• Alaska's Yukon River Chinook salmon returns to bad, commerce sec designates it a "commercial fishery failure" http://tinyurl.com/ykprokk #
• Got in email spat with my Web host's tech support, and all my sites go down (again). Coincidence? Or Payback? #

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The Trout Underground today announced the recall of approximately four million of its prior posts, warning that some readers have experienced sticking mouse buttons, the result being readers can’t stop scrolling even after reaching the bottom of the page.

As the beleaguered blog dealt with the massive public relations fallout of its mouse accelerator recall, rumors surfaced of a new investigation into the Underground’s Short Casts, which apparently hamper the braking of drivers attempting to read them from moving vehicles.

“We are very sorry that our posts are causing problems with our esteemed readers” said Underground CEO Tom Chandler, whose media empire had to scrap the launch of a new corporate tagline: “The Trout Underground: Once You Start Reading, You Won’t Be Able To Stop.”

“We are doing everything we can to make the reading experience a safe one.”

Public reaction to the announcement has been largely hostile, and consumer crusader Ralph Nader announced the release of a hastily assembled documentary film: “The Underground – Unsafe at Any Scrolling Speed.”

Company Spokesperson Wally the Wonderdog was unavailable for comment, though when questioned during a recent outing, did wag his tail.

Technorati Tags: fly fishing blog, toyota recall

• WillFishForWork reviews Pentax Optio (a good Valentines Day Gift), invokes Underground. Good stuff. http://tinyurl.com/yze4ypa #

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Wally the Wonderdog is snoring softly on the couch (yes, he actually does sleep on the couch, and truthfully, he snores like a chainsaw) – a tired puppy after our three-hour xc-ski tour of next year’s trout water.

The brave, sturdy Wonderdog in hour two of his three-hour ski trip.

It’s yet another example of the Underground’s “Get Fit or Die Alone in the Snow” program, and because damned few of you slackers took advantage of our special half-off deal on the Underground’s Fly Fishermen’s Core Strengthening Program, the Wonderdog and I simply went skiing without inviting anyone.

We figure the Undergrounders will feel the Sting of Exclusion, so next time we try to scam you make you a special, special offer, you’ll fall for it think twice about passing.

See you holding the Ibuprofen bottle, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: wally the wonderdog, xc-skiing

• Uhh, the Wading Kilt? We vote "no" (I simply have don't have the calves) http://unaccomplishedangler.com/2010/02/the-wading-kilt/ #
• Don't want to deal with annoying customers, but think fly shop ownership cool? Buy the Ted Fay Fly Shop building: http://tinyurl.com/ykpxj44 #
• Marin supervisors dragging feet in hopes critically endangered Coho salmon will disappear? Your .02 needed: http://tinyurl.com/yakw9jj #
• Can't catch fish? Use your fly rod to snag bank deposit bags… http://tinyurl.com/yfok3wa #

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It’s clear the late Charlie Meyers developed a huge following over his decades as an outdoor writer, and if you think Colorado might want to name the “Dream Stream” (Spinney Mountain SWA) after him, then you’re reading the right post.

First, here’s the proposal (in .pdf format).

Second, you can drop a line to the Colorado Wildlife Commission supporting the idea at: wildlife.comm@state.co.us

Technorati Tags: charlie meyers, colorado wildlife commission, the dream stream

Get past the horseplay right at the start of the most recent Orvis podcast (the player should appear below), and it’s a pretty good listen. Fly fishing in the wind is one of my least favorite activities, and I’ve heard literally  mounds of advice over the years. Some of it, frankly, seemed pretty bad.

Orvis has avoided all that in this podcast, but I’m looking for the Undergrounders to throw down their ideas.

Here, Tom Rosenbaeur and Perk Perkins advise anglers to not push the rod harder and don’t fight the wind, all of which is transparently good advice.

He and Rosenbauer also offer up a few non-controversial ideas, including:

• Keep casts low to the water (less windy there)
• Use a Belgian cast (a constantly loaded elliptical cast) to keep the line moving (haven’t tried it for wind, but it’s handy when you’re casting heavy flies like streamers)
• Use shorter leaders and smaller flies
• Cast a shorter rod

Interestingly, Perkins suggests he does just as well with a mid-flex rod in the wind as he does with a tip flex – something I did once experience fishing 6wts on a lake. I don’t get it, but it was true for me.

