Can of worms

[BOMBER]

Hi All,

Would have to say I agree here with Steve and Ron,when a fisho or journo whatever they wish to be called, file a report in a magazine or newspaper I always find the more believable ones are those that give an alternative system of catching fish or give a selection of lines and brands that can be used in a given situation rather than just one or two.

Regards,

THE BOMBER

[bugman]

Ron,

I think the process you alluded to of "declaration of interest" is a fantastic idea and you should be applauded for it.

I have to say Ron - that your publication is is probably one of the least offending publications for a walking billboard - in my opinion.

To deal with situations like this requires editors to make some sort of stand - where ethics can outweigh the dollar. If you go down this path Ron then, to the detriment of the industry, you'll be in the minority.

Brett

[mackmauler]

Ron, Ive enjoyed reading bnb over the years, Is it just me or are you raising the dress code where has the flano and the terry hats gone ??? Slowly columbia and strudwick seem eo be taking over, just an ob from flicking a few past pages, Lets face it like wearing grand pas underpants, youd have to be getting paid to put them on I havn't read it it a while, the last time you were taking one of the writers to task for putting to many photos of his boat in, as a final thought I agree completely with your decleration of interest idea, don't think to many writers will be in line for gear promotion after that though

Rob

[Ron_Collins]

Hi Bugman, Macmauler and all

Firstly to Bugman: Fishing World already has a declaration of interest like this in place and, after discussions with one of their reps, I am introducing something similar.

BNB Fishing is not "owned" by anyone other than our little family business. So it's our (mine and Ben's) call what goes on the cover and the like.

We are more than satisfied with the level of general advertising support we receive, and if anything try to help everyone via our free product news pages, which really is an opportunity for suppliers of all levels to let readers know something is out there and they may like to take a look and make their own decision.

On the subject of being in the minority, Brett, I don't mind being there as I've been there many times before. I'm an odd bod in many ways, I suppose, because I very much enjoy making BNB Fishing each month. I don't see it as work because it gives me so much pleasure, and I'm always delighted to learn when we've helped someone. Your feedback is valued.

Now to Macmauler: Rob, thanks for your continued input and feedback, which I also value greatly.

On the subject of clothing and badges and the like, I'm sort of between a rock and a hard place. There is no doubt that there is a growing trend towards that sort of thing and at the end of the day I can't dictate exactly what our contributor teams wears. Some sport club badges, others a "branded" clothing range.

I, and I notice some of our team, also like to wear shirts with past competition info on them. Fraser Island comes to mind first up in my own case, because, I suppose, I like the comp so much.

One of our best ever selling editions was the one with Mark Griggs on the cover, splattered with mud and holding a leader prawn and some nice bananas. His shirt on the day? It was a Donnybrook Rural Fire Brigade shirt!

Recently Mark's brother Rod was on the cover with a nice little estuary cod. His shirt? An "average" supermarket-style t-shirt with a couple of stains on the front, and maybe even a couple of matching holes.

I can say that next month's cover will have a person wearing a cap with a reel brand on it. We receive no advertising from that reel company, but we thought it was the best pic we had and it related to a story inside. And, most importantly from our readers' point of view, the fish were caught just a week or so ago, which in publishing terms is a fairly short lead time to printing.

I know some think I'm a whinger, probably even up myself, a pedantic etc, etc. But the bottom line is I'm doing my best to serve all of our readers to the best of my ability, with the help of what I rate as a great team of predominently "average" fishos.

Hope this gives you and others a bit of an insight into an average day. Ron Collins.

[bugman]

Keep up the good work Ron,

PS Can I get a subscription over the net.

Saves time going to the Newsagents

Brett

[Lucky_Phill]

Give Heather a ring on 3286 1833, Brett.

Ron.....aka Lucky Phill

[Lucky_Phill]

I already have a subscription to BnB so Ron can't give me one for this plug. But, a while ago I " edited " his mag with another monthly fishing mag from s/e qld.

This process involved measuring and counting the " ads ". BnB came up with a percentage less than half of the pages and the other mag came up with quite a deal more. The other mag costs over a $1 more.

I done a sum of dividing the " info " articles by the pages in the mags and dividing up the costs of each mag. Giving me a cents per page of info.

BnB by far, out weighed the other mag, making it a " value " read, not only in dollars and cents, but good info.

OK, BnB has risen in price over the years, but, look at it now. Big colour
Cover, colour pics etc. And if I had to do the exercise over again, I know what the result would be.

Just backing Ron up in his " self- appraisal" of being at the helm for the sheer pleasure of it.

I have known past BnB writers and quite a few of the current " Mob " and can vouch for their " average fishermen " description by Ron. More than helpful and approachable.

Well that's enough bs for now.

[Fitzy]

Poonboy, Mate a great topic & one which I feel quite strongly about. This needs to be flogged out for all to see.

