Finding the hidden gems in fishing

CEDAR FALLS — There aren't many secrets in fishing these days, and anglers who have one try to protect it like the secret family recipe for Bush's Baked Beans.

Easier said than done.

Tournaments, global positioning technology and social media all play roles in this version of "water" gate. It's not hard to learn what somebody else knows, and you don't even have to be devious and surreptitious.

In the competitive scenario, anyone who wants to know what the pros know simply identifies the best anglers or tournament leaders, then follows them around.

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My former tournament partner, Neil Hammargren, and I saw it all during our days fishing "pro" events. In a big MWC tourney out of Oconto, Wis., we found enough big walleyes stacked along a short stretch of steep breakline in the Menonomie River to take the first-day lead. A lot of people saw us, and the next day there were a half-dozen boats crammed so tightly into our spot we couldn't fish it effectively.

Other anglers dropped GPS waypoints when they saw where we were fishing. We marked spots where we saw certain people, too. It's all part of tournament fishing.

When it comes to social media, the negatives can outweigh the positives when it comes to fishing information. Let's say you tell one person about a hot bite. You almost have to get that person to swear to secrecy. Otherwise, that person tells another, who tells another, who tells another. Then somebody makes a post on social media to brag about their catch. Now you've got a crowd.

The effect on ice fishing can be devastating because it's so easy to see where everyone is set up. Once the word gets out about a great crappie bite on a particular lake, small villages seem to pop up, and the crush of angling pressure can devastate a year class or two of quality fish.

On the other hand, it's not always easy to catch someone else's fish. During our tournament days, we typically shared information with another team or two. Sometimes, that info confirmed what we were finding out for ourselves. Sometimes, it pointed us in a different direction or enlightened us about a different presentation.

Still, there were occasional situations when we knew where, when and how our partners were catching fish but we couldn't get it to work for us.

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When I began fishing for trout and salmon on Lake Michigan in my boat, I put in a marine radio so I could hear what the charter captains were telling each other. After I got to know a couple of those captains, they let me in on a secret — they spoke to each other in a code of sorts to keep recreational anglers from surrounding them. When they said 30 feet down in 90 feet of water, they might really have meant 60 feet down in 180 feet of water. Now they use cellphones to communicate.

In general, specific information isn't shared on social media. About the best you can do are basics about water conditions, ice thickness or snow cover. If you are lucky, you might find a current fishing report from a guide service, resort, bait shop or Department of Natural Resources that provides a little direction.

For most of us, the best way to get into good fishing is to go find it.

DNR sampling data can tip you off to lakes with exceptional numbers of a species, tremendous growth rates and the presence of desirable year-classes. Topographical maps help identify "fishy" structure like flats, humps, reefs and breaklines. Keep an eye on other anglers for tips on what areas they are targeting.

And if you're nice, you might pick up a valuable hint or two at the boat ramp or the fish-cleaning station. There was a windy day on Little Bay de Noc in Michigan when Hammargren and I were struggling. We ran into an older guy at the boat landing and asked how he did.

"Take a look," he answered, and we peeked into his livewell where he had his limit of walleyes from 20 to 29 inches. The thing we really noticed was the reddish coloring on their bellies. We knew a small bay where the water turned red when a good wind was blowing in so we put the boat back in the water, headed to that bay and clobbered the fish for a couple of hours.

How'd we catch them? What bay were we in?

I could tell you, but ...