Is that simply because moderate tapers suit my casting style, or is there something else? (Discuss)

The Chainsaw Death Match Part

Finally, we get to the good stuff; Lefty Kreh has famously suggested underlining a fly rod by one line weight on windy days, apparently so you can throw tighter loops and generate faster line speeds.

And yes, I tried that once. The results weren’t pretty.

Apparently, Perkins and Rosenbauer don’t think much of the idea either, and in the interest of fomenting an Industry-Wide Death Match between Big-Name Heavy-Hitters, I’ve gotta ask the Undergrounders: has anyone else actually tried this, and had it work (or not)?

In my case, I’d suggest the lighter line loaded the rod less and offered less mass to “boss” the fly.

Perhaps If I’d been throwing a midge, it wouldn’t have mattered, but I was throwing a #14 parachute during a Callaebatis hatch, and eventually switched back to my original 6wt line (the rated line).

I’ve heard of anglers opting to overline a rod by one line weight on a windy day, so clearly, there’s ample room here for violent disagreement discussion.

Obviously, there’s plenty of room to screw around with all this stuff, but after years of mucking about, I simply fish a 6wt when it’s windy. Sometimes the simple solution is the best.

Where do the Undergrounders land on the subject of wind, fly rods, fly lines, and the prospect of an industry blood bath stuff?

Technorati Tags: fishing in the wind, fly casting, fly casting in the wind, fly fishing in the wind, fly rods, orvis podcast

• Idaho's governor gets fingers burned trying to close Idaho's parks, suffers huge reversal (yay!) http://tinyurl.com/yf8dmex #
• Fishing license sales up 4.7%. Fight already on to claim credit (we believe the Underground is responsible) http://tinyurl.com/yf2znkq #
• Underground Weekend Special: Best jobs on the Planet Involving Beer: http://tinyurl.com/ybbdt8x #
• RT: @RiversLostCoast: Now offering free shipping on the DVD! http://www.riversofalostcoast.com #
• RT @matt_weiser: Westlands said 'There is no winter-run' #salmon http://bit.ly/cD9ij on same day pumps killed 62 (pdf) http://bit.ly/bAEYMH #
• Snow falling hard; supposed to be 7"-13" by morning. Another date with the snowblower then… (at least it's not Satan's Snowblower) #

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Another winter storm’s headed the Underground’s way – the same wet, heavy snow that caused the weeklong power outages and overall carnage a couple weeks ago during the last “storm of a lifetime.”

The Pessimist sees this coming and thinks everything’s still poised on the lip of the abyss from last time, so even 16″ of wet snow will likely push us right back into the abyss, leaving us powerless and in the dark, shoveling until our arms fall off.

The Optimist believes the weak trees were all pruned back by the prior storm, so this new storm will have no effect whatsoever.

Right now, the snow is falling hard, though the live radar map suggests we may yet live.

Can't tell if that's really 13" of snow.

In the larger sense, the Upper Sac’s running awfully high, the shooting range is snowed in beyond hope, and even walking around my own yard requires a pair of snowshoes, so it won’t take much to nudge me towards the pessimist camp.

Then again, pessimism drives me to be prepared – the large pots of water, the fully fueled Honda Super Karate Death Blower, the right-at-hand flashlights and candles…

You get the picture.

If the Underground goes dark for a day or two (a possibility), know that I’m likely sitting in the darkness (probably unable to straighten up after dragging firewood upstairs and moving snow the opposite direction) and wondering at the concept of Optimism vs Pessimism.

I mean, if I can alter my perspective to stop seeing all this white stuff as a curse and instead view it as next year’s trout water, maybe my mood will improve.

See you behind the snow blower, Tom Chandler

UPDATE: WE LIVE! The storm has come and gone (it’s over Boise, ID now), and because that group of alarmist weather forecasters apparently can’t read a thermometer, we got rain & slush instead of snow, so I’m NOT spending the day yoked to my New Snowblower Overlord. Commence with the feasting!

Technorati Tags: mt shasta weather, next year's trout water, weather map

• Is Brownlining for Carp the new Sport of Glory Hounds? (Appears so in UK) http://tinyurl.com/yzuhnj5 #

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Every day I receive an email from a reader suggesting the Trout Underground is the Bestest Fly Fishing Blog Ever.

(Thanks mom.)

