how much space you could find on the water if recreational fishing were restricted to split cane bamboo fly rods, reels made in England, silk fly lines, and natural gut leaders. Now ye'r talkin'!

Sg