# Confidential Fishing Forum, Why Do We Have It?



## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

At times, people question what this Confidential Fishing Forum is all about.

I requested that we have a place to share fishing information with the members of our forum and only these members.

From this request, the Confidential Fishing Forum was born.

Q. What information should be posted there?

A. Anything that you want to share with forum members and forum members only.

One of our hopes for this forum is to get lurkers to join our Forum and for them to post helpful information.

There are several places in Utah that have very good fishing oppoptunities, but can't hold up to heavy fishing pressure.

Posting questions and fishing reports for these waters would fit better in the Confidential Forum, than in the General Fishing Reports section.

It is my hope hope that our members will see the benefit of posting on the Confidential Fishing Forum and use it more often, to share their fishing reports with other Forum members.

Thanks,
Grandpa D.


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## JAT83 (Sep 9, 2007)

+1, I agree! Great post!


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

> It is my hope hope that our members will see the benefit of posting on the Confidential Fishing Forum and use it more often, to share their fishing reports with other Forum members.


GrandpaD......it is my hope to be able to actually catch some fish someday and I'll be glad to make a post or two in the Confidential Fishing Forum.......once the ice is gone, of course.. :wink:


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

I have posted quite a bit in there. I will try to start some new threads in about a month or so. You gotta know though that there are some spots that cant handle any more pressure than they have and I will NEVER post them anywhere. Good post though. I will continue posting in there.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

hey, it looks like I have reached the post # to be let into the clubhouse. What do I need to do now?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Catherder said:


> hey, it looks like I have reached the post # to be let into the clubhouse. What do I need to do now?


You just did it.
You now have access.
Thanks,
Grandpa D.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Catherder said:


> hey, it looks like I have reached the post # to be let into the clubhouse. What do I need to do now?


Uh.....change your user name ?? :?

It makes my uh....arm hurt !!


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> Catherder said:
> 
> 
> > hey, it looks like I have reached the post # to be let into the clubhouse. What do I need to do now?
> ...


.45,
I'm not sure that we can even say "pee-pee" here! 

And besides,
what does cat herder have to do with it anyway? :lol:


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Okay...party pooper !! I changed mine..


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

.45 said:


> Catherder said:
> 
> 
> > hey, it looks like I have reached the post # to be let into the clubhouse. What do I need to do now?
> ...


LOL, Grandpa D is right. Back when I signed up, I didn't put in a space, but the idea was "cat herder". FWIW, my employment does cause me to work with CATHETERS as well from time to time.  :mrgreen:


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> Okay...party pooper !! I changed mine..


Oh, so now it looks like I'm the only one that said pee-pee.
Well everyone will know that it was you, .45 that first mentioned pee-pee!


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## Tallone_ut (Jan 5, 2009)

This post has taken on a very STRANGE tone!


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Tallone_ut said:


> This post has taken on a very STRANGE tone!


I agree.
It should be in the confidential forum!


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## Petersen (Sep 7, 2007)

Grandpa D said:


> [quote=".45":2chcec66]Okay...party pooper !! I changed mine..


Oh, so now it looks like I'm the only one that said pee-pee.[/quote:2chcec66]
But .45 said "pooper," and that's just as bad.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

I wasn't even going to tough that one!


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## fish1on (Jan 12, 2009)

All this pee talk makes me wanna/have too go again! LOL GrandpaD has my new screen name already for me.......instead of fish1on it is PI.....1on, Oh can't say that either!

Back to the topic that started this. I love the idea of a confidential board, just can't wait till I am eligible.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Petersen said:


> Grandpa D said:
> 
> 
> > [quote=".45":jpphmg0o]Okay...party pooper !! I changed mine..
> ...


But .45 said "pooper," and that's just as bad.[/quote:jpphmg0o]

The catherder started it !! :twisted:

Jeez........that hurts just to say his name....  -)O(- -)O(-


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

.45 tell that story about the dream you had when you pooped your pants. I love that one. :lol:


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

RE: The catherder started it !! :twisted:

Jeez........that hurts just to say his name....  -)O(- -)O(-[/quote]

SORRY     

Remember, contact your physician immediately if burning or irritation occur or if you have an (something) that lasts for more than 4 hours.


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## sfy2004 (Jun 2, 2008)

well, this is a topic that has been simultaneously enlightening and confusing
perhaps after i double my current post count, i can see what treasures await
within the private forum


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## Dead Drifter (Nov 22, 2008)

Not a private forum; a confidential one. Choose your words carefully. You may get a Supreme Court ruling saying that the public has a right to use the private forum as long as they access it from a public personal computer and no intention harm is done to the owner... :roll:


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## sfy2004 (Jun 2, 2008)

oooooopppppssssss...sorry 'bout that.
"confidential" is exactly what i MEANT to say. wont happen again :wink:


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## MN transplant (Jan 4, 2009)

I'm not going to lie....I'd like to get in there. I definitely would put a few more "honey holes" on that than on the standard page. just because of all the non member traffic. give and take. I think the confidential forum is a good idea.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

MN transplant said:


> I'm not going to lie....I'd like to get in there. I definitely would put a few more "honey holes" on that than on the standard page. just because of all the non member traffic. give and take. I think the confidential forum is a good idea.


 PM me when you have 7 more posts and I will let you in,
Grandpa D.


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## OKEE (Jan 3, 2008)

MN transplant said:


> I'm not going to lie....I'd like to get in there. I definitely would put a few more "honey holes" on that than on the standard page. just because of all the non member traffic. give and take. I think the confidential forum is a good idea.


I just joined the dark side not long ago. I did'nt think it was that big of deal but it started to bug the heck out of me not being able to read what was posted in the confidential forum. So I'm in I feel much better and I been sleeping alot better at nights


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## caddisguy (Sep 10, 2007)

I just had to post a response to get me one more post closer to the majic 40.


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## OKEE (Jan 3, 2008)

caddisguy said:


> I just had to post a response to get me one more post closer to the majic 40.


I bet caddisguy you could'nt stand me getting in the last word on this post. :x admit it you wanted the last word. 
J/k


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## caddisguy (Sep 10, 2007)

You're right, I just couldn't let it go.


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## OKEE (Jan 3, 2008)

caddisguy said:


> You're right, I just couldn't let it go.


Just tryen to help. Is that all you have to say for yourself :roll:


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## caddisguy (Sep 10, 2007)

I did join in basic forum in 2007 and did a lot of posting in the beginning. As of late, I have just sat back and listened to a lot “strong opinions”. 

I must say that I have been impressed at the response and the number of sportsmen who have come forth and taken action against HB #187. It has restored my faith in this group of Utah citizens. I’ll be posting more.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

So caddisguy, do you ever get a chance to fish the creek there in "American Fark"?


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## caddisguy (Sep 10, 2007)

I do get to fish there fairly often. I also enjoy fishing Tibble Fork and Silver Lake Flats from my pontoon. If that wasn’t good enough, the DWR just stocked 500 rainbows 10” long into Highland Glen pond just west of Lone Peak High School. American Fark isn’t such a bad place and if IN-N-OUT burger comes it will be even better.


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## elkaholic226 (Feb 13, 2009)

-_O- -_O- :lol: :lol:


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Welcome to the confidential section.

I say "Fark" because it's on your profile template.

I love fishing that creek. It doesn't get a whole lot of attention from too many anglers and there are usually fish where I look.


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## eyecrazy (May 4, 2008)

I want in :roll:


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

The topic question could probably be answered by this little ditty:
[youtube:n780fznu]http://www.youtube.com/v/dy9vLhid11o&hl=en&fs=1[/youtube:n780fznu]


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## scotty0902 (Feb 3, 2009)

May I please be let in?


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

scotty0902 said:


> May I please be let in?


Should be able to get in now. Happy Easter. Al.


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

The confidential forum had a lot to do with me losing interest in this forum. It was created not long after I joined and I definitely felt shut out. I had made some posts before that, but it didn't meet the minimum requirement and I didn't want to make a bunch of junk posts (as other did) just to get into the secret club. 

After that I went from being a contributing member to a lurker, only checking in once in a long while since I figured anything worthwhile was hidden away.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Crawdads Revenge said:


> The confidential forum had a lot to do with me losing interest in this forum. It was created not long after I joined and I definitely felt shut out. I had made some posts before that, but it didn't meet the minimum requirement and I didn't want to make a bunch of junk posts (as other did) just to get into the secret club.
> 
> After that I went from being a contributing member to a lurker, only checking in once in a long while since I figured anything worthwhile was hidden away.


Many of our members don't have access to the confidential forum.
Because of this, most posts are made in the open fishing forum.
A lot of people are disappointed when they finally gain access to the confidential forum, because of the lack of information shared there at this time.

Please don't feel that you are missing the best that this place has to offer because you can't access the confidential forum yet.
Keep posting and you will have the 40 posts in no time.
Thanks,
Grandpa D.


