CF v IYCF

Being a subscriber to both mags and particularly in the last two months,it appears to me that Iycf has 'improved'
by devoting most of it's space to advertising.Articles are now in the minority.CF seems to go from strength to strength particularly the latest issue.Am I outgrowing IYCF???

IYCF does seem to be full of adverts, but thats what makes it pay I suppose. I do think that the articles need looking at sometimes, and also what some of the 'big name anglers' say about some aspects of the sport leaves alot to be desired.
But they do give good freebies away...

IYCF seems to have gone through a major re-vamp with this months issue, it seems to have got back to what most people buy it for - how to improve their fishing.

I know this is primarily aimed at beginner to intermediate fishers. i like the new format and like the fact that they have lots of adverts, it helps me get the best deal when Im looking for new tackle.

maybee you have outgrown its usefullness?????

Fred,
I agree CF is getting better, and that aint an easy thing to do in todays angling press....this months was the best general monthly i have read for a long time, it doesn't matter how long any of us have been fishing a good mag can remind us of something to try next time or show us something totally new, none of us ever stop learning, and CF has something for everyone.
I wonder if i will win the letters page prize if i send this in? snigger!!

Kelvin,
I don't think i will ever outgrow it's usefulness,but at ?2.70 a copy and the funds they must earn for the 'phone in gear grabs, must be substantial.I just have this thing about paying for advertising.

Two very different magazines aimed at very different parts of the market,in IYCF a lot of the articles seem to end up as little more than adverts for whichever brand of tackle the author is sponsored by at the time of writing,fine if taken with a pinch of salt by the more expirienced,but a bit underhand if taken by the novice as gospel!
CF on the other hand seems more aimed at the more enquiring angler who has moved on from the "improved" stage with a first rate blend of features designed to get the grey matter working and for the most part written without any apparent bias.
Fred if you have to ask the question,then i feel that you already know the answer!
What next? onto a higher plain with a subscription to Waterlog?

I only found I was able to get Waterlog last month from my local newsagent. Well, not off the shelf, he ordered it specially for me. Prior to this I had been led to believe it was only available via subscription. I now tend to leave all the other glossies on the shelf unless there is a particularly interesting article printed. The time is coming that I may stop buying 'The Fortean Times' too......

Right,I now know where to get Angling Star,Where do I get Waterlog.Could end up getting two for the price of one.

The latest issue of Coarse Fisherman is brilliant. So much of absorbing interest in it. I couldn't get this magazine anywhere, either in Warwick or Rotherham, so I took out a subscription. With my subscription came a really nice little Fox Box by the way.

I never complain about the amount of adveratising in any magazine. Without it the mag would not exist.

Angling Star is very much a regional publication. Although some the the articles are written by contributors from all aver the country. At 65p it's a bargain.

I have found that Carp Fisher has also gone down the "Adverts paradise" route too. I cannot stand flicking through page after page of adverts, all selling the same gear at the same price.

As for articles, well, I am one of these sad buggers who has piles and piles of fishing mags going back years. Take a look at Carp Fisher from a few years ago, and its the same articles being repeated time and time again...all that has changed is that they are now talking about French waters instead of UK ones. Its the same rigs, same tactics..etc etc...Does my head in!

Well, it just goes to show how much people’s opinions vary. CF a great mag with this month’s edition being one of the better ones! After reading this month they will be lucky if I put my hand in my pocket next time and I have been a reader for many years.
CF has become nothing more than a carrier for adverts. Almost half the pages are adverts, and a good proportion of the so called editorial content can best be described as “advertorials”, Ken “Nutrabaits/ Haiths” Townley, Julian “Fox “ Cundiffe, the list goes on and on.
How many times has a piece of tackle or bait been mentioned in an article only to turn up on the “Head to Head” pages or “First look”?
We all like to read about the latest tackle and I have no problem with adverts in a magazine, however there is a balance and unfortunately CF doesn’t have this any more.

Even many of the writers are showing signs of fatigue, trotting out the same old stuff every few months. This is not meant to detract from the quality of the work they have produced in the past, I suppose it is in a way inevitable when you have to produce an article week in week out that you will eventually run out of things to write. Fortunately Stewart Alum and Mick Woods only seem to write when they have something new to say. Steve Crowther has been an interesting addition, but overall the magazine needs new writing blood.
The content of many articles is becoming almost predictable, you only have to read the title to know what the content is going to be because you have already read it several times in the past.

The only reason that I have continued to buy the magazine for so long is that there has been no real alternative, hopefully the new magazine from Mr Maddocks may change all that and hopefully act as a catalyst to CF, because if CF carries on like this I know of one reader who will be deserting Mr Dexter

We’ve had this debate about editorial/advertising in Coarse Fisherman not so long ago, and it turned out that the majority of readers want to know exactly what tackle and bait the author actually uses. Not just the type but the actual make. How an author is supposed to mention this without it coming across as an advert I don’t know.

Most regular angling authors are indeed sponsored or supported by one or more tackle or bait companies, and others actually work for various companies as consultants. So when they do mention what they use they’re quite naturally going to mention the company who sponsor them – that is, after all, the product they use. And if that isn’t the case, then it should be.

So given that the author is expected (by the majority) to name names when he mentions tackle and bait, and that he mentions honestly what he uses, which is the stuff he is supplied with by his sponsor, then what is the problem?

Also, angling authors don’t earn pots of money from their writings, so few are going to refuse free gear and bait from a sponsor. In fact I don’t know any angling writers who turn their nose up at the offer of free gear and bait, and that includes this author.

