Shared Information

I came across this site awhile back and was amazed at the shared information. I ran a charter in the far western basin during the 1990's and early 2000's before retiring and selling the 30' Baha and moving into a smaller boat. During that time in the W.B.C.B.A, we ran grid charts and a radio code, the western basin was dissected on a map into squares with each square given a number. If you were on a hot spot, you would radio the other captains, give them your grid number, followed by a last number that was the tickets (limits) you had in the cooler. The other captions would look at their chart for your location and decide if the move was beneficial for them. The grid charts were for association use only, and if the captain or his mate allowed it to be copied or shared with their fishing buddies, well..... Not good!
This site has captains, mates and anyone who fishes sharing information to help each other out and I think that's a great thing. We have been blessed with a great fishery and sharing information for all to succeed is a wonderful thing.
Thank you all for allowing me to be a part of this great site.

We also fished back in the 80s and 90s casting mainly west of bass islands.We became friends with a charter in our marina.He gave us a laminated paper that had numbers for like 40 locations that only a few people knew.When we were out fishing we could only communicate with radio.So captain would radio us that catching well 2 miles north of #5.That paper said #5 was Niagara reef.So off we would go to try and find him.Only had compass,chart and radio.Eventually we got lorance unit for location help.How things have changed.

There is a lot of sharing here in the western basin forum but not so much in the central forum.

There are quite a few of us who share when we can. I don't fish as much as I'd like to, but I try to let people know when I do, and where they're at if we can find them. I've even been known to post a pic of my GPS for reference.

It's a big lake, and there are plenty of fish to go around. Why not help each other out?!?

Sloch24 I agree. Some day this great fishing we're blessed with will fade as all things ebb and flow. Why not help everyone put food on the table?

The far western basin dotted with boats isn't a drop in a bucket compared to 25 years ago. You can go to the our area DNR launch now and maybe see 20-50 boats out, and most of the time even less, and no wait usually. 25 years ago there would be a line a mile long, easy, waiting to launch. And when the Ohio & Michigan limits went to 10 walleye each, there were boats everywhere. I ran big boards with up to 6 lines on each side, so I needed room to move, so I mean I couldn't broadcast "come here everyone I'm doing very well", but when I did get back and finished up with my charter group, I freely shared where I was and how with anyone who asked.