Chasing reports is indeed a problem and I know what you mean having chased my fair share when I was much younger. But to say that spots can’t be burned is a mistake. What I failed to convey in my last post is I’ve learned first hand from mistakes I made and I have concrete numbers to prove my point. Back 10 years ago or so I wrote an article about a “Surf Fishing Parking Permit” that my local community instituted to allow surf fishermen parking access in areas where parking was normally not permitted. Without getting into details here - my intent was to show other surfcasting communities how to deal with potential parking problems in their own areas.
To make a long story short the city I live in issued “Triple” the amount of permits in one season after my article was published – three years later the number issued was 239 - a majority were issued to out of town fishermen. I had people calling me from all over wanting to know more about the permit – these guys were not chasing a “fish report” but were looking for a new place to cast.
The article back-fired big time and the city fathers let me know about it. I screwed-up. So I know first hand how a “where to” article, however inadvertent, can have an effect on location.
Put that kind of info on a website and it goes on and on forever and a simple goggle search will find it.
One thing about these spot burn posts - it sure gets people reading these boards.
John must love it.
DZ