It’s hard to imagine anything better. Really hard.

Welcome Undergrounders, to what is about to become fly fishing’s dominant food:

We swoon...

Deep Fried Beer.

(And not just any beer – it’s Guinness.)

I know.

Your head is spinning. Because it’s beer, only deep fried.

Sent via Alert Underground Reader Aaron (of Team Longboat, donate here), who found it on the PopFi site, from which we quote:

Mark Zable is my new hero. Zable is what you’d call a food inventor. He figures out a way to take existing food items and make them awesome. For example, he invented the jalapeno shrimp corndog and chocolate-covered strawberry waffle balls. Now he’s back, with his greatest invention yet: deep-fried beer.

That’s right, Zable has invented a way to deep-fry beer without overcooking it and burning off all the alcohol. While most of his methods are secret, he basically creates a salty shell of pretzel-like bread, fills it with beer (in this case Guinness stout), and sticks it in the deep fryer at 375 degrees for 20 seconds. That’s long enough to cook the bread to a pretzel-like consistency, but not so hot you don’t need to be 21 to try one of his fried beer snacks.

See, it’s even better than you thought.

It’s deep-fried beer – with a salty pretzel built right in.

Zable is debuting his invention at the Texas State Fair, but since the basic recipe has just been reported here on the Underground, you won’t have to wait.

Fire up those fryers (375 degrees), mix up some salty, pretzel-like bread dough, and let ‘er rip.

The only downside to this momentus discovery is that Fast-Breaking Deep-Fried Beer News will likely burn up all the news cycles right through the IFTD show, rendering the fly fishing industry’s annual frat party trade show all but invisible on the media’s radar.

From which we can draw two universal morals.

1. Timing is everything.

2. And nothing (nothing!) beats beer.

See you at the fryer, Tom Chandler.

p.s. – Frankly we think deep-fried beer would make a great appetizer – right before the main course of slaw dogs, followed with a Moonpie dessert… discuss….

Technorati Tags: deep fried beer, fly fishing fuel

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• Why fly fishing's better than mushroom hunting: 18 people die in 10 days picking mushrooms (via @thegoblog) http://ow.ly/2xvt2 #
• From the "Dang, how'd I Miss This One?!" Dept – Tosh Brown's killer fishing photo blog: http://bit.ly/aElGok #
• Fly rod returned to angler… five years after he lost it in Hebgen Lake (via Outdoor Pressroom): http://ow.ly/2xyJa #
• Fly fishing fair in Redding this Saturday (9/2). Lots of free stuff, fly tying, etc: http://bit.ly/d27oPF #

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AFFTA is now sending me daily emails reminding me their IFTD trade show draws nigh, which suggests it’s time for the Undergrounders to engage in a little marketer-busting fun.

I call it: “Revolutionary, or Just A Bunch Of Hot Air?”

The premise is simple; marketers are fond of describing their latest/greatest/fastest/lightest product as Revolutionary.

Yet most simply aren’t.

In fact, to most observers, fly fishing is recognizably the same sport now as it was at the turn of the 20th century, suggesting even our “revolutions” are barely evolutionary (though it’s possible we look sillier now than we did then).

Has any development in the last 70 years truly “revolutionized” the sport of fly fishing?

First, The Obvious Answer…

While I might listen politely to an argument suggesting graphite fly rods revolutionized fly fishing, I’d suggest they really haven’t.

After all, someone casting fiberglass or bamboo looks pretty much the same as someone casting graphite.

You might argue that graphite made more extreme versions of fly fishing (saltwater fishing) more available to “average” anglers, but I’d suggest the majority of fly fishermen (certainly the freshwater fly fishermen) would do just fine with “older” rod materials.

So is graphite really revolutionary, or evolutionary? And in that same vein, can a graphite rod that’s simply lighter really be revolutionary?

What Else?

Any ideas?

Breathable waders may have saved hundreds (if not thousands) of fat, sweaty fly fishermen from heatstroke, but you’d be hard-pressed to convince they “revolutionized” the sport (though you’re welcome to try).

Any other ideas?

I’ve got one – and you’re going to hate it.

The Indicator

Indicator nymphing – and its close cousins – are relatively new to fly fishing (many date “modern” nymphing to the post-war era).

