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Open Forums => Open Boards Viewable By Guests => Publications => Topic started by: johnny boy on June 18, 2017, 12:27:47 AM

Title: Trout & Salmon
Post by: johnny boy on June 18, 2017, 12:27:47 AM
Picking up from another thread I didnt want to hijack.  I get the feeling from a lot of posts on here that a lot of members feel that this publication is a lot of drivvel and not worth the shiny paper its printed on.  I would like to see how far that goes, is it an outspoken few or the common consensus (why is it the dark side???)

I will admit to buying about 10 out of every 12 mags a year and have done so for over 25 years, I would not say i find every mag a fantastic read but i would rather have it than not.

'Fly Fishing and Fly Tying' and 'Trout Fisherman' but to name a couple have tried but failed to emulate its succsess (IMHO), probably down to them focusing on rainbow fisheries so its not my thing.

As i have said i get it almost every month, i enjoy the many different opinions and the thought provoking opinions put forward.  The latest thing for me is that i have started to experiment with lighter leaders, down from 6 to 4 lb leaders, not sure if i will stick with it but who knows, thats the joy of the sport.

I love this forum as well but like differing opinions as well.

So why do you think so many critisise our main advertisement magazine???

OR have i read threads who slag it off but its tongue in cheek and i am not savvy enough to pick this up???
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: alba on June 18, 2017, 01:37:39 AM
I buy it probably 6,7 times a year. Fairly decent reading although I don't always agree with a lot of the articles. A lot of why I like is tackle advertisements and reviews etc.

Don't see the issue with it if I'm honest.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Wildfisher on June 18, 2017, 09:21:33 AM
Can't really comment  as the last copy I bought  was in Manchester Airport n February 2012 when heading out to New Zealand. I have not bought a fishing magazine since.

I will say this though - I considered T&S to be  head and shoulders above the other UK competition. It has a long tradition behind it that copy cats like FF&FT just don't have.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Wildfisher on June 18, 2017, 09:30:47 AM
Quote from: Roobarb on June 18, 2017, 09:26:15 AM
it cost £3.70. So for my money I got something that I can read in two hours.

One reason why I buy books. 
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Mark on June 18, 2017, 10:24:39 AM
I agree, if I was starting today then I'd buy a few books. T&S is probably the best of the bunch but there's only so much you can write about every month.

As I was bored during the winter I read all the copies I have from '70 to '89....my god they are dull. Nothing in them of any interest, just lots of whining about the decline of salmon numbers. This was in the '70's when the runs in some places were huge. Seems it twas ever thus

There reports section did used to contain information on trout fishing, now it's just salmon reports. I suppose no one gets excited at half pound trout these days

Difficult to keep everyone happy but there's things they could do to make it more original.
I would say the magazine today is a better read than in the past but it's not for me now.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Laxdale on June 18, 2017, 10:55:51 AM
My daughter used to get me a years subscription for my birthday. Two years ago I told her not to bother any more as there was little to interest me in it.
I think all angling magazines (and books to a certain extent), are aimed at less experienced anglers as that is the biggest market.
I prefer to work out how to fish in any given situation myself. That is part of the challenge.

Only last year an article appeared in T & S. It was  sort of "how to" by a guy presented as an expert on said subject.....I, and all my fishing associates, regard him as "useless". And you have to be BAD to get that rating!
Which makes me wonder about the competence of other contributors.


