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Feeling Less Relevant…?

2K views 24 replies 21 participants last post by  flybill 
#1 ·
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I saw this yesterday. No longer "Northwest" but "American" now. Could it be that our NW waters suck so bad that they decided to just consolidate the whole mess into one publication? Not like you'd see very many Washington locations mentioned in the past. Sign of the times?
 
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#4 ·
One of the magazine's principals died in a boating incident a year or two ago. The…3?…regional magazines were subsequently combined into this. Sadly, my subscription to NW Fly Fishing was paid a couple of years ahead when the magazine failed, so I receive the new disappointment in its stead. I don't give a shit about fishing Appalachia, Texas, Wisconsin or the Cape but…whaddyagonnado?
 
#7 · (Edited)
IMHO combining 37 regional magazines into one is a good thing. It removes the focus off of the PacNW of a regional magazine --> less pressure and less hot spotting. The combined magazine will be more about getting advertising dollars and having pretty pictures and not about fishing information that can actually help someone.

Yup a good thing!
 
#9 ·
View attachment 295972 I saw this yesterday. No longer "Northwest" but "American" now. Could it be that our NW waters suck so bad that they decided to just consolidate the whole mess into one publication? Not like you'd see very many Washington locations mentioned in the past. Sign of the times?
I still can't believe Washington is marketed as a destination for salmon and steelhead. I mean it's over basically. There's gotta be an award for running once great fisheries into the ground with such efficiency.
 
#10 ·
View attachment 295972 I saw this yesterday. No longer "Northwest" but "American" now. Could it be that our NW waters suck so bad that they decided to just consolidate the whole mess into one publication? Not like you'd see very many Washington locations mentioned in the past. Sign of the times?
As a contractor to the magazines it interesting to watch the speculation on an online forum. As one would expect there is far more misinformation than facts.

Jon Luke, co-owner/founder/designer passed away 3/18. That was not why or when the switch to AFF was made.

American FF has been around since 2012 (but only went to print in 2020. formerly it was app only). NWFF 1999> 2020 - Bi-monthly and almost every issue had a WA article and sometimes there were more than one. From 2012-2020 it was NWFF, SWFF, EFF and AFF.

The change with the magazines had nothing to do with the decline in salmon and steelhead or the increase in sea lions, tweakers, murder hornets and catalytic converter thefts.

I don't know how Washington States's relevancy in the fishing world hasn't diminished with the decline of the highly sought after sea-run native species.
 
#15 ·
Exactly correct. I started with the magazine from the very first issue ... when it was dedicated as NW Fly Fishing. Then expanded. And, then, like many paper publications was forced to consolidate to survive.

It certainly did not have anything to do with the untimely death of my virtual friend, Jon Luke, who died due to a blood infection from a wound he suffered while fishing.

The magazine, while no longer dedicated to just the Pacific NW, is still a top quality publication with excellent photos. I'm proud to have been a part of the publication since day one.
 
#11 ·
"Washington Salmon Angler," were it a real publication, would feature countless coastal lodges in Alaska, with the occasional highlight of an unusually high (legitimately fishable) run of pinks or chums accessible to river-bound WA citizens.

"Washington Steelheader," meanwhile, would read much like a unicorn or Bigfoot hunting mag.
 
#13 ·
Actually I like it. It’s nice to learn how folks in other regions fish, or dress their flies, or set up their rigs. I get a bit pissed when they highlight places I like, ‘cause they’re crowded the next year, but so be it. On balance I enjoy the travelogue of it, even if the articles are a bit formulaic.
 
#18 ·
It is still a magazine that (apparently in an effort to be relevant) hotspots small streams that can’t handle nationally famous type exposure. Examples from the past include the - well I won’t say, but the Root in MN is a prime example. Small river bass fisherman there all have heard of the river. This doesn’t mean that the whole country needs to be aware of it and people there who are too lazy to find out more by exploring and using aps and maps don’t need the help either. Nice pictures yes but why can’t the magazines be focused on techniques and the Madison, fly fishing the Great Lakes or smallmouth on the Columbia instead of various small fisheries.
Because if this issue, IMO this magazine stinks and so did NW fly fishing.
 
#23 ·
I suspect the combination of the various regional versions is more about how rough the print magazine industry is these days. And hell, for all we know, outdoor industry advertising budgets got slashed in the chaos of 2020.

While I still enjoy reading them, I sure wouldn't invest in a print magazine these days.

I do hope that someday I can get all the back issues on NWFF in a digital download format. I'd pay for that.
 
#24 ·
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