Matt Hayes

Dear Matt

Just had to say that I've ben watching your new marketing strategy for TFG unfold over the past few months, and have to say it really is brilliant!

Instead of having to print thousands of glossy brochures to give away free to anglers who probably wander into tackle shops, grab armfulls of catalogues and walk out, your solution is simple - charge them ?1.40 a time. Not only does this discourage timewasters, but you cleverly only drip feed your products a couple at a time, rather than show the entire range at one go,thereby maintaining interest.

Also very clever to get someone else to do all the testing for you, so much better than having to drag yourself off for yet another photo shoot, especially as it might have to be in England, bound to be cold and wet.

Like I said briliant, brilliant idea, just one small point, but the name of your catalogue appears to be 'Angling Times' probably some contractural thing for the time being, I suppose.....

Kevin
Totally agree with you and dont forget if you want to fish with Sir Matt it only cost ?450 per day(bring your own sandwiches)
I rang Keith Arthur on the price he was charging and Keith actually told me that if someone wanted snooker lessons from Steve Davis you would have to pay the price to which i replied that Steve Davis had won the world championship 6 times,slight difference or is it jealousy on my part

I once spent a day fishing with **** Walker.

**** GAVE me some hooks, FREE fly casting instruction and carte blanche on his stretch of the Ouse.

I also spent 3 days fishing with Benny Ashurst and friends way back in 1960 in Ireland. Benny GAVE me a float!!

I have also fished with Lee Wulff, again all advice and no fee.

You eventually learn who the great anglers really are.

Kevin, I know where you're coming from and it's not only Matt Hayes that is making it too obvious.

There's a balance where product awareness can be beneficial to an article but Matt Hayes is way over the mark in my opinion.

Regarding what he charges for tuition. You can take it or leave it. (I'll leave it). But wouldn't you charge that much if you could get away with it? Wouldn't you like to make a living out of angling?

he's been writing adverts thinly disguised as articles for years.

If Matt Hayes et al want ?450 for a day's tuition, this is way over the top. In the USA you can hire a top pro guide for the day that will include the use of boat, tackle and lunch, for around USD 250 (?140.00).

And these guys can fish make no mistake.

I knew a chap who went to the USA to fish Lake Okeechobee in Florida. He wanted to brush up on his bass fishing techniques. He hired a top pro guide and in 6 hours learned more about bass fishing than all the books and 5 years prior experience had given him. He told me it was the best 100 dollars he had ever spent.

Top pros on England like Tref West and Gord Burton charge nothing like ?450 a day and can outfish the likes of MH and others of his ilk ten times over.

But,Ron --If people are stupid enough to pay them those prices how can you blame them for charging so much .....??

It's like you keep saying how much these people will pay you for filtration info etc ......
If they are willing to pay it, you aren't going to say" No, thats too much, just pay me half ........" are you?

Ed , you beat me to it ,there must be mug`s out there willing to pay this price .

It's a different thing Ed.

The info I possess can help people make a lot of money. That's what I sell and it works.

Will the tuition MH offers make someone a better angler. Probably not. All that someone will be able to say is that he fished with Matt Hayes.

Big deal!!

Anyone who pays that sort of money to fish with a celeb must be thick, or have no sense of the true values of money. I could name a dozen people who contribute to this website who are far better anglers than MH and who would probably pass on advice for nothing, if they are not already doing so.

I'd give MH a days tuition for 450 quid any time he likes.

i thought you sold really small holes not information ron.

One person who comes to mind is dear old Peter Stone - rest his soul.

I have known Peter for many years and have fished with him on many occasions. Whoever approached Peter was given all by this great man, for nothing! Peter wrote books, yes and may have made a little money by writing them, but he never ever made real money out of being an angler.

He was a bookbinder by trade who eventually became a taxidermist.

I could go on about other great anglers I have known. They were generous beyond belief. Some of them were not very well known but after spending a little time in their presence, you knew that here truly, was a great angler.

People that the likes of MH will never hold a candle to.

I would enjoy a days fishing with matt but as for learning much I do not know, I was told by a baillif at a top west midlands water he couldnt hit the broad side of a barn at twenty paces.

As for marketing and making a living out of angling I take my hat off to him he is obviously a far better angler than me.

Well done Matt

Ron, some people are generous and often many of those with money aren't. That's how they get it!

Heard some horror storys about Heapsy as well.

