I remember too. Spotburning, specifically Valley Creek, was the “hot issue” of the day around the time I was newbie to the board. Despite living and working reasonably close to it at the time, I only fished it twice, and between the crowds and the fairly public setting, it just wasn’t for me. I remember commenting positively about a nice fish someone caught and posted though, and getting grilled for it. Those guys really needed to branch out and try more streams than just Valley.
It was the first time in my tenure I remember any significant degree of moderator involvement on the site, and I agree with the approach taken and enforced since. In general, this site is pretty lightly moderated, which is a good thing IMO. The only other significant issues I recall in my 12ish years here are politics, and native vs invasive discussions not being respectfully limited to the appropriate threads. All three of the these scenarios were being disruptive enough to cause board members to leave and not participate, which isn’t what you want, and all were appropriate for moderator intervention to solve the issue. But, it’s not a common thing around here, which is good.
If anyone still is legitimately concerned about Valley being spotburned, my suggestion is to drive 90 minutes in a general north or west, or some combination thereof direction, and fish some of those streams. Valley will quickly lose its luster in comparison.
