Monthlies/weeklies.

I have regularly bought weekly and monthly magazines for approx 18 years. Recently I have noticed how much more emphasis is put on commercial/carp fisheries, almost to the exclusion of other aspects of the sport. The school I work in gets the AT weekly. The other week there were about 5 'articles' or so written by experts, of these 4 were about carp/carp baits or commercial (carp) pools. I picked up a recent copy of IYCF and although I didnt count, the number of articles was tiny in comparison with the adverts, a total contrast to how the magazine first appeared when it hit our shelves when it was literally full of various articles. Strangely the 'general' magazines like CF are hard to find on the shelves round this area! I am wondering WHY so much more emphasis is placed on carp and commercials, dont tell me thats what Kids want, the kids in the school I work DO get bored of haulin carp out of the Cheshire commercials, many would much rather see an article on how to fish the local river (Dee) or canal (Shropshire Union) rather than seeing another 'name' catching tame carp using a keep net at a fishery where they are not allowed to use one. Is the standard of some magazines/weeklies dropping, or are they just running out of things to say?

Eddie - I agree with you 99%... I've been fishing for 14 years now, and have bought weekly/monthly publications all that time (Christ knows what they've cost me, but hey! I have to have SOMETHING to read at work!)

(I can't comment on Angling Times, btw, as I don't read it - Angler's Mail, in it's magazine format, is much more ''manageable'')

Leaving the weeklies aside though, I have to admit that I'm getting bored of reading the same old thing in monthlies, over and over... unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast; ''breakthroughs'' happen on an annual basis, rather than daily - to broaden your fishing horizons you have to broaden your reading horizons; I would class myself (if I had to) as a pleasure angler/specimen hunter (emphasis firmly on ''pleasure'', mind!), so I read (with equal gusto) specimen-fishing magazines, match-fishing magazines, ''general'' magazines... even fly-fishing magazines (which I intend doing a LOT of this coming season - as you seem to be getting at, it's something ''new'')

BUT... not everyone's like us, with a bit of experience behind us - all periodicals realise that there are newcomers to our sport all the time, and they have to cater for them; something you and I might have read 6 months ago, someone just coming into the sport won't be aware of... I can't speak for anyone else, but when I got the fishing ''bug'' all those years ago, I spent the entire pre-season that year with my nose buried in anything even vaguely related to fishing, trying to learn all I could about it (Maybe that's why I don't get ticked-off if I'm stuck behind a learner driver - I was there once myself...)

BUT... You're dead right when you talk about the over-exposion of commercial/carp fisheries, and tactics for them; it's got to the point now where I skip most articles related to this style of fishing in anything I'm reading at the time because I'm sick and tired of having it rammed down my throat that that is the ''only'' way to fish (or so it seems)...

BUT... to produce a periodical costs money; the people and companies who put out these things that I still (VERY happily, I hasten to add - after all, I'll never say I know it all) pay good money to read need to get a return for their investment, so they go where the money is; and, like it or not, commercial fisheries are big business; day ticket revenue at a ''guaranteed'' bag-up venue will always exceed what you would bring in financially if you were to sell a few dozen syndicate tickets for a venue where you might catch a potential record (which no doubt would have been ''stocked'' anyway!)

Hehe - hard to believe, reading what I've put in, that I totally agree with your sentiments! But to summarise (finally, I know...!) I don't think standards are dropping in weeklies/monthlies... but running out of things to say? For us... yes, but imagine how hard it would have been for us if we'd not had the chance to read this stuff for the first time when we got started...

Tight lines

James

Good response James.I do find that I no longer read the monthly's as soon as they come through my letterbox and i've certainly noticed, that I bypass most, if not all the Carp and predator articles.
One day I may get hooked on them and start to learn something different and restart reading the monthly's more avidly.
It may be like you say, we are perhaps more experienced and have seen a lot of it all before.
Having stated the above I will keep on reading them,just in case and because, i'm still learning.

Try Coarse Fishing Today - top magazine, written largely by non-sponsored anglers.

Depending where you live, there are a couple of excellent regionals which knock the spots off Angling Times/Angler's Mail when it comes to venue reports etc. Check out Angling Star or Midland Angler.