INDIANANGLER

Hi, I bet you are reading this post cause you found the subject of some interest, I have been into fishing since the past 20 yrs but have never understood one single thing till today "What on Earth is with these SECRET fishing locations" that people keep talking about, people don't discuss these locations with their best friends, they do not discuss about fishing spots with their wife also, its that BAD...
I for once have never understood the concept of hiding any location, we are not in America or Europe where there are millions of anglers, if the location was disclosed how many guys with rods will land up there, hardly any and how many fish will they take home only that much that can fit in their Ice boxes, all these fishes are nothing compared to the quantity of fish being caught by commercial fisherman, whenever we visit a new spot we never dread the sight of a guy with a rod infact we greet him and ask him what has he caught, how is the game at this place etc. etc. The only thing that we dread and brings sorrow to our fishing trip is the sight of gill nets surrounding the location, even if a location is made public, all anglers in that area would possibly visit that place once or twice a week and remove few fishes some responsible anglers will release 75% of their catch, but what about the commercial fisherman who are there putting their nets twice a day everyday and removing even small minnows nothing is spared while you back at office from your fishing trip, I live next to Sasson Dock which is one of the biggest fishing docks in India, during season time there is a landing of 200-400 tonnes of groupers, snappers, prawns, surmai's, rawas, marlin, sail fish every day you have to come to the docks to see and believe the quantity caught for yourselves nothing is spared by the commercial fisherman, at south Mumbai where i have fished the most, years back we used to regularly catch rawas, big snappers, groupers and barra's but now the rawas have gone there are only small snappers and groupers that are caught once in a blue moon, how many anglers with rods and handlines have over fished the Fish rich South Mumbai shores, the only answer to this is the kilometers and kilometers of gill nets that stretch all along the coast line, which do not even allow small bait fish like mullets to enter.
So next time please do not worry about a fellow angler fishing at your favorite Hot Secret Spot , lose your sleep over how many fishing boats are there in your area laying down their dreaded GILL NETS....

We said

"Hi, I bet you are reading this post cause you found the subject of some interest, I have been into fishing since the past 20 yrs but have never understood one single thing till today "What on Earth is with these SECRET fishing locations" that people keep talking about, people don't discuss these locations with their best friends, they do not discuss about fishing spots with their wife also, its that BAD..."


One of the fellow anglers in Hyderabad, maybe he is on IA.

This fellow, he never lets us talk and when he talks he says all about secret fishing spots and claiming to have caught 6kg murrels all the time he goes for fishing.

Imagine the situation.

Thanks to you cos am still laughing.

Cheers

Your the man Dilip ..... well said and well put ...... and so so right

Hi Dilip,
You hit the nail bang on , oh those secret spots!!
We've lost a few good spots, because of netting,they net so close to shore, that one can't even cast out.
They've killed our recreation.

Syd.

Thanks Freddie, even your side of town Bandra was a gold mine at one time, these guys now have even ruined my favorite carter road spot last month, they have broken all the dams that hold water so when the tide goes out all the water and fish are flushed out to their awaiting nets.
@Sydney ur right they have killed our recreation the only way we can do some serious fishing is to drive for 7-9 hours down to the konkan belt.

Dilip all i can say is what you have said is straight from heart and i believe in the same too 100% although i still don't know any thing about fishing but yet i feel it is so right ! so bang on ! cheers mate It is time that all of us go out fishing of these days

Great going Dilip. I would give you 5 STARS for your post if I could.

Thanks Rajat and Keyur, we all have a thing against commercial fisherman who have over fished the Indian coastline.

Hi Dilip
I fully agree with you. recently in this forum i also mentioned that we anglers should have deep in heart respect for conservation of nature. the endangred spicies should be relesed.But how many Commercial trawers relese their catch and know about the endangred species? I had seen these Trawlers fishing with the dense nets- just like moskito nets which do not allow even small fish to escape. Actually there should be ban on such nets and some regulations on the rampart fishing by these commercial trawlers. I still remember during mansoon we never allowed fishing near coast or in indian terretorial waters -even fishing passes were not issued (most probably from 15 june till Narali pornima/raksha bandhan) to them. These trawlers take advantage of loophole in law and do venture in see and tells that they are doing fishing beyond 12 notical miles. But actually they do not go that far, and do fishing close by area , we booked many fishermens in Ratnagiri ,Pawas, Devgadh,jaigadh for violetion of these law in mansoon from 1998- 2000. There should be some stringent law, and most important awerenes about the conservation and that their future lively hood depends on senseble fishing practices.

Well said Sanjay but these people care a damn about the future and lively hood for their children they want to remove as much as they can today, how much ever you try and teach them they just do not understand because of the lack of education, the laws have to get stronger.

We had a very similar situation in the UK and trawlers totally ruined the fishing around our coasts, even with quotas there are still loopholes that are exploited. Unfortunately it isn't just a matter of education as some people really don't care about the environment and will take whatever they can get.
Just look at the problems you still have in India with tigers/leopards being killed for their skins/body parts, and there have been very high profile campaigns to save these animals, certainly compared to preventing over-fishing of the seas, but it still hasn't worked.
Wherever there is money involved, unfortunately some people will always take as much as they can get and don't care about the environment or the future.

If I post a message saying that i caught a lot of fish from a redilly identifiable location, two things could happen.
Firstly, more anglers could turn up and the additional pressure might make it much harder for me to catch fish using simple techniques.
Worse still, soneone could turn up with nets or set lines and simply clean the fishery out.