I have to confess to writing a few articles in the Sea Angler magazine 25 years ago, but I grew out of that.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: scoobyscott on June 18, 2017, 11:28:26 AM
I've got a subscription after signing up in gac as it was a tenner for the year. Think it was £30 all in with a £20 voucher for the store. It's ok for a half hour on the toilet  :shock: I do like reading some of the river articles of places I've not fished but way too much salmon stuff in it.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Highlander on June 18, 2017, 11:59:09 AM
I was an avid buyer of magazines. Way back it was Rod & Line in the 60s Long time now defunct Scottish Angler, The Creel, Sea Angler & then T& S. Now other than at Xmas & on my caravan holiday (for something to read) I never buy a magazine. The articles are generally hash ups of things gone past authors & writers of the calibre of lets say "Nightlines" simply are not there, instead we get Paul Proctor & Stan Headly & co. Like a few others have said is  still way ahead of FF&FT & Trout Fisherman the latter of which I would not give the time of day too.
I was lucky enough to buy three binded copies of I think all of the old Rod & Line from No1 onwards on E Bay for £20 or thereabouts so I am getting reacquainted with that at the present time. Like Fred I prefer a good book but rather than tales I use them as reference. One exception is Mc Lean's novello A River Runs Through It which I read way before the Redford film & today stands up there as one of the classics of fishing related writing.
Tight Lines
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: fergie on June 18, 2017, 12:07:13 PM
It's the magazine i will buy if I'm going on holiday and need something for the plane i used to buy it regularly but found less and less of interest in it. So i rarely buy it in fact i was desperate for a read at the caravan last week and bought sea angler instead and i don't sea fish.  :D
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: rannoch raider on June 18, 2017, 02:01:03 PM
I used to buy them all when I was younger. I did prefer T&S as many of the others were no more than adverts for rainbow fisheries and I noticed that many of the articles were repetitive and even featured the same photos here and there over the years. I stopped buying them a while ago but picked the odd one up now and again. I've recently started buying T&S and to be honest I've found it to be better now than it ever was. I suppose its a good way to keep up to speed on new products, techniques, tying material and flies etc. I think the development of flies, tackle and tactics has really moved on in recent years, take the various styles of nymphing being developed these days for example.  T&S now seems to cover more venues than the exclusive chalk streams and salmon rivers that I'll never be able to fish. I'm trying to get a wee bit better at river fishing so I'll be buying it again for a wee while anyway.
As far as Trout Fisherman is concerned, I can't say I'm a fan but then again, in a break from their usual 'aqua pigs in man made ponds' articles, they have published an article from our Dave on international carp fly fishing which was very enlightening and 'out of the box' for them.
Will reading magazines make me a better angler? Who knows, its good to keep an open mind and be willing to learn from the experiences of others, so it can't do any harm!  :wink:
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Laxdale on June 18, 2017, 02:32:41 PM
A lot of salmon anglers have taken to buying "Chasing Silver" because they were fed up of all the articles of no interest to them in T & S.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Wildfisher on June 18, 2017, 02:52:54 PM
The answer to the mags of course is the same as anything else. If you like them buy them if you don't don't. Hardly groundbreaking.   :lol:
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: SoldierPmr on June 18, 2017, 04:31:32 PM
I've never been one for buying mags though the ones I have looked at T & S stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: arawa on June 18, 2017, 05:50:27 PM
An electronic copy of T&S comes free for me in a magazine bundle but it does not take long to scan it as there is not usually much to interest a Highland trout angler. I often buy FFFT because there are some well-written and relevant articles and I would not like to see such an enthusiasts' magazine disappear.
However, I was really disappointed in both magazines failure to take any significant interest in the WFR and its potential impacts. FFFT did publish a letter from me on the subject but if there was ever any editorial or analysis of the subject I missed it. T&S did not respond to me at all and nor did it cover the subject from a trout angling perspective. This was a hot and significant topic that deserved their attention (IMHO!).
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: JimJams on June 18, 2017, 07:40:09 PM
With the amount of travelling and planes I live on I'm forever picking up magazines.
Trout and salmon sometimes has interesting snippets, but generally ads etc.
I prefer FF&FT though in all honesty, I like the inspiration for patterns etc, not sure if you want that magnwoth focusing on fisheries as if they did I wouldn't buy it, maybe one article now and again.
On the other hand, trout fisherman, absolutely horrendous mag, came free with a copy of T&S but luckily it was Daves carp issue! So the only plus there!
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: burnie on June 18, 2017, 07:52:21 PM
I used to buy the T&S in the 1960's and '70's when I 'd never cast a fly or even seen a Salmon or Sea trout river, it was part of my education, reading about rivers in that far off northern place called Scotland. Fast forward 40 or so years and I'm now fishing these waters with fond memories, not that I can remember anything that was written in them. I cannot remember the last time I bought a fishing mag or paper, there was a time when my name and occasionally my face appeared in many an Angling paper/mag, but that was coarse fishing and I don't do much of that these days.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Wildfisher on June 18, 2017, 08:39:28 PM
Trout and Salmon is a shadow of its former self. When I were but a lad it was packed with articles casting spells of  charming dry fly only days on The Test  with Sir Rupert and Great Uncle Stodger catching fine trout beneath blue, mayfly filled  skies. 

