It's a fishing website. These forums have changed the way people talk. It used to be rod and gun clubs and old boys meetings. Now it's this. This is the new campfire, the new saturday night BS session. There's nothing anyone can do to stop it. Whatever effect these forums have on fisheries is happening now. I have tried and will continue trying to bring these forums to the attention of those who are in fisheries management.
Don't think for a second only the user group peruses this forum. You can bet that every smart guide in Alberta watches this board, as well as any local managers from SRD or the ACA and a multitude of consulting companies. Sometimes that makes me wince, remembering things I have said, considering I must work in this field. But the pages turn, and hopefully everyone remembers that what's happening, will happen.
So if you take that picture of that hawg broonie with the background, and post it on a website like this, where a hundred views an hour is not uncommon on the reports page, expect to see someone else in that run the next day. We all want to catch fish. And you can bet I'm watching and learning A TON about the Bow River, never having stood on its banks. Nothing beats firsthand experience, but boy can you ever soak up a lot of good information reading the reports pages.
This is the new information medium. Does is affect fishing pressure and fisheries management? You bet your boots it does.
Tako out...