I’ve been messing around a bit on Google+ over the last few weeks and I’ve been a twitter user for several months now. All this media-based socializing has made me think about an age-old fly fishing conundrum that is only enhanced by tools like blogs and facebooks and twitter feeds: just how much information is too much?
Let’s face it, most fisherman turn to the web for information on where to go and what to use once they get there. Fishing reports are the single biggest web-based draw for anglers (although I think videos are gaining steam). The conflict comes when the fishing reporter feels like he or she is revealing too much information. Lots of good fly fishing bloggers have solved this problem by using the names of well-known, major rivers while keeping the name and location of more fragile fisheries a secret. This is an excellent compromise, I think, but it flies in the face of social media to certain extent.
The idea of social media is to encourage sharing–the more sharing the more appealing the network becomes–something Google+ is staring in the face right now. But fly fisherman are loathe to share too much (and rightly so), meaning social media can only be so effective when it comes linking the fly fishing community together.
When the Jake and Mark started years ago with The Best Yellowstone Fly Fishing Blog (or something like that, Mark, help me out with the title), one of the primary draws was the daily fishing reports. Yes, daily reports. I remember reading those reports and wondering how they found the time. However they did it, it helped contribute to a popular blog in a unique way: who else was posting reports for every single day?
Now fly shops (like Headhunters) have a vested interest in sharing a ton of info on a consistent basis, but the average fly fishing blogger and social media user will reach a point at which sharing more information might help their internet profile, but will likely reduce their fishing enjoyment. So fly fishing networks on social media are an amalgam of conservation posts (which social media is perfect for), photo posts, links to oddball fishing stories, and cryptic fishing reports. The only problem with this particular mix is that it neglects that thing that most fisherman turn to the internet for in the first place: where to go and what to use when you get there.
Perhaps Google+ with its ease of limiting just who you share with, will change this equation a little. But overall I don’t think it needs changing, not really. Some part of fly fishing is tied to the idea of not knowing exactly where to go and what fly to tie on. I have a feeling that the easier that part of the equation gets to solve, the less enjoyable the answer might be.
Of course that is just one fisherman’s opinion. If you don’t agree leave a comment, or tweet it, or blog it, or tie the message to the leg of carrier pigeon and send it out into the world.
