Gentlemen, something has been troubling me about some of the views expressed on the Tasik Prima thread for some time now. The same point of view is expressed in other threads as well. I have thought about it quite a bit, but remained silent because I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that bothered me about the attitude.
Some people have expressed their fear that by revealing good fishing spots on a public forum, the places will be invaded by anglers with poorer ethics than we support at MFN as well as those with the intention of netting, bombing, electrocuting and poisoning everything in sight. The fear is that a good fishery will quickly be cleaned out and therefore hot spots should be kept secret.
I have identified what it is that bothers me about this attitude, aside from the fact that individuals come to the forum and gain information, but are not prepared to reciprocate by giving back something. Their argument would be that they are protecting their fishery. I think they are wrong and I think they are doing angling and the fishery a disservice.
First of all, how far do we carry this secrecy line of thought? Do we only hide our hot spots or do we extend it to techniques, tackle, baits and other information hard earned by experienced anglers? How much poorer would the MFN forum be if there was no information sharing? Beyond MFN, there would be no fishing magazines, no fishing articles, no Ayer Kuning get-togethers and ultimately no MFN forum.
That might actually be the price we all have to pay for protecting fisheries from harm, but I don’t think so. In fact I think it has the opposite effect and here’s why. When I fish these places and see nets, set lines and worse, I also see the vast majority of the people on the banks are rod and line anglers just like me. They may have different ethics and fish for different reasons, but they are rod and line anglers. Without information sharing, the rod and line anglers on the bank are not being exposed to and educated about ethical angling and catch and release. Young guys just getting into the sport have nowhere to turn for information and encouragement when they are just setting out in our sport. In short, secrecy weakens the angling community.
Whilst it’s true that rod and line anglers do not catch as many fish and do not do as much damage as the netters and bombers, who are we trying to save the fisheries for? It’s a small minority who ruin the fishery for the rest. Without a strong angling community, there’s no voice to sound the alarm bells and campaign for better fisheries management. Without a strong angling community, in the long term, there’s little point in saving any fisheries for anyone. It’s the angling community that makes long term fisheries management worthwhile. So whilst keeping spots secret saves those places temporarily to the benefit of a few, it weakens the angling community and in the long term damages the campaign for fisheries management.
Now on the other side of the argument is the post from Joe Fisherman, (2 posts} who says “Hey guy’s, where’s the hot spot?” This is disrespectful. Remember the guys in the know have done the leg work. They have been out there and they have put in the time to find out. Rather than join a community to learn how to fish and share the latest techniques and hot lures, these guys want to short cut the process. Fish here, use this lure and catch these fish.
Far better, I feel, to learn what features make a hot spot a good place to fish. Isn’t it better to learn what techniques to use under different circumstances, than to be led by the hand and told to cast here with this lure? Are we teaching each other to fish or are we just interested in catching fish without knowing why or how?
I have set myself a challenge to catch Toman in Tasik Prima on soft plastics only and I have written an in depth look at how I’ll do it, before I even try. It adds to the challenge I have set myself. It takes apart the patterns I have observed, the terrain elements of the fishery and the types of places Toman are found as well as looks at the sorts of techniques I’ll use to catch these fish on soft plastics (or indeed on any lures). It necessarily gives away a great deal of information that could be misused by those who would poison, bomb and net the types of locations I refer to.
I don’t think it will make the slightest difference to the short term future of Tasik Prima, but I do think it will be useful to anglers who wish to know more about soft plastics. Do I publish it here and let the angling community extract some pieces of possible value in using soft plastics, or do I keep it a secret and try to protect the fishery from abuse by the minority who stuff it up for everybody?
I’m opening this up to discussion so I can understand the views of both camps.
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