The Secret Angler

Publishing a fishing magazine is no path to riches. Anglers, though numerous, are not great readers, and what they do read is likely to be short and online — think Facebook and forums, where there is the added bonus of being able to, er, get things off your chest. The biggest printed circulation is a little over 20,000 copies, and that only for a couple of magazines, namely Trout & Salmon and Improve Your Coarse Fishing, both instructional.

The literary magazine is not quite dead. Despite short-lived examples from the past like Creel, in recent years two new additions to this small market have appeared. The latest is devoted to fly fishing, Fly Culture, now two years old. Six years ago Fallon’s Angler appeared, an all-round magazine that covers all the branches of angling. Unfortunately the inception of Fallon’s coincided with (or possibly brought about) the demise of Waterlog, a publication that started in the Nineties and ran for 100 issues.

Clearly running a fishing magazine is a difficult commercial proposition. This got me to wondering what the costs of producing one might be. The big cost is printing and posting (both of the above magazines are subscription with perhaps a few sold in one or two fishing shops). I looked at a few online printers and my local high street shop to get an idea of cost. Fly Culture is A4 size and has about 100 pages, many in colour; a run of 1000 copies would cost £2500 to £3000. Fallon’s Angler is smaller (a bit bigger than A5) with a bit less colour, which comes in at £2000 or less per 1000. Royal Mail will deliver a magazine like FC for about £1.40 a copy, Fallon’s for £1.10.

Payment to contributors is the other main outgoing. I hear that Fly Culture pays writers up to £50 per article. There are about 15 articles per issue, hence a cost of £750. There may be further payments for photographs, design, etc.; I have no information on these. Fallon’s Angler is more generous towards its contributors and may pay over £100 for an article. Let’s assume £1500 for content. This adds up to a basic cost to produce Fallon’s Angler and Fly Culture of £4600 and £5150 respectively, assuming the higher estimates for printing.

Fly Culture retails at £9, Fallon’s Angler for £8. Assuming that 1000 copies are sold — which I’ve heard Fly Culture manages, or better — that is a total income of £9000. I don’t think Fallon’s achieves an income £8000 but I don’t know its circulation. So we can estimate that the profit for FC is of the order of £4000 per issue, Fallon’s somewhat less. If any subeditors are paid, these figures might be lower. Given the fate of earlier magazines, a loss is obviously possible.

What about the quality? Fallon’s Angler is generally good, some of it very good, although some old fishing clichés do find their way into its pages. Fly Culture is better than I expected given that so many guides write for it. Fishing overseas is a common subject, which sits a little uncomfortably with the magazine’s environmental credentials. The American style of photography is popular with close-ups of fishes’ heads. Both magazines deserve to thrive but I wonder whether they will. Fly Culture is aimed at a more reliable market, which puts it in a better position: fly anglers generally read more and spend more. I have some anxiety over Fallon’s Angler. The latest issue has been long delayed and some earlier ones were overdue. Is this an indication of problems? I’m hearing that the magazine is now harder to contact, emails go unanswered, and payments to contributors are sometimes late. I hope this is not a bad sign. Even with the much lauded Chris Yates in its pages, many potential readers don’t seem to know about the magazine, or if they do prefer to read old CY articles from images on Fakebook. Along with so much else, fishing culture is dumbing down and angling magazines suffer for it. Let us hope these two flourish regardless.

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Anyone who has witnessed the stomach-turning abhorrence of direct racism — anyone but a racist, that is — will have a good idea of the nastiness BAME citizens put up with throughout their lives. Yet more pernicious is the covert racism in society, which though perhaps less commonplace than in years past, is still prevalent in many quarters. The recent Black Lives Matter protests have highlighted this once more.

There is little diversity in angling. In all my years fishing I have met only one angler from a minority ethnic background. Unsettling for me is the realisation that many anglers harbour racist views. A look through some of the online forums reveals a dismissive or hostile view to these protests. Not much sign of the contemplative man here.

Perhaps one should take some comfort that only a relatively small number of individuals express these views. The worst site of those I look at is flyfishing.co.uk. I have previously written about the members there who hold and express reactionary views, supporters of the likes of Trump and abusers of moderates; like Trump himself, they are fond of accusing others of their own corrupt outlook. It is no surprise that these same individuals have been forthright in their condemnation of the BLM protests. Naturally they don’t make overt racist comments — most racists will claim they are not racist. Instead they seek to deny the existence of racism, search the net for obscure (and usually unreliable) sources that claim it’s all the imagination of the BAME community. They jeer at anyone who voices support for the BLM movement.

I do not believe the owner of the site condones such attitudes, and lately a couple of threads started by these racists has been taken down. But its willingness (or financial need) to allow so-called political discussion offers a platform for such odious views, and those who take advantage seem to be there solely for that purpose. The moderation is too tolerant; it may not support racism but it does, I believe, have sympathy for some of the right wing propaganda. Fish and Fly does have a policy against hate speech, and deletes such posts when they are drawn to moderators’ attention, although on occasions is slow to act. The problem is that the bigots who use the site believe free speech is a licence to make offensive postings and try to get round the rules as above. They should be stopped.

The Government has a National Angling Strategy, launched last year. One of its objectives is “An increase in angling participation by 2024 and increases in females, young people and BAME communities taking part.” This worthy aim reflects the shrinking and ageing demographic of anglers. The majority are old white men, and it is these who are most likely to hold bigoted views. As this generation dies off, a younger, better educated, more open-minded society will take their place. Whether or not angling survives as more than a quirky interest for a few, at least the evil of racism will move further on towards eradication.

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Postscript

This site has recently had an uptick in readers following a link from a forum called pikers-pit. I’ve no particular interest in pike fishing but I took a look at the source, which not surprisingly comes from a thread on BLM. The posts there emphasise the points I make above, with considerably more force than their equivalents on flyfishing.co.uk. Here is a small selection from the many in similar vein:

This stream of hate-filled invective is partly comic in the outpourings of misspelled words to beat the language-checker. Note how a black racing driver is singled out for no particular reason, and note also the familiar inversions – left wing becomes white supremacist, Hamilton is held responsible for events long before he was born. The racism motivating this nasty rant is plain.

A responder is briefer but no more articulate:

There is plenty more of the same from several posters. One individual who understandably finds this kind of talk offensive pointed out that it contravenes the T&C of the site (no abuse, hate-speech, etc). This is part of the reply from the moderator, who clearly finds moderating rather tiresome:

Unambiguously racist language does not require moderator attention? Racism is clearly thriving in the fishing fraternity and forum terms and conditions are mere window dressing.