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## Petersen (Sep 7, 2007)

Crawdads Revenge said:


> The confidential forum had a lot to do with me losing interest in this forum. It was created not long after I joined and I definitely felt shut out.


Quite a few forum members never posted information on their favorite fishing spots out of concern for their secret spots being picked up by the search engines and having hordes of fishermen show up there. Agree with their logic or not, the confidential area was designed to give those people a place to post information that they, otherwise, wouldn't have posted anyway. In fact, we've strongly encouraged people to post in the general forum unless there's something that they absolutely don't want to share with Google. That being the case, the 40-post barrier to gain entrance isn't all that steep, and like Grandpa D said, what's in there will likely disappoint you if you think you're missing much. By far, most of the good stuff is here, out in the open.


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

Okay...you guys have to keep it up until I really feel I need to weigh in.

Fact is, I don't post fishing reports here anymore. I post elsewhere, where my reports are appreciated and I don't have to contend with this attitude that somehow, the whole state is just waiting for my report because I'm such an awesome fishermen that my secrets will cause the devastation of any fishing hole I mention. :roll: 

I respect you guys, but for crying out loud, get over yourselves and grow up. Look at the "confidential forum". Really look at it. Through the entire month of April, there are 4 reports and 2 of them are for Willard Bay. Willard Bay? Give me a break. Is it really worth the attitude you promote?

I never fished Willard Bay much until a member of this forum, (who no longer posts here), by the online name of Crankem took me out on his boat and taught me how to catch big walleye. He didn't worry about competition. He didn't worry about another boat on Willard, knowing full well that I'd pass along his "secrets" to other fishermen. And even though he's hands-down the best walleye fisherman to ever drop a boat in that water, he didn't worry that somehow I was going to ruin his own fishing trips at Willard. He knew better than that.

After that initial outing together, him and me passed each other on the water many times, holding our hands spread to show the size we were catching. And when my hands were held wider than his, he always gave me the thumbs up.

That's a sportsman. That's a fisherman. Few members of this forum even know I'm an avid fisherman - fly, troll and cast...going out someplace or other almost every week of the year. But until this forum gets over its superior self, that will remain my little secret. I won't share squat with people who are too secretive to pass it on.

You want "confidential"...you got it. Enjoy.


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

Hey Finnegan...I won't disagree with anything you've stated. I can understand the confidential section to a point...but I will also state 'nothing' is ever confidential when placed on the WWW. 

However the sportsman in all of us will honor the code of what the confidential section is for...but you'll always have a small percentage of folks who won't IMHO... If I post anything from some else in the confidential section I always ask their permission 'first' and tell them where I'm going to post it...

I also know there are areas of waters that couldn't support an on-slaught soon-to-be potential fish slaughter by a few folks trying to bag the BIG one for a wall decoration for their 'I-love-me-wall' and/or stocking their freezers with bags of fish. 

You know what I primarily fish for and there isn't that many places to fish for them...and there's no-way I'm going to give out 'vital' info via the WWW confidential section or not as to where a body of water is best for fish'n...loose lips sink ships and you can say the same for the WWW.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

My plan moving forward is to post well know waters in the general section with more detailed info in the confidential forums. I have about 1/2 dozen waters that I will never post on. Most of the "juicy" info is done via P.M.'s I have asked several times about a water I was considering and had some great intel sent to me via P.M. I do plan on doing the same for others.


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## martymcfly73 (Sep 17, 2007)

Finnegan said:



> Okay...you guys have to keep it up until I really feel I need to weigh in.
> 
> Fact is, I don't post fishing reports here anymore. I post elsewhere, where my reports are appreciated and I don't have to contend with this attitude that somehow, the whole state is just waiting for my report because I'm such an awesome fishermen that my secrets will cause the devastation of any fishing hole I mention. :roll:
> 
> ...


I couldn't agree with you more Finn. I'm in the same boat. And this crap about picking on one new member about his posts, get over yourselves. I'm sure if we all pull up our posts we all have some garbage posts. And to pick on a new member like that. :roll: :roll:


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

The big argument given for why we need the confidential forum is that certain people won't post certain information if it's accessible to the public. Fine. I have no problem whatsoever with people keeping some information secret. We all have stuff we're not going to share with everyone. Maybe we'll give it in a PM, maybe not at all. The point is... (drum roll please)

If you don't want to share certain information with the whole world, then don't post it on a public forum on the internet!

My problem is that this is (or was) an open public forum on hunting and fishing in Utah. I started coming here because the DWR forum was dissolved and their weekly reports are a joke. I like to be able to see how the fishing is at various places before I decide where to go on a given trip. This site was great for that. No where else could you get so much detailed information on fishing in Utah. 

