Hotspotting. Spilling the beans. Blabbing your big, fat mouth. Kiss and tell. No matter what you call it, mentioning online where you’re fishing can raise some grizzled hackles and get you blackballed. Cold-shouldered. Kicked out of the brotherhood of the angle.

There’s a stream I know, a relatively small thing. I like to fish it. My fishing buddy Dan is the one who introduced me to it. I recently had a banner day there. It is called “Bonneville Creek” by us. That is not its name. Dan asked me not to tell anyone about this creek. I keep that promise.

There’s a bigger river, it is wide and long. It has beautiful scenery and even more beautiful fish. It’s a few hours from my house. It is my favorite river to fish. It is the Greys River in Wyoming.

Why would I name one, my favorite river of all time, but not the other?

First, let’s take a look at some of the reasons to take into consideration when revealing your fishing location (I’m sure I missed some too):

• fishing pressure
  • existing
  • projected
  • what it could handle without degrading the fishery
• size of fish
• catchability of the fish
• average number of fish caught
• specific hatches
• location of water
  • remoteness
  • accessibility to urban populations
• accessibility to water
  • distance from parking
  • overgrowth/undergrowth
  • public/private
• regulations
• size of water
• proximity to other, more “famous” waters
• if fish are/aren’t caught
• species present in the water
  • your favorite
  • species of concern
• size of audience of the “publication” that does the naming
• habitat condition
  • pristine
  • need for rehabilitation
• existing information about the water to be fished
  • local knowledge (word of mouth)
  • widespread knowledge (published in books, magazines or popular online sites)
  • research data

Many of these criteria are interrelated and play off each other: size of the water will dictate what kind of fishing pressure might be acceptable. The larger the water, the more widespread the knowledge about the water will be. Etc.

I believe the term “hotspotting” more typically refers to naming a specific location on a water where the fish are being caught. As far as this post is concerned, that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m only referring to naming the creek, river, stream, lake, etc., not the precise location on that water.

Everybody comes up with the criteria that guides their decision as to whether they will name a location or not.  I have noticed that some people tend to be more paranoid than others and feel that all naming of places is unacceptable. That’s their prerogative.

Here’s my theory. I’m not too worried about many of the places I personally go because they are either too far away from major population centers, require too much work to get there, and usually contain too small of fish for most anglers to bother with. Or it’s such a large body of water with so many possibilities that a few more on the river won’t bother the fishing.

I figure almost any water that is an hour or more from any sizable population center (let’s say 20,000 or more), and requires a mile hike or more to get to the water, there probably isn’t too much of a concern naming the water. Most anglers just aren’t going to be bothered with the time and effort to go there. Unless the size of the fish is something special (say the average is 16″ or greater). But let’s face it, there really aren’t a lot of those waters around. Most anglers are too lazy to take the time and effort when the reward is smaller fish.

I also take a slightly snobbish/elitist/misguided (whatever you want to call it) approach that those who are looking for native species, which are often smaller, are typically not your trash-the-habitat and harvest-all-the-fish types of anglers. Part of the psyche of the native species angler is that they like the pristine conditions associated with the species they are after. If anything, they might be a little more of the hardcore environmentalist type. These are just the type of people I would like to see find the locations I fish so they will become involved in the protecting of the habitat and fish species.

Another factor is that my blog has a fairly small readership, and I’m not too worried about those couple of people fishing the waters I mention—it won’t impact the waterways because there aren’t enough readers who live close enough to make an impact. That leaves those who are not regular readers of my blog who may stumble across my blog. But the only way that is going to happen is through a search. If they did a search for a river I have named, they already know the name of the river, so I’m not telling them anything they don’t know, other than a fishing report.