Matt Hayes can't hold a candle to anglers such as **** Walker, Bernard Venables, Peter Stone and the Taylor brothers all of whom I've had the privilege of meeting. All of them shared their knowledge freely but one incident for me really stands out.
About 40 years ago a friend and myself went for a days fishing on a day ticket stretch of the Upper Ouse and we were suprised to find **** Walker and Peter Stone there as usually they would be fishing their own private stretch About midday **** came along the bank to see how we was getting on and my mate took the opportunity to quiz him about making a Mark IV Avon rod and what materials he would need. **** freely gave him the information and then went back to his fishing. Or so we thought. Fifteen minutes later he returned with one of his own Mark IV's and handed it to my mate and told to give it try and see if he liked it. He used it for the rest of the day and when we packed up he it took back to **** and thanked him for the loan of it. Imagine his suprise when he was told that if he liked it he could keep it.
I would like to think that MH would be that generous but somehow I doubt it.

That was Walker to a T Frank.

If your friend still has that rod, tell him to treasure it. It's probably worth a great deal of money.

The difference between the famous anglers of today and those of Walker's era is truly striking. People like Walker had time for anyone who was an enthusiast. He also had lots of time for nubile young ladies - but that's another story.... )

I tried and tried not to get involved in this thread but couldn't.

As someone who's known Matt for longer than most I have to say many of you are so far wide of the mark you are shooting in the wrong direction.

We fished together regularly a decade or more ago but drifted apart, as you often do when careers and distance get in the way but when my wife died Matt was one of the first on the phone to say come and stay with me and Idania. I went, he put aside his hectic schedule and we fished, just like the old days.

It's easy to knock success, any fool can do it, but if you decide to make a full-time self employed career out of a sport like angling you have to be very tallented, focussed and dedicated. Matt has succeeded where no-one else before him has. He has used marketing skills, fantastic photography and media savvy. I'm sorry, but those who knock it are simply jealous.

To deliver the high standards he has in the past ten years takes an awful lot of doing. I think it's fair to say we all find the blue water stuff boring but hey, we all have an indulgence or two. Personally I excersize my thumb and switch to a different channel.

Like it or not, I'd say that 50% or more of the UK's anglers would love nothing more than to spend a day with Matt the TV star. half of you lot would secretly like to spend some time with him if for no other reason than to find out what makes him tick.

With TV, AT, IYCF, TFG, etc., etc., I reckon he manages to squeeze in less than 20 days a year into guided trips and he can afford to charge a premium - otherwise, why would he bother?

Fancy hiring Rick Stein to cook for you? Sit with Barry Davis at a football match? Hire a solicitor for a day, or a dentist? What's a plumber worth? After dinner speakers? Dale Winton's fee for opening a supermarket?

It's show business folks and by comparison Matt Hayes comes cheap.

So, some boring old farts from the black and white era did a few things for free or pandered to sycophantic hangers-on. Times were different then. Woodbines cost two-pence.

See how easy it is to paint a jaundiced view?

As for USA guides coming cheap, I gather if you want to hire the best tarpon guides in Florida it'll set you back $400 - PER TIDE! - and I ain't even heard of them outside of the tiny island Islamorada.

For what you pay for a day with Matt you might prefer to fly your kid up to Lapland in December instead and meet some guy dressed up as a fat Jan Porter with a beard.

But which would your kid prefer?

Get some perspective guys.

You're right of course Bob. Times have changed.

The trouble with being an old fart is that we do remember those days and tend to compare them with today.

One of the most fascinating aspects of angling history was the amount Walker was paid for his weekly column in AT

In 1953, Walker was offered ?10 a week to write this column. This is the same as about ?500 a week today!!

Walker declined that amount saying that AT couldn't afford it. What he was paid will forever remain a secret; other than to say that up until then, Walker could not afford a motor car and lived with his mother.

Shortly after starting his weekly column he was driving a Rover.

But he never made a penny out of the Arlesey Bomb, The Mk IV or the Heron Bite Alarm.

At the end of the day Bob, he's so busy that unless people want to pay that kind of money, it isn't worth the effort for him - he'd sooner have time out for himself and his family.
I know ?450 sounds a ridiculous day rate for an angler, but it is supply and demand.
There are people prepared to pay that for Matt's advice and company, why knock that?
He could get a lot more trade if he charged ?200, but he doesn't want more tuition days, like everyone else, he's a busy man.
And as for some of the individuals quoted as being far superior in ability to Matt, there's some serious rose tinted glasses being worn.
I'm sorry to say that is is a known fact in the trade that some of the celebrated stars of yester-year were very, very average anglers just that no-one has the guts to say it as it would be highly unpopular(that said, the same accusation could be levelled at individuals lit up in today's magazines and videos).