Ron, Great move in being up front with a declaration of interest. I think Fishing World does well by doing it but doesn't go far enough. I personally think that each & every article should have any sponsored, endorsed, paid for or nay products mentioned in the footer. THEN, we will soon find out who the ratbag writers are who intentionally ram product down peoples throats when they know there's a kickback in it for them once the rag hits the stands.

I'm waiting anxiously for this to become standard practice across the industry, the sooner the bloody better! Then when the dust settles a few big guns might be just pop guns.

It does happen folks, I've seen it & had it offered. Anyone who does it is simply selling their integrity.

I'm not afraid to mention any product that I believe is good, however I hesitate, for legal & politeness reasons, to publicly name a crap product. I just don't get a run if its not up to scratch.

That's my coupla coins,

GF

[mackmauler]

Thanks for the insight Ron, As long as they catch fish I don't really care what they wear I just can't put 100 dollar shirts and fishing together just yet, so that might explain why something seems a little out of place to me when I see this, throw a few product lines in and all the rest of it and the whole affair seems artificial, maybe it stops the authors natural style coming out, somewhere the fun goes out of it, the very reason I enjoy having a read. All the best.

Rob

[rick k]

Hey Volvo,

I love that name, but every reason I can think of as to why you chose it is unfit for publication here. Given your comment on Araphats, perhaps you wear a different style in the car/truck? Not a white bowls hat??

I agree that all bloody hats have their drawbacks; I've lost a few favourites in the drink, and had my neck stretched by a few chin straps (not far enough, some would say).

But Araphats, and Adaptacaps (better for my ugly head) have their plusses; they really keep the sun off. They go into a corner of the tackle box for when the favourite is forgotten. They machine wash. But, geez, they can be hot.

You will never get all the bias out of journalism. The best we can hope for is that the journo's recognise it, and print it. Like Starlo and Bushie do with their Squidgie articles.

I agree with the who, what, when, where and why style of writing in fishing mags. This is because I read for two reasons. Info and entertainment. Most writers, of any kind, can't hold attention on a subject purely by their entertaining style, in any sphere.

Therefore, for me, the info is a must. If I already know the technique, well, so be it. Small price to pay. If I read the same technique 20 times in 10 publications, well, I need to irritate the poor papershop owner more and do more pre reading.

There is one thing I need to know, however. I have read heaps of articles about flicking soft plastics at boats and moorings for bream.

What I want to know is, how does one deal with the enraged owner of a 50' cruiser, after a wayward cast has landed a scented plastic in his deckie's cleava...........er.....drink?

[Volvo]

Hey Volvo,

I love that name, but every reason I can think of as to why you chose it is unfit for publication here. Given your comment on Araphats, perhaps you wear a different style in the car/truck? Not a white bowls hat??

I agree that all bloody hats have their drawbacks; I've lost a few favourites in the drink, and had my neck stretched by a few chin straps (not far enough, some would say).

But Araphats, and Adaptacaps (better for my ugly head) have their plusses; they really keep the sun off. They go into a corner of the tackle box for when the favourite is forgotten. They machine wash. But, geez, they can be hot.

You will never get all the bias out of journalism. The best we can hope for is that the journo's recognise it, and print it. Like Starlo and Bushie do with their Squidgie articles.

I agree with the who, what, when, where and why style of writing in fishing mags. This is because I read for two reasons. Info and entertainment. Most writers, of any kind, can't hold attention on a subject purely by their entertaining style, in any sphere.

Therefore, for me, the info is a must. If I already know the technique, well, so be it. Small price to pay. If I read the same technique 20 times in 10 publications, well, I need to irritate the poor papershop owner more and do more pre reading.

There is one thing I need to know, however. I have read heaps of articles about flicking soft plastics at boats and moorings for bream.

What I want to know is, how does one deal with the enraged owner of a 50' cruiser, after a wayward cast has landed a scented plastic in his deckie's cleava...........er.....drink?

Fishtime, first off ..how are ya mate??
Secondly, Volvo is one of many Nicknames like hats ive adopted over my years Which i approved of more so than "Vadapalas", "windowlouvers", "Whafflechute", "Guisseppe" and wont mention the others due to people havin a prob tryin ta pronounce me surname.
Volvo stuck and even had me a little spread i named "Volvo Acres" so there ya go lol, absolutely got attatched ta Volvo and it kinda stuck(So no dont own shares with Volvo Company or whatever lol).
Mindya i have had the privalege of owning a Volvo Penta Stern drive and it done the right thing by me so looks like all good things are named after Volvo sumthin or other .
As for Hats??, yep been a keen collector and still am of most that come along and look like they may be or are good company ta take along fishing with me.Like you i also keep losing my fair share to the odd gust of wind or a stormy ride home when i need ta keep me noggin over me canopy and ??"Oh well" ole man weather does his bit ta #iss me orf and another hat in the drink .
Yep do own an Arafat and just gave me opinion of it as like wearin the buggar on occasions but tell ya what??if there was one thing made ta annoy the shites outa me it certainly does the job as forever reachin over ta unzip the thing each time a breeze comes along and decides ta pin one side of it over me eyeballs or latch it up and over itself but apart from that it does shade the headbone, nice n soft for wipin the old fella down after ive ripped one off in the boat as most me pieces of scrap towel i use ta wipe me mits are contaminated with either bait or whatever as you know what its like when ya fishin and your hands get all yukky .
Mindya i was only giving my opinion re the originators post not tryin ta get offside with anyone.
Think i own about thirty different caps,an Akoubra and yep still own and take along me Arafat with me whenevr i go fishin but at the same time i personally would NOT recomend anything if i were a writer unless i personally thought the product of value(All about ethics n honesty) and not becuase it brought home a dollar or two,but then again i guess there are those who believe in the products they support ???.
Each to their own opinion and i gave mine .

