INDIANANGLER

Here are some spots in konkan .
1)Tarkarli : It's a beach where you can land sharks , mj's and groupers and stings , use prawns as bait

2) Sindudurga fort : It is sorrunded by water where you can land mj's and groupers. use prawns or shallow diver lures

3) Vengurls port : Here You can land mj's , stings and grouper.

So these are my locations , share yours and can someone tell me where can it bag some nice Gt's ???

Looks like Anglers are secretive about their haunts... :)

You will have to do your own 'secret spot' hunting young Nick.

All the best.. Wishing you tight lines...

Yep . And where's the point in getting locations just like that .
the fun of fishing lies in even finding locations

I agree and disagree with this somehow. Obviously there is no comparing between doing your own exploration and finding your own stretch or spot along the coast, and getting it from an experienced angler. Both have their pros and cons. Reason being the world is not what it was earlier and the greed of mankind knows no bounds today. Fish stocks are being depleted and fishes are reducing in numbers and have reduced a lot over the years. To find a spot could also mean making many trips to many locations and still not finding nothing worthwhile. The biggest thing that has changed with angling according to me over the years is the sharing of places and anglers really cant be blamed for it. If a senior angler shows me a spot to fish on and that spot is shown to someone else there is a possibility after sometime many people visit the place the fish are shy of everything from bait to lure. Plus the person who originally found the spot instead of finding fish there ends up finding many more anglers with many more lines in the sea, which definitely will be disappointing considering the person had done lots of scouting to find the place. On the other hand when a senior angler guides you to a place they have been to before it turns out that the place is productive compared to many other random places you might have tried to scout yourself. Unfortunately for me I find it risky to go fishing alone and try scouting for places alone so I only go when my friend goes, however I would also like to find and scout other places.

Some places I can suggest are Ratnagiri and divegar, heard a lot about gokarna but never done any fishing there so can't be sure. Ratnagiri has some real good spots and some places that are not visited frequently but have good angling. Divegar again I've not been to but know from some good sources it has a sand bar and does offer good fishing.

I appeal to anglers on the forum in proximity to pune to please get in touch with me if they would be willing to do a 2-3 day trip along the konkan coast, and maybe find spots like a riding trip on bikes(I don't own a car) with tent and food something on the lines of what worldfisher does.

Nice to see a young angling enthusiast like you Nick. Do pm me if your game to go fishing sometime.

Regards,
Omesh

Yep I totaly agree with you . It is fine if an experienced angler shows you locations but the you will start depending on him and will never be able to find your own fishing locations. If someone has shown you on or two locations out of your stack , then its ok , But if all of the locations you know are told to you by some one then it is a problem . The reason I asked for help is because 1) I mostly go fishing with my grandpa as my dad is not interested and my grandpa is not always free , 2) I an in 8th standard , thus my mom is always on my case about "you fish with interest but study without it" 3)I study in a CBSE board school , so I get a buttload of homework before every vacation or holiday . Can you believe I got 26 worksheets before summer vacation !!!!!!! 4) My school holidays are only for a month. These reasons give me a limited time to do fishing . And yes I will surly PM you if I am planning a trip.

Omesh I agree with you. It is sad of the depleting areas to fish though. I will give you a call should I vennture towards that side. Yes, I am a biker too, though I own a car too. Just getting a permanent solution to harness the PVC rod case to the bike. I am heading to on a bike ride to Goa for the Enfield Rider Mania on Nov 19th/20th and will be doing some serious angling there.

Young Nick - take it easy. You do not want to step on your mommy's toes. :)

Think I already did

Well done! :)

Thanx

I strongly disagree with this school of secrets. For members of this forum, the policy is catch and release. These days, people don't have the spare time they used to earlier. Which leaves them with very little time to pursue this sport. If we want to promote angling, we have to promote bites. Share knowledge. About depleting fish stocks, that is humbug! A shore full of anglers cannot deplete in a year what a net can in a day. So there. As long as we anglers agree on catch and release - there is no fear of sharing even our best fishing spots. More importantly, new members should be encouraged to make friends. I bet, if I send a PM to Alibhai or say Lionheart, I won't need to ask a second time. I am sure, they will tell me location, bait, target fish, tackle and what have you.
PS Alibhai and Lionheart, you have helped me in the past without knowing zilch about me. Thanks and sorry for being presumptuous.
Bob

3000 members. Only a handful will help. I agree there must be encouragement on these lines but unfortunately there is a commercial aspect to everything in this world and greed generally gets the better of man. It is very hard to practice what one preaches. If only everyone thought like you bob and understood that a whole beach of anglers won't do as much damage as a net maybe people will start sharing their spots but then again one has to know the person to do the sharing. Say I share a spot with an angler. That angler's uncle owns a fishery. Things can take twists and turns as time passes by and hence even when sharing with anglers one can't be completely sure what the ulterior motive is. Unfortunately fish have a huge commercial value and if you consume and purchase you will know what I mean when you look at a steady increase in prices of fish. Its a catch 22 situation and one generally prefers being safe than sorry cause once bitten they become twice shy.

Omesh, at the outset, we agree it is not between you and me. I like the way you present your arguments and it is always a pleasure to debate with a gentleman like you. Well then...:) I have landed quite a few big ones in the Konkan, why even Mumbai and guess what? I do not see one but a dozen fishing boats around. We cannot compete with the professional fisheries or fishermen. It is their business. Their livelihoods. If many don't catch anything, they probably won't eat that night. Your views are perfect in view of fresh water spots - ie rivers and lakes. But no matter how productive or secret your location is - one fine day, you simply don't get any bites. That means the area has probably been netted or worse yet dynamited. The solution is: with more Catch and Release anglers on the shores and more and more of them coming in - thanks to IG, fishermen can choose alternative livelihoods like being guides and angling tourism. Admit it, our fishermen are coming up with empty nets more often than not. They will welcome more anglers to fish their waters. A fisherman can earn more by chartering his boat and getting a steady income than slogging it out each day. A boat worker can earn more as your guide. What say? So when a new member barges in on the forum, the least we can do is welcome him into our fold. Instead of rapping him on the knuckles for not introducing himself, simply ask: Hi, you seem new on the forum. Can you tell us a little more about you? I am sure as you make more friends on this forum, you'll find more answers. Better yet answer his query straight off and guess what when he visits your spot and gets a bite - he will be hooked, lined and sinkered. Voila, another die hard angler. What say?
Bob

Hi Bob, I strongly agree with Omesh's View. Sharing a hard learnt spot/technique publically will have lot of bad consequences than doing good to the place and angling. I am not against sharing the spot/technique with others, but share it with people whom you trust and never publically. I can highlight a couple of incidents. Once we shared a location with a friend and what he did was took a bunch of his friends to the place and fought with the locals over some trivial thing. The outcome is we were also banned to the hard learnt place. The other thing is about technique. I used to fish in a place where local fisherman will also fish. Initially they used to laugh at me seeing the rod and plastic lures. Once they saw me catching good fishes with lures, they all started hand lining with lures and got good results. Initially, I also thought it was good from them as catching fish is their live hood, but what followed has destroyed the place. Then every guy who does not have a job is seen there with a lure (cheap duplicate lures) and the spot is completely destroyed. You never know how the information you shared publically will be used. It is better to be safe than to feel sorry later. As men we have pride in our hard learnt spot and we cannot see the spot being destroyed just because you told someone..

apologies Bob, I was left speechless considering the good thats coming out of your post, really nice vibe. I completely agree with you that fisherman are coming home with empty nets and there are alternative careers they can pursue. Problem is the inherent greed in man has caused them to turn a deaf ear and not listen. In another post Calvin had mentioned they are coming back with empty nets and are catching far less than what they used to only ten years ago. This itself tells one the catastrophic damage that has already taken place. what sense if they charter their boats or become guides if the people they are catering to are not getting any bites. Buoys can be a good artificial feeding grounds for fish in the sea and a few buoys can be used to create a feeding zone. People need to be educated not to net these areas and there needs to be some law enforcement as most fisherman still would net the place.

