-Bill and Skyhook I agree some of these spots are overrun (and more so every year now). I'm not going to point the finger at young You-Tubers like the one above... mainly, because they are young. It is disingenuous however to have a YT account for "likes," "follows," "subscribes," etc., and photoshop false information like the photo above. Just a matter of integrity with their "followers."
-Just my take as someone that came out of SFSU in media over 3 decades ago. It would be better to use selective photography and videography to 1. show that you caught some fish 2. show a spot without over-exposing it 3. NOT display fake, Photoshopped info.
-True, the young fella (or anyone) doesn't owe any allegiance (to the Loyal Order of Pier Anglers) lol, but you are NOT going to make many friends at the piers if you keep coming back to the same spots and keep exposing them to the general public like an online travel log magazine show.
-Again, as someone in media, I used to playback a local fishing show on KFCB -TV 42 called "Fishing Tales" with Leo Vrana" years ago (that would be around 1991). The show was SF Bay Area boat-based, somewhat like "Dan Hernandez Sport Fishing." The shows were charted trips like on the old "Jubilee" out of Emeryville/Hank Schramm's Sportfishing Marina where he would go the Farallons for rock cod/lings, etc. One of my favorite shows was where he was fishing anchored right in front of Pier 32 fishing for leopard shark with Captain Barry Canavero; information you could use off the shore. Basically, they used a sliding rig with midshipmen on the bottom of the shipping channel. I was going to do a fishing show on public access where I was working for AT&T in the 90's, shot some footage, but never put together the show because I was too busy fishing most times and the SuperVHS camcorder was by no means as portable as a Go-Pro.
-Spot burning - Huh, a show can be done without spot-burning if it is done with preservation of the popular shore/pier spots in mind. For instance, a show on halibut fishing at a spot where people don't frequent from shore as much and give a general idea or just shoot from a perspective of fighting the fish without showing so many landmarks (or edit them out). And more emphasis on what to do, terminal tackle, etc., than on "look at me, I caught a fish!"
-Finally, after fishing on this Bay over (50) years Bill, I'm not going to try and dictate what others do, I am just going to try being the example that I would like others to be (and hopefully some of the better practices we regulars do will rub off on people).
I would like to think that I possess a lot of the magic and not the spot (true the spot above has seen dozens upon dozens of fish this past June already). I choose NOT to fish the known crowded spots anymore (maybe once with a few locals). I don't need that many fish as I can catch the couple I want to take for food at a variety of over-looked spots (many that some don't know how/where/when to fish exactly). An example is that some of the spots that I video-taped in the 90's don't produce the abundance of fish anymore so it's a NOT a hotspot anymore because of factors such as environment change, fish plants, habitat changes (but the spot could resurface in years to come). Basically Bill, I've become "The Old Man & the Sea."