Still, it’s gratifying when an independent rating service not related to me in any way says, in essence:

The Trout Underground is the Bestest Fishing Blog Ever

.

Sure, the ranking’s based on what we’ll euphemistically label incomplete data, but I’m willing to overlook that – even as I zoom in on the tasty fact the Underground’s not simply the Bestest Fly Fishing Blog, but in fact tops the list of the 50 Best Fishing Blogs.

In fact, I’m so overcome with joy and validation and happiness and a warm tingly feeling that I’m experiencing the urge to speak Latin.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

(I gloat. I preen. I strut about obnoxiously.)

Smile - We're #1

I’d like to thank my agent, my publicist, my people, Wally the Wonderdog, my answering machine and my family for standing by me while I blogged for free instead of investing the Underground’s tens of thousands of hours in my business, thereby condemning my family to a life of abject poverty followed by a lingering death in an unheated home.

Yes. It’s a day to be proud.

Of course, I can’t forget my readers, who helped make the Underground #1 (not #1 in the sense that we’re human waste, but that we’re at the pinnacle of the food chain).

As megalomania sets in, it’s clear that the Undergrounders, simply put, are as much to blame as anyone.

See you staring lovingly the mirror, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: #1 fishing blog, fishing blog, fly fishing blog, number one fishing blog, top fishing blog, we're number one

• Fee to fish San Juan River about to become reality? http://tinyurl.com/yl3su5p #
• If a tree falls in the woods, and you're under it, who do you sue? Forest Service, apparently: http://www.sacbee.com/827/story/2508420.html #

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I cannot begin to describe the gravity of what you’re about to see, even as I feel a wave of compassion wash over me for the hapless victim, who – after getting his ass wholly and completely kicked by a goose – couldn’t muster up words stronger than “gah” and “darn.”

In public, I’d laugh at this unfortunate angler in a manly manner (using my chiseled jaw and rock-hard pecs to reinforce the manliness of my laugh), but privately, I’d have to admit – in a shamed, trembling, girly man voice – that I too was once the victim of a Random Goose Attack [hangs head].

The memories of that decades-ago, Goose-driven ass kicking still haunts me deeply. So a few years ago – when I stepped too close to an unseen goose nest while fly fishing in Tennessee and heard the Awful Hiss of Doom – I suffered a flashback that would have made a Vietnam Veteran proud.

To my credit, I didn’t drop my fly rod and run screaming along the bank, anticipating the Honk of Certain Death directly behind my right ear.

No indeed.

I held onto my fly rod as I ran screaming, so later – as I walked by that busload of now-amused Japanese tourists – I could hold my head high.

To this day, I still remember the original feathered assault… the outstretched wings beating fiercely… the terrible honking noise… the awful flashing beak delivering its pile-driver like blows to my (ahem) sensitive regions…

I’m getting kinda sweaty just writing about it. So I’m going to stop, and just curl up in the fetal position for a few minutes.

Discuss.

(Found via the Goat)

Technorati Tags: fishing from kayaks, geese gone bad, when geese attack

• You Know You're Having a Bad Day When: Your dog shoots you http://tinyurl.com/ydqeljj #
• Simplifying his fly fishing (and his life): http://www.tvangler.com/?p=2701 #
• Let Asian Carp into Great Lakes (which support $7 Billion industry) to protect a few million in shipping? http://tinyurl.com/yg9qcmr #
• Massachusetts acquires land to help protect sea-run Brook trout (the official Char of TU) http://tinyurl.com/yd2mrc4 #
• The Underground wants a treehouse exactly like these… http://www.baumraum.de/index.php?pid=5 #

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Fly shops and manufacturers aren’t the only segments of the fly fishing universe experiencing unwelcome economic pressures.

Is online competition hurting fly fishing's magazines?

In fact, fly fishing’s traditional media outlets are facing growing competition from online media and a painful recession – and several may not survive the experience.

After all, new ezines are popping up like dandelions, and other online channels (like blogs, video sites, etc) are growing.

And don’t forget the handful of fly fishing-focused social media sites (think Facebook with fins) that are appearing (as well as Facebook itself).

Couple that kind of competition for readers with a zero-growth fly fishing industry, and you’ve got the makings of The Great Fly Fishing Magazine Shakeout.

Which may be starting now.