What has always puzzled me about this regular gripe from a few is that the same thing, only far more blatant, seems to be accepted in any other sport. And I include millionaire sports like motor racing and tennis where the actual fee and prize money is a small fortune anyway compared to the earnings in fishing.

I look at it this way, if the majority of readers want to know precisely what an angling writer uses (and the majority do) and that writer is honest about what he uses, then that’s all that matters.

As for the gripe that writers are churning out the same old stuff, I’m sure that editors would welcome suggestions for topics that have not yet been covered.

And, editors also welcome submissions from anyone who thinks he can do better, or even as good as, their current writers, bearing in mind that today’s angling writer has to be a reasonably good photographer.

Once he’s caught the fish to write about and photograph of course…….

What Graham says is very true. There is also the fact that a fishing magazine is meant to entertain as well as inform. There are also a lot of newcomers to the sport who pick up magazines like CF. If they see pages and pages of deary writing they are apt to put the mag back on the shelf. However if they see some good pictures of nice fish, they in all possibilty will want to read how these fish were caught.

Magazines like IYCF don't do a bad job in terms of instruction. I saw a guy's waggler set up the other day when fishing locally. No wonder he couldn@t get a bite. I felt like throwing him a copy of IYCF with a piece by Nuddy on rigging a waggler.

Those of us who have fished for donkey's years sometime get bored with reading mags like IYCF. However they are worth the odd glance. You just might pick up the odd tip which makes all the difference on your next trip.

Graham is quite correct regarding the paltry amount you get paid for articles by magazines these days. By the time you have spent money on bait, fuel, film and tickets, what you get for the picture feature is hardly enough to cover cost.

Graham is quite right about photography. Many articles sent to Angling Star would have been published if the photos had been up to scratch.

Photography takes some learning. Most fishing pictures I see are out of focusb badly exposed and the guy holding the fish is tiny compared to his surroundings.

Yes Graham, I know we have had this debate before, and for a while things improved, but over the last few months CF has slipped backwards in regard to the constant plugs for products, venues etc that support or sponsor the writer.
Yes we do want to know what tackle rigs and baits people are using but there is a point where this is taken to extremes and in place of an informative, interesting and entertaining article we have a blatant plug thinly disguised as editorial content.
Some writers manage to achieve the correct balance and some don’t, the point I made was that my opinions appear to differ from others on this forum regarding the current state of the magazine.

They do differ, and why not, or we would never have interesting debates.

However, your views do appear to differ very much so from the majority, for both Coarse Fisherman and FISHINGmagic have recently received many emails and letters stressing how much CF has improved in both editorial and photographic content over recent issues.

Of course, that may be because those who think it has taken a turn for the worse have not been as forthcoming as yourself, so let me say here and now that anyone's views of Coarse Fisherman, and any other magazine, are always welcome on this forum, whether that opinion be for or against.

If it wasn't for constructive criticism nothing would ever get better.

I buy CF every month as it caters for the fishing I like best i.e river roving and piking, where as IYCF is more match style fishing (in the main).
But I have one gripe about CF where has the humour gone? It did at one time have a good sense of humour, and tounge in cheek captions for photo's etc. Now it seems very serious. Has anyone else noticed this? or is it just my imagination?

Stirred it up a bit,didn't I.For what it's worth I beleive CF is an excellent magazine,i was not as aware of overt advertising as in IYCF.As a relatively new user of Fm I have to say it's the most value for money! information 'publication'
I have come across.Keep on resonding all of you put there.THANKS.

Lee,
I do agree with you, some writers do have the knack of getting it just right and others go OTT, but i was refering to the mag on the interest level of what was being said, and this month i honestly feel it was a bloody good read.
At the end of the day we have to accept we live in a commercial world....i don't like it much either but mentioning your sponser doesn't make a crap read good, some of these guys do genuinely get results with the gear too, but i think seasoned anglers can see through it all, but a lot do want to know.
One more thing....if any of us were offered loads of free gear, decent fishing etc etc would we say "no thank you"????? i don't think many would!

Thats a good point paul,most of those that moan about adverts and all that stuff just wish they could get there hands on some of that free gear them selves. Why is it we are always moaning at each other. What does it matter if whoever plugs a rod or reel as long as they do use that rod or reel and do believe its a good rod.
Why do so many anglers begrudge the perks that writers get. like paul said, there isn't one of them would say no if it was offered to them.

Cyril
Maybe as a new poster to this forum I am being a little sensitive, however, having read your response I can assure you that my motivation has nothing to do with any petty jealousy about the writers of the articles receiving free gear, good luck to them and just because I hold a view that does not agree with yours doesn’t make me a moaner either.
I have been an avid reader of coarse fisherman for over ten years and have seen it go through a whole host of changes some good some bad. What lead to my initial posting was a conversation I had with another reader recently where we both expressed a view that it had been pretty poor lately and after picking up this months copy I was equally disappointed. I would also say that I look forward to the publication each month, as it is one of the few titles I continue to read. Imagine my surprise when I read the glowing comments on this forum.
I fully appreciate the commercial realities of the world we live in; I am a sales manager and experience them every day. My own view is that as customers for the magazine we deserve better. I like to read adverts, where else am I to find out about products and prices, and I know that they keep the costs of production down and hence the purchase price. I also like to know to a certain extent what people are using and what products they rate, what I don’t like is when people use their position as contributors to place adverts masquerading as editorial content.
Some magazines carry adverts to keep the costs down, some carry adverts and use articles as a means of making us read the adverts, I feel that CF is in danger of becoming the latter.