PODCAST: Back to Spot Burning – Evolution? (S17, Ep2)

by | Oct 27, 2025 | 2 comments

 The Troutbitten Podcast is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts.

** Note **  The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below.

With this conversation, we’re going back to spot burning. In Troutbitten Podcast Season 3, Episode 1, we talked through Secrets and Spot Burning ( March, 2022). And in that conversation we spent a lot of time on the first part — on what fishing secrets really are, whether they’re valuable, fun or just gatekeeping. (They’re valuable, by the way.) And we acknowledged that every angler has their own set of things they might want to be secretive about, whether that’s patterns, tactics or . . . spots.

In our conversation from three years ago, it was interesting to me when I went back to listen, how much more fleshed out and nuanced my own opinions are now. Back then, I also felt the Troutbitten guys here were pretty much on the same page with everything. But now I’m not so sure. Because over time, not only have my own thoughts become more defined, I know the other guys here think differently as well.

So it’s time to revisit the hot button topic of spot burning. What’s the big deal? How does it hurt? When is it okay to name spots publicly? Is it alright if it’s part of a business? And are there different rules?

Basically, it’s a wide, wide world out there. And things change quickly, so it might be helpful to talk about spot burning again.

My friends, Austin Dando, Josh Darling and Matt Grobe join me for a great conversation.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Secrets and Spot Burning – S3, Ep1
READ: Troutbitten | The Secret
VIDEO: Troutbitten | Riverside – A Fisherman’s Thoughts On Spot Burning
READ: Troutbitten | Respect the Spots, Man! A Fisherman’s Thoughts On Friendship and Spot Burning

Listen with the player above, or . . .

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. . . and everywhere else where you listen to podcasts.

You can find the dedicated Troutbitten Podcast page at . . .

podcast.troutbitten.com

Season Seventeen of the Troutbitten Podcast continues next week. So look for it in your Troutbitten podcast feed.

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

 

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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2 Comments

  1. Great perspectives, well expressed. I agree that there’s no stopping social media, but there’s something you missed. Your simple picture of a fish in a net, no background other than water, can be traced by a good enough geek. Embedded in that digital pic is all of the location data of where the photo was taken. My solution, turn off your GPS location feature of your phone/camera. Cheers, keep up the good work.

    Reply
    • Thanks for your comment, Ian. We talked about that in the first spot burning podcast that we did, and we’ve mentioned it before. Trust me, none of us have had our location data turned on like that for many, many years. I think that’s a pretty well known thing these days. Cheers, and thanks for listening.

      Dom

      Reply

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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