Trouble in Magazine Land

Last year, American Angler editor Phil Monahan lost his job to budget cuts. At the time, the cuts were blamed on the umbrella media company’s poorly performing newspaper properties, but those claims always seemed suspect – especially in light of recent news.

First, Fly Rod & Reel magazine – whose ad page counts have been looking thin for a couple years – announced it was going upscale with thicker issues, better paper and a reduced publishing schedule.

In other words, Fly Rod & Reel is pushing the hyperspace button. (It’s also interesting to note they announced it via press release a couple weeks before they managed to get it posted on their site.)

Now, Fly Fisherman magazine – the 800 pound gorilla in the mainstream fly fishing world – just announced staffing cuts. (Humorous aside: the headline in the press release said they were announcing “Changes to Staff” – a euphemism if we’ve ever heard one.)

The Caveats

It’s entirely possible to attribute all the above effects to the recession – and the magazines might be happy if you did exactly that – but I’d suggest multiple forces are at work here.

First, let’s be clear; I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more of fly fishing’s print magazines fold in the next 18 months, but I’m certainly not expecting the whole crop to simply disappear.

It’s interesting to note that magazine subscription rates (among all magazines) were growing until the recession hit, so despite the struggles faced by newspapers, it’s not as if magazines are dead.

They’re still very much alive.

The problem isn’t one of readership as much as advertising revenue – a symptom of both the economy and increasing competition from the online world..

In other words, the constant flow of online content isn’t dragging readers away from magazines, but the growth in online spending does seem to be draining dollars away from hard-to-quantify print ad spends.

“Wait a minute” you say. “Don’t the success of The Drake and the launch of the Fly Fish Journal offer proof of print’s viability?”

If they do succeed, I’d suggest they represent more a fragmentation of the market than the salvation of it.

The Drake is clearly aimed at a different group of anglers – and it’s also not a big publication.

In a pair of emails, Tom Bie didn’t want to discuss circulation figures, but another magazine editor guessed its circulation at 7.500 – which still largely amounts to a vanity publication, at least compared to the other mags.

Those numbers may or may not be accurate, but it’s still true The Drake’s appeal doesn’t lie primarily with the over-45 angling crowd, who represent the core of the market (e.g. the folks with disposable income) for fly fishing’s advertisers.

I don’t want to argue the merits of one generation over another, but let’s just say the impact of the “extreme generation” on fly fishing may be far greater online than it is in the marketplace.

The shiny new Fly Fish Journal (one issue only) remains an unknown quantity, but it’s suddenly facing competition from a going-upscale Fly Rod & Reel. Is there room for two in that space? And are advertisers – already facing a chaotic marketplace – really ready to support another magazine?

No matter who’s left standing once the economy improves and the dollars start flowing again, I think print magazines lacking a robust online presence will founder when trying to attract new subscribers – and won’t be able to offer online ad placements as a bonus.

That’s an important distinction to any ad salesperson trying to make their quota; if a competing publication serves a similar audience (and the fly fishing world just isn’t that big), but also offers an advertiser access to loads of online impressions, who gets the ad budget?

It’s the Internet, Stupid

It’s estimated that 74.2% of North America’s population accesses the Internet – a figure that represents 134% growth between 2000 and 2009.

In 2008, a Pew study said 40% of people received their national and international news from the Internet – up from 24% in 2007 (only 35% identified newspapers as their primary source of news).

In other words, the Internet is on its way to becoming the dominant distribution system for information.

Even in the somewhat moribund fly fishing media world, that seems to be the case.

Several of fly fishing’s print magazines are clearly trying to make up for lost ground on the online front, but several are also clearly failing at it.

Meanwhile, online mags like the newly minted Catch offer an attractive alternative for advertising dollars – and will offer an even higher profile in the future. Why?

First, it’s possible we’re at the tail end of The Golden Age of Pointless Two-Page Brand Ads in magazines, and good riddance.

Instead, actionable marketing content – possibly with video or other media embedded – will likely become ascendant, and the online magazine format offers the perfect conduit.

That bodes well for the legions of videographers currently making fly fishing movies. There’s no way the market supports the video hordes via large “feature” efforts, but at least some could make a living powering out videos for destination lodges, gear manufacturers and others – most of which will be distributed online.

Then there are the “engagement” social media (like blogs and Facebook), which promise much to those willing to commit to them. So far, the fly fishing industry (and the fly fishing print magazines) have not done a stellar job leveraging things like blogs and social media, yet examples abound of successes in other industries.

