Wednesday 9 July 2008

This Weeked I'll Be Reading



Maybe you've noticed in recent months I've developed an interest in the gentle art of fly fishing. Why? Well opinion varies; Skippy has it 'you're so lazy no wonder you've chosen fishing as your sport, if you can call it that'
Thanks Skip.
Jonah (who taught me to fish) "you've got everything! When are you going to do some actual fishing?
Well Jonah I might say the same about your 'adventures' in carpentry.
Regretfully I must concede, our chubby coastal dwelling friend has a point - I don't really manage to get to the water that often. But I do enjoy reading about/living vicariously through, those who do.

I found This Is Fly a few days after my trip with Jeremiah. As we'd sat outside the pub we both noted the way the fishing media have failed to keep up with the times, where was the magazine aimed at us?
Fishing magazines are pretty dull, written by and aimed at an older crowd. Which is strange when you think about it, as the canal sides, river banks, beaches and piers where I meet people fishing are enjoyed by all ages. Teenage louts, and grumpy granddads are well represented, as are paunched hipsters in the full flush of middle youth (like myself and Johna) with young children in tow.

If even golf can be 'reinvented' - w'appen?

Where there's an obsession, there's a niche, and where there's a niche, there's an audience, and where there's an audience, there's the potential for ad revenue... ....and at the end of the line there'll be a bunch of obsessives with long suffering wives, dreaming of someone else paying for them to pursue their obsession, and a laptop. Starting a magazine.

There are loads of 'online only' magazines most of them not worth the paper they're printed on. But every so often something happens which defies the natural order of things, confounds inevitability, and surprises.
This Is Fly is just such a magazine. A fishing magazine that starts with 'mixtape': what we were listening to as we put this edition together. It looks like the graphic designer was previously working on a skating magazine, and reads like it was written by guys who'd be good value around the camp fire. The editorial style is brave enough to say "you wistfully dream of 'A River Runs Through It' if you like, this is our time, this our thing and this is how we do it".

So this weekend, if you like fly fishing, or have ever been puzzled by the rules of understatement and reverse snobbery that the English live by, be sure to read 'A Duffers Guide To The Chalkstreams' by Rufus Cartwright in issue 9!

Thanks for reading
Your pal the bushwacker

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is Fly is a very cool magazine. Nice design and good stories. I'll be looking for the next issue.

Tom Sorenson said...

Nicely done - that's a good lookin' read. Thanks for pointing it out.

Anonymous said...

Different philosophy of fishing. I prefer the lowly worm; simple and free for the digging. Of course fly fishermen and women look down upon me as part of the unwashed masses as I cast a line from a cheap chinamart spinning reel.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Kristine and Tom
Glad you liked it, the next one is out tomorrow.

Survival topics
I've always been a worm drowner myself, wine corks come free with most bottles! and as you say worms are free. Fly fishing has been losing a lot of its elitism recently, stay tuned for several outrages against it's conventions!!

hill said...

Inspiring, SBW! A new and current angle on something old: a perfect recipe for relevance and excitement. I'm checking This Is Fly out and I like what I see.

Langdon Cook said...

Nice blog! Re: fly-fishing for the younger crowd, here are a couple other options for avoiding the tweed & pipe set: The Drake mag and Buster Wants To Fish blog.

Looking forward to reading more about your evolution as a fly-fisher. For the converted, it's an addiction...

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Finspot

Thanks for the recommendations,both really good reading!

I can really see why people get so 'hooked' on fly fishing, its like regular fishing but with something to do while you're waiting.

SBW