In the UK, the first is fairly common for freshwater venues and the scond is common (especially for bass0 in the sea.
It would be nieve to think that the same wont happen in India.

Ken,
You are right there, the problem being that you tell a couple of mates, then they tell a few of their mates and so on until everyone knows about it!

dilip wrote
mate,I agree with ur views completly there should be no hiding of locations from fellow anglers but what ken said is the main reason why people hide the location and I am witness to it, in murud janjira there was this BAND OF BROTHERS { a group of 8 anglers } who went together to a secluded place few kms from murud, we never came empty handed from there and never bragged about it until one of us got foolish to introduce new friends to the place they brought more friends soon the place was crowded before we got there and every casting point was occupied by immature guys who sat with a handlines and shooed us away.seeing this crowd then came the local fisherman with his boat and nets and was rewarded handsomely and now that spot is always covered in {we call it} MAYA JAAL { NET OF GREED }
ofcourse I'll share my secret locations with u dilip anytime I mean only fishing locations :lol:

Thanks Sayed you have already shown me some great locations in Murud, my main reason for posting the topic was to bring forth the point that these commercial fisherman are the main culprits for a particular location to go dead not responsible anglers.

Completely agree with you Dilip. Besides just knowing a good spot doesnt mean you'll be just as succesful as the others. So many factors come into play. for eg. your own skills, water and weather conditions at the time when you are. So, you are so right. Just knowing a good spot doesnt mean anything at all. Just may be the chances are slighty better that's all.

Absolutely Freddie Skills , tackle presentation, water and weather conditions play such a major role which people are still trying to master even after years of angling.

Nice observation Dilip. As responsible anglers its our duty to respect nature & contribute in maintaining the right balance.

Thanks Taksh, well said..

Yes lot of things depends , we all are trying to master even after years of angling..but still can not claim that one has acquired the right skill. last sunday on 21st feb. we went to a place called 'Eco Village' one of my friend hosted a party to our trekking group. Its a small place near village "pathershet" in velhe taluka of pune district. since earlear i have visited the place, i was knowing that it is situated on the backwaters of varasgaon dam an excellent location for angling, i had taken my fishing gears with me. we did put our hooks only for 2 Hrs but no hit. very disappointing in the scorching sun not to get a single catch. lot of thing may have played role,the sun ,wind ,mud, the level of water, missing of vegitation due to lowering of water level etc.etc.

Hi Dilip,

I loose sleep over fellow anglers not keeping their mouths shut not necessarily over fishing a place, but alarming local netters. That is my greatest fear.

I loose sleep over fellow anglers not having ethics and killing every thing they catch irrespective of size.

I loose sleep over local hand liners who let their lines dangle over jettys and piers over night every night till the fish are there to be caught. They may not be on this forum but they are anglers never the less and their numbers count.

The worst thing is I know of people who put in a lot of time and effort to find these spots, they travel great distances in their quest and there are some lazy folk who expect to get this information on a platter and what is even worse is they do not take care of the place they have been informed about. So before anyone points a finger at people who keep their information secret spare a thought for these guys.

Bobby

Absolutely Bobby! There are place I have returned too and known in an instant who has been there after me by just looking at the kind of garbage left behind.

I have no problem taking people to all the spots I know but before I do I have to be able to trust the guy.

Hey Bobby, how you been, long time, well the reason for me to post this topic was not to tell everyone to give their locations to every Tom, Dick and Harry, but to make everyone aware that the reason a place goes dead is because of commercial fisherman and greedy anglers who do not leave anything, we of course do not want to share locations with them in our wildest dreams, like whenever I go fishing, I always leave empty handed as I release 100% of my catch, the local fisherman and hand liners are always laughing and giving me tips that I should use worms, squid etc. etc. and my artificial bait is no good I never dare tell them what all I caught or there will be nets all over the place the next day,but at the same time I strongly feel there is no harm in sharing locations with responsible anglers who take home only a fish or two and also with serious novices who have no clue of where to fish.

right said Bobby, and you too Dilip..what I want to say is that people on this forum are responsible fishermans..so i guess there is not much of problem..and yeah, it's really true that we shd not share that with every tom, dick n harry we come across..coz i won't mind if dilip doesn't share any secret spots(that he knows) with me..coz i have not met him..its the time being tht u understand a guy, be a newbee or not, and share the adventure with him/her..!! about the things that we lose our sleep over, are the issues we need to tackle..and we surely try the best as one can ... and I bet we all are trying..

Exactly my thoughts..

discreet .... key attribute , to being a good and responsible angler.
go quietly ..come back home the same way.. take one or two legal sized ones for the pot, again preferably when no ones around , and the rest should be put back...

dilip... you have my utmost respect... really appreciate your style...

keep it up bro.

Thanks Mate...

Hi Dilip,
The question and the concern you had put through this thread is really admirable. These commercial trawers /fishermens who fish without any sense and concern for nature are really spoiling the game and in turn the nature . Recently I had came across an article in Indian Express on conservation of Atlantic EELs.There also the commercial fishing is taking toll of the fishs towards extension and the Dutch Government is planning to force law to ban fishing of eels. This article I had posted in the Envo.& Conservation section with my comments at the end,pl go through it.

Hi Dilip,

A genuinely thought provoking post, and I thank you for doing this.

Best regards,
UC150