Salmon River O.P. "Secret Location!"

[Mike Carey]

Are you sure you've been fishing it for 15 years Nate? The last 2 years have been more packed than ever. You can't say the Internet didn't blow it up because I'd have banner days down there with little people around them the reports game flooding in 3 years ago on here and gamefishin and the place definately saw a major increase of anglers.

The genie got out of the technology bottle years ago. Griping and being angry about it isn't going to change anything. Which is my position. Let's focus on preserving the resource by educating anglers and fighting poachers/litterers, instead of getting out of joint every time a fishing location gets mentioned on a site.
Screaming at people doesn't solve anything. It's a form of intimidation which ultimately will fail. Rather than use one's energy in a negative way, why not use that energy positively?

[Bodofish]

Screaming is much better reserved for those dropping beer cans and McD wrappers.

[RiverChromeGS]

Screaming is much better reserved for those dropping beer cans and McD wrappers.

Yeehaw!

[natetreat]

Yes Metal, I've been fishing the system for 15 years. Probably more now that I think about it. Born and raised in Centralia, on the river, fished it before school, after, swam and floated in it in the summer. My first salmon came out of the river, my first searun cutt, my first sturgeon. Oh yea, cats outta the bag now, there be sturgeon in that river! And there have been guys plunking bloody run, floating bobbers and jigs and big ole okie drifters through it since I was a kid. Sure it was mostly locals, but there were a lot of 'em when the fish were in.

[JS]

After reading this entire thread, I can not possibly comment on all that has been said .

My view on this whole "secret spot" thing is a numbers game and is as follows:
Take the number of members on this site and compare it to the number of licensed anglers (most recent info i could find was from 2006, that year there were around 600,000 licenses issued). Im sure that in the past six years that figure has increased a fair amount right along with our population (around 6.8 million statewide). OH and dont forget our non-licensed "angler" friends too! (most of the problem at the meat holes AKA "secret spots" LOL).
You see that WALAKES.COM is a small fish in a big pond of information (regarding exposure to the masses) and absolutely does not reach every angler. I fish three to four days a week all over this side of the state and i always ask people if they belong to this web site, more often than not I am told they have never even heard of it.
To sum it up, THANK YOU MIKE and everyone else who positively promotes this website! There is no way that it is having a negative impact on our fishing community what so ever. Period. Anyone who disagrees, should help their own "cause" and leave the site. If its sooo "bad" for your "secret spots" then quit contributing to this wonderful resource. Your precious secret spots will still be given away when you are gone.
Im gonna go fish the green river this weekend in the middle of the most populated county in our state, and you know what, I wont see another soul while im fishing my holes. Surely that must mean that its a secret spot!

[gonnahookit]

After reading this entire thread, I can not possibly comment on all that has been said .

Neither can I.

Having read all of this thread with great interest, and a little derision at those that think they can keep their "secret place" a "secret place" forever, I'll just say this:

I need to learn some of these secret spots. And what better way to learn how/where to catch my very first steelhead???

Nate, you'll have a PM soon...

[schu7498]

Well said JS that was exactly what I was thinking!

[RiverChromeGS]

Well said JS, like i said earlier, compared to the amount of fishermen out there this website could not possibly have such an impact some are saying it has, just no way. Just complainers complaining

[natetreat]

Well said JS, like i said earlier, compared to the amount of fishermen out there this website could not possibly have such an impact some are saying it has, just no way. Just complainers complaining

Word. Personally, I'd like to see fishermen more spread out on all our rivers. Some of the runs I fish don't see nearly the pressure that they could handle, and we get a lot of customers on our nearby fall backs. If all the rivers were fished evenly, we'd all be happy campers and our spots wouldn't get so crowded. Personally the further I drive for a fish, the more meaningful a catch it is. Even if I'm just driving back home to the Cowlitz. Nothing puts a smile on my face than showing up to the barrier dam at 1 pm and gearing talking to my fellow seattlites asking them how the fishing was doing. "Slow" they will inevitably tell me until I make three casts and bring in three lunkers. Plus some of the guys I've met on the river have become my good friends! Nothing makes a more solid friendship than one started over a good day of fishing. I've fished with kids and their parents, and those kids are still good friends even though they're like 16, they still call me up for a good time on the river. Fishing should be shared with as many people as we can, because I tell you what, early morning tight lines are hella more addictive than keggers, crack cocaine, the pot and crazy one night stands with the quarterback. I'd rather our kids get "hooked" on fishing like us rather than the other worthless pursuits that teens get into. Even if it means sharing the rivers and lakes with a few more anglers. My best memories as a child are in my kayak with my dad pulling bass out from under the logs, or wet wading summer streams for little cutthroat on my little eagle claw fiberglass rod, throwing nightcrawlers and crawdads on little Colorado blades and a bit of split shot. I want as many folks as I can to be able to get these same experiences. And besides, who's going to make the four hour drive to the Salmon more than once or twice a year? Unless we all go out there on the same day, the place aint gonna see much pressure. Can't put a drift boat in there at all, not gonna see a lotta folks. I mean come on, I've never seen another angler on the majority of the spots I fish on the Queets, Hoh or Bogey. Sure if you hit the spots 30 minutes from forks you'll see folks out there, but not enough to ruin your day! I fished the Salmon hatchery on the Duc last week and we only had about four other guys out there with us on a banner day of limits all round. It's just too far for most folks to go. But they should know about it for sure. That's my job!

