Kevin,
Like Graham says, zilch response doesn't mean it's no good. I've had discussions with Graham about this, and, like you, sometimes wonder why what you think was a good article got little or no response. What has really happened (I believe this, so don't destroy my illusions) is that more than a few sage heads have read it, nodded in agreement, and not felt a need to discuss it. I suspect that's the case with the "Rules" part of your article for example. Through angling colleagues at work and on the river bank I've been staggered by just how many are reading the articles, yet very few of these ever post comments. For reasons I cannot explain I find it deeply ironic that people whose articles I have lapped up for anything up to 35 years now tell me that they read my articles (stuff it, let's name drop, G Marsden, T Lampard and J Gibbinson).
I'm just a fanatical angler who thinks deeply about his fishing, not a megastar. And it's this last sentence that you have in common with me in that people really do read your articles because here is someone else who thinks deeply enough about his fishing but in a different way to see some of the fallacies, ironies, contradictions, vanities and humour of a sport that we all love, and can write well about it.
This site has got strengths in its writing that no other website that I've found yet can match, and certainly not in the UK arena. No cribbing from in house magazines, just original work that is hard to find anywhere else. Unlike some magazines and newspapers, there is no reliance on ghost writers for the stars, which adds further to its strength.
When it comes to writing, humour is one of the toughest of them all. It's relatively easy to write an account of a day's fishing, more difficult to write a discourse to make a political point, and much harder to do humour or fiction. I'm as nervous as you with these type of pieces which is why I have hidden behind pseudonyms for these type of articles, though a few know who is who. I think the Alternative Angler type articles will continue to work well on here. The Damian stories are harder in that (to me anyway) it's a bit of a one joke story, the crafty old codger against the technocrat young whippersnapper, and once you've got that the joke pales a little, but that's only my opinion.
By the way the 2006 Tart Tackle Catalogue is with the printers....
Happy writing, Kevin.