I completely agree with venkatesan's last statement and unfortunately he is not the only angler I know to have faced this. When things are learnt the hard way no one would be willing to give it away easy. I'm not saying we should be unhelpful and not be welcoming to new anglers all I am saying is be judicious. Sometimes one might end up giving away a location or spot in ignorance and then feel bad themselves about it. It's always better to be safe than sorry. And yes please do not share spots openly as in a few days the spot might not be a spot anymore.

Regards,
Omesh

Was out of the forum for a couple of weeks so missed the heated debate .
Any ways with the little experience that I have I can say that sharing locations is like gambling . Either it has a good outcome or a bad one . I too have a story to tell of the destructive outcome of sharing locations . A couple of years ago , I used to fish in a small lake that was connected to a river that was located in my native place , It had some pretty decent sized Mj's and catfish , That was where the fishing bug bit me , I used to go there every vacation with my grand dad and fish .On day my cousin asked us if he could accompany us to fish with a simple handline , we agreed . I took him to the lake and we both caught some catfish . Then I quit fishing for some years. I went there last year to find some handliners sitting there without bites . I asked then what was up . To that the replied " your cousin told us this place was full of fish so we came here , but i think he lied '' . After hearing this I went to my cousin, fuming . After my interrogation ,I came to know that he tried to sell the fish he caught and the locals were able to get the location from him , then the started exploiting the place and the outcome , a perfectly good spot destroyed . This taught me ,never to share a fishing locations with locals . It is true that over fishing has done catastrophic damage to the marine life .I think the solution suggested by omesh is a promising one.

Just to add my 2 paise here....

Letting people in on your secret spots is a catch 22 situation and you guys have already covered most aspects in your arguments above..

In my part of the world, there are a very few water bodies that have not been fished.. Most lakes and ponds are leased out to contractors and they either use it as a fishery or as a pass lake. Both ways, they make good money..

While I have always welcomed any angler to fish with me on any lake or pond, however there are a few secret spots that I have fished and caught some lovely fish (Catch and Release always practiced here).. These spots are sometimes 40kms from my house and sometimes 4kms only.. I guard these locations very fiercely and until I am absolutely sure of my fellow angler, I will then only show him these spots..

Just to highlight here.. There is a small lake hidden away on the National Highway just a few kms out of Cal.. It has a lot of weeds on the banks and unless you are looking out for the lake, you are sure to miss it..
I have fished this lake quite a few times and not staying more than few hours there.. Bait is bread paste with ghee, 2-hook set up and a telescopic rod.. I have caught some lovely fish here and all have been released.. I know for a fact that if i were to share this location, it would be a free for all at this place and would be emptied out in no time.. I have been going to this place about 3-4 times a year for the last 5 years and every time I have caught a fish (among others) that was about 10lbs.. To have this result every time is just fantastic..

I have even had the privilege of fishing with some senior IA members and who have shown me their secret fishing haunts where we have caught some big fish together, however they are very sceptical of sharing this info with others.

Once again, sharing of secret locations should be left to the discretion of the angler in question... Whether he thinks of conservation, over fishing, competition or anything else, he should be allowed to take his own call..
I believe that anglers are a very secretive society and we all know of the fate of lakes, that stocked good fish, once the information became public..

Just to summarize, my secret spots stay a secret..

Tight Lines,
GRC

It is so strange. I have learned so much on this forum I wonder why we call ourselves a secretive society. Infact I have learned much more than I did in a life time of angling. Sadly everyone misses one point I have been making from the start. The true integrity of an angler lies in Catch and Release. And I am not even talking of exposing your secret spots to one and sundry. By all means, keep your secrets. But is it fair to gain so much knowledge from this forum and then keep your secrets intact. So many new people join in each day, I am sure it won't hurt to give some general directions. When I joined this forum, my very first question was about ground baiting. I got floored by the replies. Even Alibhai responded on that post. Sum it up, give as much information as you can. Promote healthy fishing practices. In fact we should start documenting all the fishing locations that are in the public domain on this forum - including baits and rigs. Besides, a great angler has no secrets. I will show you living proof on this forum. Bob