[Brat Bonker]

do those numbers include how many views each topic gets or how many guest check it in a day cause those ae the people that will see something is good and go fish there.

[chrome_chasin]

I found a couple of hot spots last year form this forum. The Skook was one of them. Sure made my life easier in chasing down my first winter steel in 20 years. For that I am thankful. With that said I can understand to a small degree about not sharing certain spots on the river. I was told go to the Skook, you will catch fish. Which I did and a lot of them. During my time on the Skook I found some awesome holes that I would catch plenty of fish in. I mentioned it on a different forum and the next day, bam loaded with guys. But there are lots of other spots. Now did my mentioning of this one spot cause these guys to show up, I dunno I didnt ask, maybe one or two, maybe all of them, or maybe it was a popular spot the previous year and I just beat them all to it. But it was the last time I mentioned a certain spot. I managed to find another small seam that had some fish stacked in it, and wouldnt you know, just by a couple of guys watching me carry fish out caused that spot to be over run the next weekend. There is no win or loose with keeping a spot secret unless you are willing to drive a long ways and find a river that is void of other fisherman and not to let anybody see your catch on the way home.

[chongo469]

Public forum...... Just gonna leave that here...

Now on my opinion on the matter.... I have a few spots I fish with only certain people.. Why? Because I know they won't blab on how to get to these spots ... Am I the only one who knows them, NO but few make the trek in to get them.... WL is not the only site out there and I learn new tricks and spots from a few different sites... They are all public sites and free to be posted on or looked at.... I've had several of my honey holes invaded over the years, am I mad? .. No, because it was bound to happen .... Relax, have a drink..... It will be all right....

[OFFDAAHOOK]

just cuz the river or spot got blown up dont mean the mass crowds will catch them..ive fished yesturday seen bunch of people more than ususl but most got skunk. you still got to know what you doing i seen lots of smaggers even them was skunked most had no clue what they were doing ..presentation was da key

[JS]

do those numbers include how many views each topic gets or how many guest check it in a day cause those ae the people that will see something is good and go fish there.

Im sure we could check the total number of visits this site recieves per day from guests and registered users (many of the guest visits would be from guys like me who fail to log on every time I browse the site). If the numbers were provided, you would see that it still doesnt really add up to much in the big picture and probably has no effect on the fishing. I believe the most traffic this site has seen at one time is around 250 people. (check my numbers, it is stated somewhere but i cant recall where on the site) Even if that was the norm and there was a revolving door of different people constantly monitoring the posts/reports it still wouldn't matter. Anyway, this topic really makes me think about why I love Washington so much. Born and raised here, still finding new fishing holes every year, laughing at the masses because the majority around here dont even know what they are missing! Truly one of the greatest states in our nation when it comes to fishing opportunities.

[Brat Bonker]

+infinity on the washington comment, people at my school get down when it is raining out side but all I can think of are all the salmon running upstream and how good the fishing is haha

[BentRod]

just cuz the river or spot got blown up dont mean the mass crowds will catch them..ive fished yesturday seen bunch of people more than ususl but most got skunk. you still got to know what you doing i seen lots of smaggers even them was skunked most had no clue what they were doing ..presentation was da key

+ditto

Thursday I walked up to my truck with two Silvers (lunch trip) and a guy asked me if I caught those or bought them from the natives. I thought he was joking, but in retrospect actually think he was serious. He proceeded to tell me that he'd fished all day the previous day and didn't catch anything or see anything caught and only quit because he lost all his lures and therefore believed that there were no fish in the river to catch. Now the Duwamish is about as opposite from a "secret" river as you can get, but the principle is the same. I think there are two categories of fishermen: A) The ones who have some clue of what they're doing, put in their time and do their research, and respect the fish and water; and B) Those who have no clue what they're doing, think fishing should be easy, don't respect the fish, water, or other fishermen, and give the sport a bad name....and probably the type who don't contribute to sites like this, just lurk. I believe it's those B-type are the ones who tend to rush off to the hotspots and after they get skunked they tend to go back in their holes. The only downside to reports attracting "ignorant" fishermen to a location, in my opinion, is the trash that comes with them. As much as I don't like dealing with these type on the water or the trash they leave behind, like anything else in life, they're just a part of fishing around a metropolitan area. There really are no "secret" spots on public land. That is why it's called PUBLIC land.
JMHO.