Zach Matthews
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Bob –
Again, and I’m beginning to feel like I need to make a permanent disclaimer on the top of this board, but I’m going to have to ask you for specifics.
Great post. Out of curiosity, how do you deal with the snakes? I assume many of them are attracted to the water? Do you wear snake gaiters, or is the density of them low enough that you rarely see any?
I will typically see 1-2 cottonmouths a year, usually while fishing in summer for warmwater species. In Arkansas, the cottonmouths infested the trout streams, too, so you had to be careful. A cottonmouth is the Southern United States’ most aggressive poisonous water snake. Unfortunately, they have a close mimic in the Eastern water snake, and few (including myself) can tell them apart at a distance/glance.
Cottonmouth (aka the Water Moccasin):
(So named for obvious reasons. This is the standard defensive posture, and this snake is ready to strike from that position).
Eastern Water Snake:
We also have rattlesnakes in the timber areas, but I have never encountered one. They are all hibernating by deer season.
Zach
P.J. –
Maybe you have just experienced what a lot of us have: when you were new, the magazines were full of new and exciting content because you lacked experience.
David –
If you are beginning, in all seriousness, the best line on the market for you is Scientific Anglers’ Mastery Headstart.
And I would also like to add that I think fly fishing editors really are interested in legitimate criticisms.
Keith I think that you’re right on the money. Again, though, we need to look around and do a head count. This board has 1,000 members. About 100 of you are “active.” That’s probably a pretty good analog to the proportion of “fly fishers” versus “active fly fishers” out there.
We have had polls before which can be pretty interesting about where you’d draw the line on calling someone a “fly fisher.” Is a “fly fisher” someone who fishes once a year? Once a month in season? Thirty days a year? When you think about it, thirty days a year is a ton – most weekends, in other words, and all of them in season.
Say there are 10,000 “active fly fishers” in the country. The number may be greater than that, but probably not much. There might be 100,000 people who fly fish often enough to call themselves fly fishermen. Those folks are buying magazines, though, because a lot of them really wish they could get out more. And, in fact, most fly fishing magazine circulations have historically topped out around 100,000.
If 100,000 give or take is the maximum number of subscriptions you can sell, but only 10% of your audience is dedicated enough to support a “Wall Street Journal” level of fly fishing, which group would you target? I’d argue that Tom Bie at The Drake is targeting that “Wall Street Journal” crowd, if not in social terms, then at least in terms of numbers days on the water per year. His readership is similar to the readership of this board (and I bet a bunch of you get the Drake, as I do). And Gray’s Sporting Journal is targeting the Wall Street Journal crowd from an education/social perspective (though I bet Gray’s readers have far fewer days on the water/year than Drake readers). The trouble is there’s only really room for one magazine that targets that “advanced” demographic. Manufacturers have a limited budget to buy ads with, after all, and the subscription sales won’t cover the costs.
Fly Fishing in Saltwaters magazine recently won out in its long battle with Saltwater Fly Fishing magazine. Both of them also fight over about 10% of the market. The difference between FFiSW and SWF magazines versus The Drake and Gray’s is that the first set fought over the exact same 10%, where The Drake and Gray’s only partially cannibalize each other’s sales.
Micah –
Believe me, man, there are a lot of very smart, very motivated people involved in trying to create the perfect fly fishing magazine.