Let’s look at this a bit more closely. Let’s say I have the name of a creek in mind. Let’s make it the Thomas Fork that runs along the eastern edge of Idaho. Trout Unlimited had an article in their magazine about the creek about three years ago, that’s when it first crossed my radar. It’s about an hour and a half drive from my house. Well, I just got finished “naming” the river. Let’s say someone out there really loves fishing this river. Are they now mad because I just named the river? Possibly, even though I didn’t say anything about the quality of the river. Even though Trout Unlimited had an article about it that reached a far larger readership than I can possibly hope to reach. Even though the book, Flyfisher’s Guide to Idaho mentions the river. Even though the following documents online not only mentions Thomas Fork, but has maps, fish density, etc.: Management Plan for Conservation of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout In Idaho; Movements of Fluvial Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in the Thomas Fork of the Bear River, Idaho–Wyoming; Or TU’s famous CSI. Even though all those places mention it, if I happen to mention it on my blog, and somebody out there likes that river, they’ll get mad at me if I talk about that river on my blog. But, like I said before, anyone stumbling across my site is just as likely to stumble across these other sources as well.

Since my main species of concern are native species, I’m really not that worried about naming any place that has nonnative species, no matter the fish size, location, etc.

But there is the conundrum one is faced with when the talk turns to species of concern. There are two camps here: name the waters so something can be done to protect them, don’t them so they remain protected because no one will know, so they won’t get fished out. The problem with the “don’t name them” camp is that considerably more damage is being done to habitats by cattle grazing and improper stocking than by anglers. The more anglers who are aware of the waters, and can see the problems already existing there, then the more pressure can be put on management agencies to do something about it.

So,why do I name Greys but not “Bonneville”? The main reason is that Greys is large (50+ miles) and can handle more pressure. Bonneville is small (about 1 mile of fishable water) and couldn’t handle any more pressure. A couple of ancillary reasons is that Greys is near another, more “famous” river that relieves any pressure Greys would get if the other river weren’t so close. Bonneville—no such luck. Many people in the area around the Greys are already familiar with it. Bonneville, not really, it’s pretty much a “secret” creek in that I’ve never seen it mentioned in any of the popular literature (it is found in research literature).

The overriding reason why I’m a “kiss and a tell” angler is because I like to share—I want others who are willing to put the time and effort in, to find the same joys I find. I don’t want to offend anyone, but it seems almost childish when I come across the paranoid types who withhold all names in all circumstances, even when the likelihood of enough other people angling there that it becomes a problem (and I propose that few waters actually fall into this category). It comes across as, “It’s mine and you can’t have it.” Are there times when some names should be held in reserve? Of course there are, like “Bonneville Creek”—I kiss and hold this one tight to my lips.

Quiz

Let’s look at a couple of scenarios to see if there is any reason someone shouldn’t name the water on their blog or fishing forum:

1. Would you not name any of these: North Umpqua, Sacramento, Madison, Green, Au Sable, Potomac or Delaware.
2. A remote, 18″ wide, 1 mile long desert creek down a 30 mile, two-track dirt road followed by a 6 mile hike with a 3000′ elevation gain to:
   a) potentially catch a couple of 6″
   1. Yellowstone cutthroat.
   2. stocked rainbow.
   3. browns.
   4. bluegills.
   5. yellowfin cutthroat. (this one is thrown in to test your cutthroat smarts)

   b) consistently catch dozens of 6″

   1. Yellowstone cutthroat.
   2. stocked rainbow.
   3. browns.
   4. bluegills.
   5. yellowfin cutthroat.
3. A remote, 20′ wide, 15 mile long desert stream down a 30 mile, two-track dirt road followed by a 6 mile hike with a 3000′ elevation gain to potentially catch one 30″ brown trout.
4. A stream, close to your hometown (population 100,000), that is 4 miles long, 10′ wide, no one ever seems to fish, but you
   a) consistently catch five or so 4″-8″ trout.
   b) consistently catch five or so 14″-18″ trout.
5. A stream, 1500 miles from your hometown, but near a city (population 100,000), that is 4 miles long, 10′ wide, and the one time you went there you caught
   a) five or so 4″-8″ trout.
   b) five or so 14″-18″ trout.
   c) one 23″ trout and one 12″ torut.
   d) no fish, but you saw some rises.

.

There are plenty more scenarios. But I’d like to know, when do you kiss, but not tell?

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