Is social networking killing your spots ?

[Grainraiser]

I had a white bass creek spot that produced fish every spring. It got posted on Facebook and social media and anglers came in like locust. With google earth it was just a matter of time before it was discovered. The issue is folks trashed the place, parked their cars in homeowners driveways and left dead fish in the streets. The HOA shut it down quickly. I still fish the spot but I know have to park my truck a mile away and go in with my bike. So far no one else has figured out how I get access to the creek.

[wannabe fisherman]

Just a new way of scouting for fish

AND a lot cheaper that any live scope !!

[BroKenneth]

Ive seen it ruin a few spots. Someone picked out a background from one of my pictures actually, i tried my best to hide it and you were only knowing about it if you had fished it before. Next day there was a known FB spot jumper fishing it and taking pictures of every fish. That evening it was on every local group, with him telling where the fish were biting and sharing all the pics. The day after there was about 15 of the FB spot chasers, all taking pictures. That evening there was about 14 out of the 15 sharing their pictures in every local group and thanking the first guy for the information. That spot was ruined for 6 months after that. You couldnt even get close to it on a weekend for a month

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

There’s a old saying: if you don’t want a secret told, don’t tell it. Wise advice. If you don’t want people to know your spots, don’t post pictures in your spot.


Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com

[Herewego]

Never thought much about the google map photos but people wanting to know what, where and when about your fish catching locations has always been that way.
I’ve told people what, when and where and they still didn’t catch many. You gotta know how to catchem in the mouth. Lol


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Ketchn]

Not being on any of the common social media, CDC keeps me in touch with the people I care to pay attention to. I’ve heard of folks posting of different things and never being able to enjoy them again. What aggravates me are the folks that befriend you and have long conversations of things fishing with no other intention than to figure out where you’re fishing so that they can capitalize on your luck and take it for themselves and leaving your happy spot with nothing. Then being belligerent about it and figuring that it’s the way things should be done and because it’s not yours on paper and therefore it’s theirs to use or abuse at their will. Trolling takes many forms.

you should see how many "friends" I get around deer season .....

[up2specks]

Closed-lips invite no enemy! About 15 years ago, I'm Grouper fishing w/friends, my boat, in Florida's Gulf about 25 miles off-shore. Hours later, from about 1/2 mile away, a Guide's rig w/clients, noticably alters his course to within about 100 yards or so of me. A friend asks "Is that a friend"? My reply "No, not likely to be in the future either"...he just saved my spot via GPS co-ordinates!

[Ketchn]

If the pins don’t do it the spy balloons will.

no doubt , that and the drones .....

[Ketchn]

it gets WAY better ya"ll , most folks think they can turn off the "location" on the phone images and that will reduce the really serious snoopers .....
those folks often do not realize that some phones still have an EXIF file embedded in the image as well ....
some of the "pros" used to search images to find spots that way back when ....NOT kidding ...
I used to copy and clean EVERY image due to this very subject , the lengths some will sleuth is amazing ......

[DockShootinJack]

Good thread

[Yak Fish]

I used to work in a tackle shop and each year dozens of people going to a large local reservoir would ask me where they could go to catch some crappie (& deer hunters asked me where they could hunt). I would send them all to the same locations. There were definitely fish (or deer) in that area, but it was up to them to do the fine tuning. I could safely send fishermen to the same bridge because there are always fish there year 'round. The place where I sent the deer hunters had easy public access, an abundance of deer, and I knew to tell friends to stay away from that block of woods. It was gratifying to have some of those customers return to the shop with success stories or deer to check in.

I cover so much water pulling crankbaits, most people try to find out what I'm using versus where I'm using it.

Jim