You know, the more I have thought about this, the more it really irritates the [censored] outta me. What ever happend to the days of a man going out and catching fish on his own? How did you people manage to ever catch any fish before the internet?

Dave

Well said Frank and I hear you. I was taught by my Dad and grand fathers when I was growing up as well. I am still learning new things everytime I go out. The problem I have is guys only wantign to know where to go to catch them and what you caught them on. And the guys that call you a commie if you don't...

Dave

You know, the more I have thought about this, the more it really irritates the [censored] outta me. What ever happend to the days of a man going out and catching fish on his own? How did you people manage to ever catch any fish before the internet? These days everyone wants everything handed to them and to be spoonfed how to do things. You wanna catch fish like these? Get out on the water your self and start fishing, that's how! Trial and error with different baits, patterns, structures... For the love of God people, quit waiting for everythign to be given to you... Oh, I feel much better now.

Dave

HP glad you didn't take it the wrong way. For sure have had my share of "trials" out on the lake over the years and some of the way people treated me was unreal. One guy pulled up beside me and some buddies fishing a hole couple years ago and he says to me, "Why don't you get the "F" out of here you've caught enough fish." Now I'm about your size and was a golden gloves boxer back in the day. My first thought was to knock him out. But the "new" me said, "Sure tell you what let me pull back and you pull up here and catch you some fish." He was so dumbfounded I could have thrown my slab at him and he would have taken the bait! That is one of many times I killed them with kindness. I wasn't always that way. The good Lord and a great wife of 30-years turned me around! Happy Fishing!

Hunters and gatherers evolvled along the way, they learned new tricks from other people and used various tools to get what they wanted. This forum is one such tool, to help us less gifted anglers learn how to make our time on the water more productive. As we evolve over the years we share this information with our fellow TFF'ers, hoping to help someone else the way we were helped. When I first started fishing for sandies, hybrids and stripers, I would get skunked nine times out of ten. I hired numerous guides on numerous lakes and learned a great deal from them. I also learned a butt load of things on this forum, now my humbling days of getting skunked are few and far between. Although I am still in the learning phase of fishing, I still take the time to give detailed reports from my trips with enough information to help others that may not be fortunate enough to spend as much time on the water as I do.

I don't have a dog in this fight but wanted to chime in. I private guide select people and like you said did a lot of trial and error fishing over the years. But also like many of us, before the Internet, good old boys taught this young pup at that time the ropes. That was what I loved the most is those guys were willing to teach me and share with me a lot of their wisdom. Most of those men are with the great Fisherman of men in the sky and my memories are rich because of them. Just lost one a couple weeks ago. This man took me along and paid my expenses to a world class fly fishing trip to Wyoming. At his funeral I committed to continue taking his grandkids fishing as I've taken them in the past. Lot of people call that paying it forward. I'm relatively new to this Forum but I've already shared with a lot of people my tips and my tricks. It's been my experience that the good book tells us in (Acts 20:35) that it is more blessed to give than to receive. When we are asked to share we are playing the role of those good old boys, were just doing it digitally. Life is too short. Let's help one another while we can.... Best Regards- Frank.

Well, so everybody will quit crying and no one else will get their feeling hurt, yes, it was Proctor. You want GPS coordinates now too?

Dave

What a great discussion! And I love helping the boat next to me that isn't catching squat by throwing them a couple of slabs that they've never seen before so they can get in on the action.

Yesterday evening, however, as I was about to pitch out a marker on a big school of hybrids, my fishing buddy reminded me that that can be an invitation to half of the lake and that our evening can quickly come to a halt (esp. on Ray Hubbard?). Oh, how true...... So I kept the buoy and we fished our spot by sight.

I love to help out but it does seem that the original poster has a point..... Some of us put ourselves in a position to be taken advantage of without meaning to. I don't blame him one bit for not broadcasting the specific location on Proctor only to go back tomorrow and find 10 guys shoulder to shoulder because of his willingness to give the rest of us some motivation.

Fantastic discussion gang. I think this is the beauty of TFF.

Jackson