I had just started to post reports on a regular basis and be really active when the confidential forum was created. As I posted earlier, I really felt left out at the time. Utahwildlife.net wasn't open anymore, at least not completely. And yeah, I could have spammed junk posts and gotten to 40 in 10 minutes, but the whole idea of it really rubbed me the wrong way. I was a contributing member of the forum, but I was cut off for the lamest of reasons. What had made this site so great was damaged in my mind.

Speaking of junk posts, that's just what many people did, and continue to do. So great, we've got the secret forum that's reserved for contributing members only, except you don't really have to contribute at all, just spam the forums and you're in the club. Or, be like me and don't do that and be stuck out in the cold. 

As many people have told me, supposedly not much useful information gets posted in the confidential forum anyway, so we're not really missing out. But if that's really the case, then what is the point of having it...?! If the information is really of such a marginal quality then is it really worth dividing the community and potentially driving people away?

Obviously I'm not the only one who has a problem with the confidential forum. And for every member openly expressing frustration, there are probably other members and potential members who simply don't bother (even I didn't bother opening my mouth until this topic came along.) They probably just 

New members are important for the quality of this site. Roping off the good stuff isn't the best way to encourage that. So let's say someone comes here for the first time. Either A) They're not interested in contributing to the site, so they just spam 40 posts (not good for this site) and tah-dah! They're in and never post again. So we get 40 junk posts and the confidential forums isn't so confidential. Or B) They are interested in being a contributing member, but they're thinking "why should I have to post my first 40 reports in the open when everyone else is keeping theirs secret? Screw that!" 

But hey, why even stop with the confidential forum? Let's have an even more secret forum only for people who have liven in Utah for a certain amount of time. Or let's make it so a panel of judges has to review your 40 posts to make sure they meet quality requirements. Or what about having individual members create their own secret club forums. We can have a "Top Secret" forum, a "Classified" forum, a forum you can only get to via a hidden link, forums posted in code. 

Ok, I'm done. It's a jumbled, ranting mess, but that's my honest feelings on this. If you skipped all that then here's the summery: Have secret info you don't want to post openly? That's fine. But this site was best the way it began, totally open. That's what's going to bring the most people, and that's going to make this the best community possible.


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

fatbass said:


> There IS a BIG difference between allowing one or 2 determined lurkers in the confidential forum and hanging the same info out there for googlebots! I know that if I hot spot a place for the FEW UWNers on the confidential forum, I might get a handful of those folks at "my spot" and they are likely to be courteous. I won't mind that! If I post where ALL of the internet can see it, I'm likely to have a mess in "my spot".
> If not for the confidential section, many awesome trips won't get shared and that would be a pity.


I'd be willing to bet there's more than 1 or 2 lurkers in the confidential forum. There's even another big, long topic about someone who just recently made a bunch of 1 line posts to get to 40.

And as far as using Google, I tried a variety of searches such as "fishing report utah strawberry" and utahwildlife.net was almost never even on the first page of results. 
In fact, searching for "utah fishing reports" doesn't bring up this site until page 9 (at 10 results per page.) I even tried searching for the names of recent posts (i.e. "utah fishing "kolob reservoir"") and turns out I had to go back about a month before posts start turning up in Google.

It seems like anyone relying on just Google to pull up reports would not find a whole lot of info from this site (I sure didn't), and whatever info they do find will be a least a few weeks old. So unless I'm missing something, the whole "googlebot" pandemic seems a little overblown.


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

It looks like you can configure websites to keep away the dreaded googlebot. Have any of the site admins looked into this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlebot


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

fatbass said:


> Again, 1 or 2 lurkers I can live with. The chance that a post could go "viral" is there and that would be bad.
> You have access to the "conf", don't you Crawdad's R?


I don't have 40 posts, so unfortunately not. If I remember correctly the requirement was initially 20, but then they upped it. I'm actually surprised the requirement didn't go even higher.


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

fatbass said:


> Crawdads Revenge said:
> 
> 
> > It looks like you can configure websites to keep away the dreaded googlebot. Have any of the site admins looked into this?
> ...


Ditto.



[URL said:


> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt[/URL]]The robot exclusion standard, also known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or robots.txt protocol, is a convention to prevent cooperating web spiders and other web robots from accessing all or part of a website which is otherwise publicly viewable.