Then again, the Return on Investment (ROI) of online channels like email have been well known for decades (email offers the highest ROI of any online media channel [with the possible exception of search marketing]), yet the fly fishing industry as a whole barely uses the medium.

How long can the industry keep its head firmly planted in the sand?

What’s Ahead?

At the Underground, we balk at forecasting the future, but we’re fine with guessing at it.

First, my earlier prediction for the future of print magazines (online/print hybrids – stuffing multiple media channels with content in order to drive readership and subscriptions) may yet come true.

In fact, Field & Stream is using traffic magnets (blogs, social media, etc) to drive subscriptions and offer different online advertising possibilities.

Done properly, a hybrid solution could easily prove more viable than an online-only magazine.

Of course, there’s no shortage of online magazines available for destruction testing of this hypothesis; they’re popping up like weeds.

I gather we’ll wait and see.

Keep in mind the following: the Internet tends to fracture audiences across many different media channels rather than unify them, so it’s quite possible that the future of online fly fishing media won’t see a dominant trio emerge like the Big Three print magazines.

Instead, readers will piece together their information sources via multiple media channels – a blog here, a twitter feed here, a magazine here.

That’s good for information consumers, but hard for advertisers, who will suddenly face a bazillion media channels, many of which will require their attention.

That, dear Undergrounders, will not be easy.

Then there’s the difficulty online magazines will suffer trying to maintain audiences for quarterly publications.

In a fast-moving Internet world, winning readers back on a quarterly basis represents the hard path to building a magazine’s readership, especially given that ad rates for online publications are traditionally lower than offline.

An online magazine suffers fewer costs, but lacking subscription fees, why wouldn’t want they want a steady (if smaller) source of revenue between issues – and a way to keep readers engaged?

The answer lies with other media channels, and that whole integration issue rears up once again.

The Commercial Angle

I’m at almost 1500 words, and I haven’t even addressed the rapid growth in the use of online channels (blogs, social media, video, etc) for commercial purposes.

At least one online magazine (it hasn’t yet made an appearance) appears to be published by a travel agency. I’ve also noted (with some distress) that the unsavory practice of running destination stories written by people with a financial interest in the lodge or travel agency appears to be migrating from print to the online world.

In other words, I’d expect the already-blurry line between advertorial and editorial to fuzz over pretty heavily, and despite my appreciation of online media channels in general, that’s not a prediction that fills me with joy.

In simplest terms, even if fly fishing’s media won’t stay current, some of the more progressive manufacturers, travel agencies and retailers will.

And the reader won’t always be the winner.

Illustrating this trend are the fast-increasing number of organizations contacting the Underground looking for paid reviews or advertorial placement on the site.

I’ve turned them down, but it’s likely that others won’t.

The FTC’s recent clarification of their new disclosure guidelines for bloggers and other online media seems timely given the groundswell in interest on the part of marketers.

The rules state that financial relationships with manufacturers should be disclosed if a post offers a positive review of a product, and while I applaud the idea in principle, in practice it gets a little dicey.

I already disclose the source of the product (bought it, provided by the manufacturer, etc), and the rules are really aimed at the despicable practice of stealth marketing, where bloggers are paid to post reviews, but don’t disclose that information.

Still, my reading of the rules suggests that bloggers may be forced to disclose the same financial relationships that writers in fly fishing magazines have traditionally ignored – including things like free junkets to pricey destination lodges in return for coverage (which unsurprisingly is always favorable).

We’ll see how that shakes out.

The Underground Ahead

I believe a few fly fishing organizations are waking up to the online world with something approaching panic.

Illustrating that fact is this:  I was contacted three times in 2009 about selling the Underground (or blogging as the Underground on another site), presumably because the Underground’s built-in readership and Google juice would prove attractive to someone looking to jump-start their online presence.

None of the contacts has amounted to anything, but their existence tends to support the idea that organizations are looking to quickly get ahead in a competitive online world.

Naturally, all the above is simply the speculation of a longtime writer and marketing consultant (albeit one with 24+ years in marketing), and the Undergrounders are encouraged to weigh in with their own take on the subject.

See you at the magazine rack, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: american angler, catch magazine, fly fisherman, fly fishing blog, fly fishing magazine, fly fishing media, fly rod and reel