I'm writing this from the dreaded Internet, which - according to a writer on the
muddied waters of the Fly Fisherman message board - is responsible for a decline in article payments to fly fishing writers everywhere.
Instead of stating the obvious - that popular FF magazines are endlessly recycling the same old stories and using wannabes willing to write for fly line cleaner - he blamed the Internet, comparing reading free online information to receiving medical help from amateurs instead of doctors.
Zing! This conversation has now spread to
this post on the rarely reserved Ass Hooked Whitey blog, but I thought I'd get to the bottom of the matter with the Trout Underground readers, whose literary taste simply cannot be questioned.
Is it the Internet? Or do most FF magazines just suck?
As for me, most of my FF magazine subscriptions lapsed years ago. They'd become bathroom reading, and then not even that. So little of their editorial content focuses on the fly fishing experience - and so much of it is vacuous how-to written by wannabes and parking lot experts.
I don't care about the latest nymphing techniques. I don't need to know about the hottest, four-figure-a-week fishing lodge. And worse, much of today's magazine content is simply PR in disguise: product information fronted by manufacturers; destination information fronted by lodges and travel agencies; river kiss-and-tells fronted by guides and outfitters... you get the picture.
I still read
Fly Rod Reel (for Gierach, Williams and Norman in that order). And the Drake - despite the attitude - is at least original. Grey's? A little stilted for me.
So what's your take? Is the Internet destroying fly fishing magazines? Or are they destroying themselves? Are you buying fewer magazines and books because of the Internet?
And remember our rule; no lists. Tell us what you think and why. See you at the magazine counter, Tom Chandler.