Mike, I must, unfortunately, disagree with you. In my opinion, there are questions that should be asked, and there are questions that shouldn't be asked. When I joined this mailing list, I was under the impression that there was a gentleman's pact not to give away secret spots.
Let's do a little role-play for a minute, shall we? Say you had a beautiful little creek in the desert that had some nice fish in it, and was just about unknown except to a few. Every time you went there, you had it to yourself, and that was a good thing, because such small creeks cannot take a lot of pressure. Now let's say that someone posts something about it on the Internet, and the next time you go out there, you find six other "gentlemen" on your creek, after having driven a large amount of miles. On such a small creek, you may not be able to fish at all with that many people there. Perhaps this has never happened to you. If you want to know how it feels, ask Kent Lufkin, I seem to remember something about a newspaper article and a lake. Would you sing the same tune if someone were to go and post the GPS coordinates of your favorite little hidden lake, or your favorite steelhead pool, where you used to be able to go and fish all day without seeing someone? Where the fish were large, and after that day, the fishing slowly got worse? Secret spots have been around for as long as fishing have been around, my father had them, my grandfather had them, and I hope one day my sons have them. I've spent six months finding this spot, searching through watershed maps, aerial photography, topographic maps, talking to people, driving down dead end roads, hiking miles through the desert... So yes, I as a list member have a problem with people asking questions, and specifically with people posting answers about certain creeks, because to some of us, they are "secrets". I CARE for the pertinence of certain questions, because it affects me. That IS my business. In addition, I don't believe that Tom's question was a "pertinent fly fishing question". Trying to get free information about secret desert creeks is not a pertinent fly fishing question. Tom, nothing against you personally, it's just that in my opinion, some spots, in particular sensitive ones, have to be earned. I don't believe such spots should be given out to everyone, partly because of the sensitivity of such places, and by posting it on the Internet, you are giving it out to everyone. Yes, everyone on the WaFF mailing list, and anyone who cares to view the archive on the web page. Just my 2 cents. Ryan Davey MSN GSC Calling Fly Fishing a hobby is like calling Brain Surgery a job. - Paul Schullery -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Santangelo Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 12:10 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Where is Rattlesnake Creek? or de facto censorship Tom, It is a shame that you, and probably others, don't ask pertinent fly fishing questions because of admonishment by others on the list. There is only one participate on this list that can admonish or censor anybody as far as that is concerned. That is the list owner. Others may not care for the pertinence of a question, but that isn't their business. On second thought, they aren't afraid of your asking the question. They are afraid of somebody answering it. But, if someone wants to answer, that is their business as well. This list has gone thru this "fear of asking" tactic before. It seems to have worked. Washington Fly Fishing.com is experiencing now. I don't believe it should be so. Mike Santangelo -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of T. Lang Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 1:10 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Where is Rattlesnake Creek? Interesting.... I have some ideas, but I don't want to give anything away.... As was pointed out to me the last time I asked about Rattlesnake I was admonished to do my own exploring and not to expect to be given any easy information. I also don't want to expose any "secret" fishing spots since un-pressured water is hard to find. I will say, however, that my Streams Map of Washington lists about 6 Rattlesnake Creeks, and at least one of them could be a likely suspect.... provided the Creek of Lore really is named Rattlesnake. There's some other suspects, too. BTW, Ryan, what does "ROTFL" mean? Thanks, Tom _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
