There are two ways to tell the experience of an angler: how he holds a fish and how he keeps his secrets. The latter is probably more important.
A seasoned angler intuitively understands the vulnerability of a river. Spot burning is a real thing with real consequences.
Good anglers understand this concept. Good people understand this concept.
Every piece of river is someone else’s favorite place. So we respect the spots — for others, if not for ourselves.
Here’s the article:
READ: Troutbitten | Respect the Spots! A Fisherman’s Thoughts on Friendship and Spot Burning
Here’s the video, and the audio podcast publishes Friday evening, May 16, 2025.
(Please choose 4K or 2K for best resolution.)
And Here’s the Podcast
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
you film, google lens tells all.
No. Really, Google lens does not tell all.
Spot Burning? Aren’t you in a way spot burning by just having your website; teaching guys better techniques, how to catch more fish, etc…? As an instructor bringing many into a sport that earlier they didn’t know about is a great pleasure for me. I always share flies, share my good spots, etc. If a certain spot is crowded with anglers who am I to get upset about it. I am just a flyfisher too. In other words it’s not MY spot – it’s everyones spot. Our organization uses fly fishing to build better men, husbands, sons, brothers and friends. What is wrong with me sharing my favorite spots, techniques, or flies to bring others into the enjoyment of nature and this sport? Wouldn’t that lead to more flyfishers taking care of the environment?
I get spot burning but I am willing to share this wonderful sport of ours and teach it correctly so all take care of it. So, if you fish in my area – I will share or as you call it spot burn! I’d even tell you my “secret” spots!
Hi Kenny,
Thanks for your thoughts. Sincerely, everything you brought up is stuff I addressed in the video. So give that a watch.
Couple points from me here, just to recap what I said in the video.
— No, having a website and sharing tactics is not spot burning.
— Spot burning is the public naming of rivers and places. I don’t do that here at Troutbitten.
— Like you, I’m very happy to share fly fishing with other anglers. Surely, ten years of Troutbitten material makes that obvious. I enjoy sharing these ideas and experiences, just like you.
— I also am happy to share information about places on a one-on-one level. I just don’t do it publicly, meaning through posts, videos and podcasts that will indiscriminately reach tens of thousands of people.
Flies and techniques, again, is not spot burning. But the sharing of places is the tough one. You also seem to assume that all the attention brought to a place will be from anglers like yourself, who would like to make the river better. Honestly, that’s just too optimistic for me. Because I’ve seen, first hand, what happens when a wild trout river sees too much traffic from people who aren’t really invested in the whole thing.
Cheers.
Dom
Great article and completely support your comments/thoughts on the subject.
Cheers
You cant have it both ways. Your site depends on viewers and advertising. Watch this, donate to this, subscribe, buy all this equiptment but dont fish where I fish. Also the great places to fish arent petting zoos they are hiked to, carefully stalked and fished with some level of technique.
Thanks, Fred. I agree, the best places often require a good hike.
“Don’t fish where I fish?” I did not say that at any point. In fact, I said the opposite in the video. I don’t mind other anglers out there. I’m happy to see other people enjoy it.
But the topic is spot burning — publicly naming rivers and spots. So we don’t spot burn. That’s a lot different than sharing information and experiences about how to fish.
Agree completely…the Web has increased fishing pressure fishing pressure in my area by tenfold and none of them have any knowledge of fishing pressure etiquette.
Great video .. Dom … It’s part of the journey .. Find your own honey hole Thanks Pal
BMac! Cheers, buddy. Good to hear from you.
Hi,
I agree with the point about being careful with specific spots. Any fishing tool or community should probably start from one rule: exact locations stay private by default, and anything shared publicly should be approximate or aggregated.
I’m validating a future fishing app idea with that approach, so this topic is very useful to read. If it fits here, I’ll leave a very short survey:
Thanks for opening the discussion.
“Any fishing tool or community should probably start from one rule: exact locations stay private by default, and anything shared publicly should be approximate or aggregated.”
I really don’t know how that’s possible. Maps and guide books and even info put out by fly shops and organizations about their local water — they have to include locations, right?