Seems like this should assuage the paranoia that lead to the confidential forum being created in the first place.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Finnegan and McFly !!! _O\

It seems to me you guy's are missing the point....this is a Confidential Fishing Forum inside a Wildlife Discussion Forum...Notice the word *Discussion*???......if you two don't want to participate in this particular forum I suggest you have yourself blocked from this area. So....you slitter into the Fishing Reports and the Confidential Forum, absorb all the info you can, run out and share it with your *other *buddy's with no consideration for the rest of us....tsk, tsk, tsk... :roll:

Just because of you guy's, I'm going to post everything I can in the Confidential Forum with the hope that Petey Boy bans your butt from this area.....

Stingy and selfish !!!!! :evil:


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

fatbass said:


> Read it again. It will allow bots to find everything else on the forum EXCEPT the confidential section if that's how Pete has it set up. We WANT bots and spiders to see the rest of the forum, just not the confidential.
> Crawdad's Revenge, I am officially encouraging you to pad your count with some "Good Fish!  " posts to get to 40. I'll warn ya...the Confidential section is gonna be a lot like turning 18. You're old enough to go to war and vote but you can't buy a beer...*kind of a let-down. *:?


So I've heard. That was part of my reasoning, but so be it, I give up. Now having the blessing of a veteran member I will now venture forth and make my remaining 10 meaningless single line posts.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Crawdads Revenge said:


> fatbass said:
> 
> 
> > Read it again. It will allow bots to find everything else on the forum EXCEPT the confidential section if that's how Pete has it set up. We WANT bots and spiders to see the rest of the forum, just not the confidential.
> ...


Nothing wrong with that! 10 we can handle... 40? not so much. Have you done an intro yet? you should. I bet you could get 10 there. I am interested to know why your name is crawdads revenge!


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Oops. you got me.


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

.45 said:


> Finnegan and McFly !!! _O\
> 
> It seems to me you guy's are missing the point....this is a Confidential Fishing Forum inside a Wildlife Discussion Forum...Notice the word *Discussion*???......if you two don't want to participate in this particular forum I suggest you have yourself blocked from this area. So....you slitter into the Fishing Reports and the Confidential Forum, absorb all the info you can, run out and share it with your *other *buddy's with no consideration for the rest of us....tsk, tsk, tsk... :roll:
> 
> ...


I stand corrected. It's clear this whole issue has brought nothing but unity, good nature and constructive discussion to this forum.


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

Nor-tah said:


> Oops. you got me.


 :?:


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## ripndrag (Mar 16, 2009)

SOON I WILL HAVE 40 POSTS I CANT WAIT TILL I KNOW ALL YOURE IMFO :?


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## sfy2004 (Jun 2, 2008)

ripndrag, you are at 40 right now. better tell a MOD


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## EmptyNet (Mar 17, 2008)

o-||


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

It's been a while since I've been on the forum. How do I request access to the Confidential Forum?


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

Ifish said:


> It's been a while since I've been on the forum. How do I request access to the Confidential Forum?


You're in. But please understand that we're trusting you to protect this sacred information about delicate waters like Utah Lake and Willard Bay by keeping it safe from the unworthy.


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

I, Ifish, do solemnly swear to protect and uphold the trust with which I am blessed. I shall never divulge any secrets about waters through which I cannot see...etc., etc., yada, yada, yada, shot a big ol' carp! Thank you!


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## scubadown16 (Oct 9, 2008)

Now that I have 40 post I want access please to the confidential area... LOL :lol:


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

Done, but no marker buoys, eh?


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## luv2fsh&hnt (Sep 22, 2007)

fatbass said:


> Aren't Ifish and scubadown16 both spearfishermen? :shock: -)O(-
> 
> -()/>- -()/>- *(())* -()/>- -()/>-


 -O|o- -O|o- -O|o- -O|o- -O|o- -O|o- -O|o-


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## Finnegan (Sep 7, 2007)

fatbass said:


> Aren't Ifish and scubadown16 both spearfishermen?


Yup, but they ain't got secret decoder rings, so all they see in the confidential forum is:

&%* [email protected]%#$% ^^ &(%^$$ Willard Bay &%@@#!$&^#*+ Utah Lake **#@!*!!& Powerbait


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Finnegan said:


> fatbass said:
> 
> 
> > Aren't Ifish and scubadown16 both spearfishermen?
> ...


Any limits on the type of fish these spear fishing guys can harvest? Is it only macs, only carp, no brown, rainbow, cutthroat, tiger, brook or the "smaller" trout or whatever? I figure somebody somewhere will have an answer that isn't real confidential. James... keep your ears open. There are nice trout to be had in some waters where visibility is GREAT.... :twisted:


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