And hate it or love it, the lowly bobbicator has clearly changed the sport – physically, visually, and yes – viscerally.

Hire a guide, and they’ll probably fire up an indicator rig, regardless of your claimed expertise level. I once fished with a guide who actually threw a hissy fit because I’d decided I’d caught enough fish on a nymph, and broke out the dry fly rod.

And in truth, most newbies learn to indicator nymph before anything else – and many even believe it’s what fly fishing “is.”

So the indicator (bobbicator, whatever) seems to have physically changed the sport of fly fishing.

In other words, revolutionized it.

Any others?

With the IFTD show looming – and the hype meter probably about to get pegged – can any of the Undergrounders make a case for “revolutionary?”

Can any of fly fishing’s marketers?

As the announcements stream forth from the show, we’ll monitor them for words like “revolutionary” – and let the Undergrounders decide…

See you in marketing hell, Tom Chandler.

UPDATE: Some interesting thoughts (and a few rants) in the comments below. I added two more potentially revolutionary items in a comment below. You’ll be suprised, and at least some of you will be outraged…

Technorati Tags: Fly Fishing, fly fishing gear, iftd show

As a writer, blogger, and marketing guy, I’m finding the ebook topic highly interesting (the comments below the original post were illuminating), so indulge me while I post a quick followup to the results (so far) from our “plan to buy an ebook reader?” poll:

Already Have One: 22 (15% of all votes)
Never: 65 (43% of all votes)
Thinking About It: 58 (38% of all votes)
Buying One For Sure: 7 (5% of all votes)

I’m willing to guess that the groups above divide along a pair of fault lines:

• Age
• How much reading you do outside of fly fishing

In other words, younger folks are more likely to accept digital versions of print vehicles. Also, those who read a lot outside a particular niche – novels, nonfiction, etc – are far more likely to accept digital books.

I’d also suggest that quite a few of the “Never” folks may eventually come around, especially if e-book readers ultimately become cheaper. In fact, I strongly suspect we’ll see the digital equivalent of “give away the razors and sell the blades for a monster profit” mentality emerging in just a few years.

Or not. I’m not an oracle.

The False Choice

Most of the discussions surrounding ebooks have taken place in the context of “traditional” publishing versus writer-as-publisher markets.

In other words, people (and many pundits) seem to be assuming two possible choices.

Which – given what’s happened in other industries when technology overthrows the status quo, is probably wrong.

For example, when online marketing was clearly becoming The Next Big Thing for us marketing writers, we made similar assumptions – with so much online real estate needing filling, we initially assumed demand would rise, we’d find our fees and demands for our skills skyrocketing.

Which isn’t at all what happened.

Instead, the Internet allowed every part-timer and unemployed person with a PC and a copy of Strunk & White to become a “freelance copywriter.”

While that was happening, search engines (like Google) re-prioritized online marketing, which in many cases became less about selling and more about convincing Google this was a good place to send people.

The result was a wholesale devaluation of a big, big chunk of the online copywriting market, and eventually, the implosion of the bottom half (after low-budget SEO jobs replaced formerly living-wage print jobs).

Is it possible digital book publishing will have a similar – or other largely unforeseen effect – on the book market?

What’s Already In The Works

Several authors are making good money ($100K) selling cookie cutter thriller/romance novels exclusively as ebooks, and for $3-$4 apiece.

They’ve bypassed the publisher entirely (several had books rejected by publishers – books which are selling briskly), and are making a living around what used to be termed “the margin” of the market.

That’s only possible in large markets (and fly fishing isn’t a “large” anything), but it does suggest that traditional publishers may lose control of the bottom half of the market (sound familiar)?

It also suggests markets may emerge for new kinds of publications – shorter, more targeted works that wouldn’t have been published before because the economics of printing, production and distribution worked against them.

We’ll see. No matter how it flies, I think it’s going to be a very, very interesting decade for publishing.

See you at the keyboard, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: book publishing, ebook reader, ipad

• Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors continue reckless posture on groundwater: http://bit.ly/buRVGp #
• Klamath basin groundwater falls 30' due to wells, yet usage increasing – even as wells run dry?? http://bit.ly/dhlgMM #
• What happens when conservation programs spend money, then don't conserve anything? http://bit.ly/cQjfYz #
• Buolder damages Madison Dam – partial draining of Ennis Lake seen as likely: http://bit.ly/cfh4ql #

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• Death From Below: The Scuba Stone (Rooster's Ramblings): http://bit.ly/9yJwSO #

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Back from another Quality Fly Fishing Small Stream Adventure. Wanna guess what they were bitin’?

