I've enjoyed this thread and your replies because this issue is something that I've thought about often while running WashingtonLakes.com. First, I think fishing web sites provide a valuable source of information and comradrey (sp) to the people that visit them. I think it gives us the perfect chance to share techniques (to the extend that we want to share them) and to help one another out. I have always made it clear on my site that if you are fishing a small lake and don't want to share fishing reports - DON'T. And I think the same thing applies to the various small rivers and private spots we fish. Personally, up to now I've always considered the number of people logging on to the fishing sites to be fairly small relative to the number of fishermen actually on the water. And while I think that is still true for lakes, I think it is a different case for rivers. Plus, lakes tend to be more of a put and take situation than rivers, at least that is how the state runs many of them. As far as river reports go, I think reports on popular holes such as Reiter's or the Cowlitz meat hole are fair game, but I would discourage reports on smaller rivers and runs except in a general kind of way.
As far as the numbers visiting these fishing web sites, even on a busy month I'll bet there are at most 25,000 distinct anglers hitting this site. Compare that to the circulation of Fishing and Hunting News, or the weekly fishing reports in the Seattle Times - much greater numbers read those publications. The reality is we have what - 3-4 million people in this state? The days of secret holes are fading away. But fortunately most anglers are casual fishermen who frequent the more popular spots, leaving the smaller rivers and lakes for the dedicated few willing to research and put in the time on them.