The problem is that we're awash with national angling newspapers and magazines, four regional angling publications, and a number of angling websites, all, as Mark says, fishing in a diminishing pool.
But back to the original post: perhaps there is a deficit of northern angling writers (in all angling publications apart from FM and the northern regionals
-)) because the mainstream journals want big names and it's a fact that it's harder for a northern angler to make a name for himself without continually travelling south.
There are few northerners who have managed to do that.
It's a strange situation, for northern anglers would much rather read about catching quality fish from their own region than they would about bigger fish from further afield. At least one, if not two, northern angling writers (not the travellers, but those who fish northern waters) would go down well I reckon in the weeklies.
But that's the problem, for I get the distinct impression that the northerners who write about angling try to compete with the southerners by fishing southern waters. If they stuck to their own patch for the majority of the time then maybe the mainstream journals would use them more. As it is they can get any number of southern 'names' to write about catching southern fish.
But I've noticed that I'm contradicting myself to some extent in that on one hand I'm saying it's hard for a northerner to make a name for himself without travelling south, but that he would be better fishing his own patch. So I guess it's down to editors to realise that they could do with at least one northern writer who mainly fishes northern waters.