Even if you can't ID the bug, you can ID the fly fisherman from his fingerprint...

Something resembling a fishing report coming soon – just as soon as I dig out a bit.

See you at the keyboard, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: Fly Fishing, fly fishing small streams

• In the Back Eddy blog resumes publishing, offers a little love to the Underground: http://bit.ly/9VVl4B #

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• Ahh, Golden Trout: http://bit.ly/b7ktJr #

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Utah’s stream access issue – where a small group worked to successfully privatize public resources – seems to heating up once again, and frankly, we’re happy to hear it.

If you missed it the first time around, Utah anglers won a State Supreme Court decision guaranteeing them access, but got blindsided by legislation cooked up behind closed doors.

When HB141 was signed in late March, it effectively closed off access to much of Utah’s streams and rivers, and to make matters worse, proponents of the bill offered up a “pay-to-play” plan to restore some of the access – essentially making Utah (and out-of-state) anglers pay to access water they could walk to just a few months prior.

According to this Salt Lake Tribune opinion piece, opposition to the probably illegal HB141 legislation is ramping up, and a lawsuit appears imminent.

A lawsuit is close to being filed and a new group has emerged with the promise to “promote and assist in all aspects of securing public access to Utah’s public waters and stream beds.”

The Utah Stream Access Coalition made its appearance on Facebook in late July. Among the founders is David Serdar. If you don’t think he is serious about the issue of stream access in Utah, consider that he resigned his position with the Stonefly Society — the local Trout Unlimited chapter in Salt Lake City — to avoid conflicts with that organization’s rules about access issues.

“Basically the idea is to enhance stream access by any means necessary,” Serdar said.

Good luck to Utah’s anglers, who may have the law on their side, but are facing a typically western group of entrenched interests bent on privatizing a public resource.

See you in court, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: hb141, utah stream access

As if the world needed yet another Sign of the Looming Fly Fishing Apocalypse (take that, Moldy):

Oh yea, Spank That Trout.

I fear for the republic, Undergrounders – especially in light of the fact that we received this grimly disturbing gem from a well-known member of the fly fishing industry, which leads us to think depressed fly rod sales are leaving too many people with too much free time on their hands.

See you in the seafood aisle, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: friday pinup, spank that trout, spanking the trout

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• Sleeping in the Dirt Mag, Issue 4 (kids issue): http://bit.ly/aZiqQ5 #

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• Who says no money in fishing? Angler scores $51K in Pikeminnow eradication (predator control won't fix salmon woes) http://bit.ly/bDc2RY #

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Due to what I’ll term a “catastrophic work day” I find myself at loose ends for a few minutes, and because I basically view my readership as a bunch of lab rats waiting for the cheese to drop, I’m conducting what we’ll loosely define as “market research.”

Twitch those whiskers, Undergrounders. It’s time to scamper along, leaving behind dark little pellets of hard market data.

Poll Topic: eBooks

It’s pretty much a given that eBooks will soon capture a sizable percentage of the publishing market. What isn’t clear is how that will happen (and in what markets).

Will author-published titles snap off a sizable chunk of the publishing market? Will publishing houses figure it out and preserve their place?

On the consumer end, friends who swore they’d never buy anything but paper now rave about their Kindles. Meanwhile, iPads and other tablets look like perfect reading devices, and I just read a science fiction novel on my Blackberry smartphone (my first on a phone). I won’t say it was the best reading experience I’ve ever enjoyed, but it was convenient and I read a book I might not have gotten to otherwise.

And that’s on a phone that’s 1/4 the size of an iPad.

Once ebook reading devices become more common, I think we might see an explosion in self-published ebooks, especially in marginal (niche) markets, where the publishers rarely market much and distribution clout doesn’t matter much.

But that’s me. What about you?

The Undergrounders Weigh In

Comments, of course, are welcome.

Technorati Tags: ebook, publishing, Writing

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• Orvis photo contest benefits American Rivers (or, win $1,000 and see your pic on Orvis cover): http://ow.ly/2ub4u #

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