[kc]

Really good talking point and some interesting opinions. I work part time as a barra guide in NQ and also write 1000 words each month for a local mag. After a dozen or so stories it is difficult not to keep repeating yourself and without doubt the best feedback I get is when I put my toe into fishing politics or feature new equipment/techniques.
For anyone in this game I have got to say we sure don't do it for the money and yes, after establsihing yourself for a year or so a bit of gear starts to come over the desk, gear which i for one probabaley would not buy or be able to afford to buy. It all gets a workout, some never to see a line in reply (ie a TiCa Sculptor brought at wholesale price which was very dissapointing) and some which has gone on to replace old favourites because it just works better in my experience (ie I think DK eyecons outfish gold bombers and RMG Scorpians now get a swim ahead of anything else in my fairly extensive tackle box when i troll for barra).

If this has helped sell a few more then I really think the winners are both the suppliers and the fisho's who buy them and the losers are probabley the poor bloody barra.

While some readers already have a pretty fair idea of the how, where and with what of catching a few fish and awful lot of kids and very novice fisho's get a few clues from reading articals in mags. Provided a writter personally experiences any products he writes about and honestly appraises them then fair enough, otherwise we would still be using lures and techniques from 20 years ago. I agree some of it is a bit OTT but a lot of what you read about can really help open up new ideas. Don't think for a minute the issue is restricted to fishing writters because I can assure you an awful lot of tackle shop sales staff get "freebies" and many of these don't even get a "swim" before you are being sold the next greatest thing over the counter.

Provided there is honesty and genuine belief in a tackle item you are writting into a story, regardless of wether it was sponsored or not, we should all learn from the artical and be able to recognise any seriuos BS when it comes along.

I have just penned an artical about fitting out a new tackle box for the barra/estuary scene up here and while some lures have been freebies, others I have recommended are ones I have brought and just would not go fishing without.

Anyhow, once again good talking point and an issue which is now with us forever, hopefully with a bit of ethics thrown in as you can bet a lot of part time writters have read this post without chucking in their two bobs worth.

Regards

KC

[smerl]

I know some think I'm a whinger, probably even up myself, a pedantic etc, etc. But the bottom line is I'm doing my best to serve all of our readers to the best of my ability, with the help of what I rate as a great team of predominently "average" fishos.

Ron,

I bet there are not many people out there who would dispute that you are doing your best to serve your readers.

I'm one of those blokes who spends too much time reading about fishing rather than getting the boat out and getting amongst it. I must say that BnB is usually the first mag I buy each month when it becomes available. The stories are always entertaing and informative and never come across as self serving in any way. Keep up the good work so that those of us who don't get out there enough can at least have something good to dream about at lunch time!

Lucky_Phil,

Any idea how much the endorsement above would be worth ?

Smerl

[webby]

HI, I hope whats below is not taken out of text, just putting a point across.
When you sit back and have a look at fishing mag's, what are they really all about.
Once mags & numerous other titles, lined the shelves of newsagents, allowing the average fisho a degree of escapism, within their pages and promoting fishing as a combination of sport and hobby.
But times are changing and with the exception of a limited few publishers, you now have to search for reports amongst the advertising, and that combination of sport and hobby is now swinging to the combination of sport & money.
Yes the reports are still there, but advertising is filling the pages.
When you read some reports they still tell you how to catch a certain species in one sentence, with the next two giving you a gob full that you must use this, this & this brand to catch it, with some writers now looking more like walking billboards.
But does more expensive gear & flash clothing make you a better fisherman, it may for some of those that are given this, this and this, but i wonder wether some actually wet a line, photography and computers are a exciting alternative.
Yes manafacturers have to get their products onto the market, & yes what better way to promote them , then with recoginized fishing writers.
And yes the survival of any mag', would not be possible without advertising.
So that leaves us with a catch 22 scenario.
So if you still want your mag's to allow you some dreaming time, the ad's and endorsements are a necessary evil for their survival.
regards