I would imagine that in these times of social media and everybody having at least some kind of way to shoot photos or video literally in their pocket, very few good fish captures which are put out there into the world remain secret only to the captor. The only way you can (almost, but not quite) guarantee that nobody knows where you caught a specific fish is to be fishing on your own and never tell a single soul about a specific capture, let alone go posting photos of it on social media. Even then there is always a chance that somebody saw you fishing somewhere or something like that. What many anglers also don’t realise is how small the fishing world really is, and how information moves around in different ways. Or how well people are connected these days. It isn’t always a good thing of course, but you get my drift.
In areas of the world where there are plenty of anglers you would hear rumours of particular fish back in the day - before social media! - and then via friends and contacts, sometimes you’d end up hearing where it was caught. I can’t see the point in chasing a fish that’s already been caught, but on the other hand it’s interesting to know more about whether certain areas might be producing fish or not etc. I guess that local tackle shops were the natural meeting places for plenty of local anglers, and whilst I sincerely hope that many of them still are, these days we obviously have so much of the social media thing going on.
What I would urge any of you who enjoy posting photos on the various social media platforms to do is get better at hiding where you are fishing if you want to try and keep it as quiet as possible where you caught a specific fish. I would also suggest that if it doesn’t bother you personally, there may well be other local anglers who fish the same spot and whom it does bother. I personally value quiet fishing as much as possible. Why do you think I often shoot grip and grins either looking down on the angler to hide the background - as per above - or when possible, shoot the grin and grin against the sky and with nothing in the background - as per below. I know a number of anglers who are absolute ninjas at working out where a specific fish was caught from a few clues left unintentionally in a photograph though………….
I am not one of those ninjas, but sometimes stuff just jumps out at you because you know the location already. I recall a cracking 11lb bass that was caught on a lure a few years ago by a nice lad I loosely know. A bass of a lifetime for starters, but when I saw the grip and grin which I guess was shot by whoever the lad was fishing with, I recognised something very specific but not remotely obvious in the background. I could tell that it was a spot that a couple of us used to fish at least twenty years ago, for mullet I might add, and we never, ever saw any other anglers around and about. I can’t imagine that anybody else saw the photo of that 11lb bass and recognised the spot, but you get my point. It’s not as if I would then go around blabbing about it, but be careful. We live on a small island with a hell of a lot of people. Quiet fishing spots are at a premium and not all anglers are good people.
If you are well connected into some sort of fishing grapevine then you tend to hear where at least some good fish come from. Some anglers will chase caught fish and some won’t, but at the very least when you hear about where good fish were caught it helps you learn a bit more about different areas and what they could produce and so on. An angler I loosely know caught a donkey of a bass earlier this year, around the 13lb mark I believe, but even before he caught the fish - huge credit and respect to any angler who catches a fish of a lifetime like this - a few of us had already heard about where he was fishing and when. I don’t fish the spot myself but the fishing grapevine had already done its thing. Somebody who knows somebody else sees somebody who talks to somebody and so on. It matters not of course because the fish has already been caught, but you get my drift. Some spots can take a few anglers, but many can’t.
And then you come to where I do my co-guiding work in SW Ireland. There are so few anglers around and about that there is basically no local grapevine at all. John Quinlan guides anglers nearly all year long and for 99% of the time he is going on his own knowledge of his local waters - which anglers need to do of course, but at least many of us might hear about fish being caught in a relatively specific area and we might have a few marks up our sleeves which tie in to this information a bit. Imagine literally never hearing about other fish being caught because there is virtually nobody else out fishing. You are your own grapevine. Bloody awesome on the one hand, but it can also be a bit difficult trying to work out where to go fishing when there is so much ground and so much choice. A mighty fine set of “problems” to come up against when you think about it in fact, but once again I am sure you get my drift.