"I caught a 13lb barbel from Collingham, plus 3 others from 8lb to 10lb" goes the post on here. "Shame on you" they all shout fornaming the venue, "now all the barbel anglers will descend on Collingham".
Yeah right, like Collingham is some secret barbel venue and I use that purely as an example. I can understand the need for secrecy if it is a little fished gravel pit or something similar that has suddenly produced monster tench but most venues that produce big fish are well publicised and fished regularly by many anglers. Furthermore, very many of those big fish waters are day ticket or season ticket with no restriction on members and if you click onto the websites of those fisheries the size of fish you can catch are there for the viewing, anglers proudly displaying the heavier fish complete with the bait they were caught on and even the actual peg in a lot of cases. Yet when Joe Bloggs reports on FMcatching a 14lb tench from one of these well known venues he is immediately reminded of the need for secrecy,this to my mind is taking things toridiculous extremes.
I have been criticised in the past on here forsaying that I would tell anyone who wants to know, where I have had a good day on the river even to the extent of naming the area of a particular venue but do I care? Not one little bit, because I too have found out via friendly advice over the years of where is a good place to fish on, say, a particular river and I have no qualms whatsoever in passing that advice on to other fellow anglers so they too can have a day of pleasure.
Rivers in particular have been fished for generations and the list of venues and the fish that inhabit those venues have been published, passed down, whatever, to the extent that it is common knowledge to any river angler and he naming that venue is never going to be secret information. Would you be surprised for instance if Mark Wintle reported the capture of an 8lb chub on the Throop, would you think this was publishing a secret venue to the detriment of other anglers who fish the Throop? Stuff and nonsense a lot of it is, secrecy is forMI5 angling is for the angler.