Ah yes, those were the days when only the best people were allowed on those rivers and the hoi polloi were kept at bay and in their place!  It gave young working class Scots like myself something to aim for in one's fly fishing life. Sadly, like  the Trout and Salmon of yore, those days have gone forever and they'll let anyone on. 

Now the Wild Fishing Forum stands virtually alone in bringing  hope of better fly fishing days by maintaining the old values of exclusivity, outright elitism and ruthless cliquishness;  the  world of fly fishing is a far better place because of it.   :lol:
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: SoldierPmr on June 18, 2017, 08:49:27 PM
Quote from: admin on June 18, 2017, 08:39:28 PM
Trout and Salmon is a shadow of its former self. When I were but a lad it was packed with articles casting spells of  charming dry fly only days on The Test  with Sir Rupert and Great Uncle Stodger catching fine trout beneath blue, mayfly filled  skies. 

Ah yes, those were the days when only the best people were allowed on those rivers and the hoi polloi were kept at bay and in their place!  It gave young working class Scots like myself something to aim for in one's fly fishing life. Sadly, like  the Trout and Salmon of yore, those days have gone forever and they'll let anyone on. 

Now the Wild Fishing Forum stands virtually alone in bringing  hope of better fly fishing days by maintaining the old values of exclusivity, outright elitism and ruthless cliquishness;  the  world of fly fishing is a far better place because of it.   :lol:

I know its shocking I even hear they let scaffolders fish on there  :shock: also a lad I worked in Basingstoke Morrison's with is now one of the keepers  :lol:
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Inchlaggan on June 18, 2017, 08:59:30 PM
Scaffolders! The thin end of the wedge! It'll be plasterers and brickies next, plumbers, electricians, joiners, hell in a handcart.
The only salvation is that they cannot read, spend their cash on booze and fags, so do not read T&S and are excluded from this forum.
The working class, eh? Just get on with the work, leave the fishing to us- the elite- know your place.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: SoldierPmr on June 18, 2017, 09:01:53 PM
Quote from: Inchlaggan on June 18, 2017, 08:59:30 PM
Scaffolders! The thin end of the wedge! It'll be plasterers and brickies next, plumbers, electricians, joiners, hell in a handcart.
The only salvation is that they cannot read, spend their cash on booze and fags, so do not read T&S and are excluded from this forum.
The working class, eh? Just get on with the work, leave the fishing to us- the elite- know your place.

Apparently they are called "Trout Bums"  :lol:

I'll stop now apologies for thread jacking.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Bobfly on June 18, 2017, 10:10:34 PM
The mags are a spot of escapism, and snippets and ideas, a bit of info about places to think about ... Iceland, Greenland, odd corners of Shetland, whatever and whatever, better than what is on the telly. Probably harmless.  I have had a few years through Xmas pressie subscriptions and I usually find something of interest.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: johnny boy on June 18, 2017, 10:47:25 PM
We are indeed a mixed bunch, mags have probably had their day and only really fill a void  when nowt else is  available, travelling etc.

Thank goodness for t internet.
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Bobfly on June 18, 2017, 10:57:57 PM
The battery never runs out on a book .... or a map .... or a magazine  :)   
Plus you can hand it in to the dentist's waiting room.  :)
Title: Re: Trout & Salmon
Post by: Wildfisher on June 19, 2017, 01:13:51 PM
Old phones, PCs,  laptops and tablets are also not as useful as magazines when it comes to lining the floor of the budgie's cage.   :lol: