Catch of the month...

How do the angling magazines and papers who feature a 'catch of the month' or similar spread each issue justify publishing pictures of peoples river caught fish during the closed season?

Either the fish were caught illegally or they weren'tcaught that month/week making them not the catch of the month/week but the catch of the week last September or whenever.

Ive often wondered the same thing, i remember years ago we had a bad February weather wise and it was snow all over the country yet that month in the 'catch of the month' award (or Drennan award whatever it was) it looked more like November, hints of leaves on the trees still, no snow in sight, maybe a little frost but you get the picture...

I guess some months are better than others and they have to complete 12 episodes any which they can, dunno.

As I understand it most monthlies are prepared at least a month in advance of the issue date. This means a magazine intended for sale in March may have been prepared and ready to print in January which would mean that the pictures are going to be a month old before being typset. There is also the fact that readers catches need to be submitted to the magazine and there is no guarantee that they are submitted in time for inclusion or even in the week/ month that the picture was taken.

Having said that though It does get my goat when the December issue for example shows an obvious summer picture or vice versa.