Yeah, Were For Real. Are You?

Well, subscribers will tell you that we are a for sure real magazine that you can feel and touch and we come complete with glossy photos.  All of the sudden here comes angling trade with this little tidbit and another reason not to trust every Tom, Dick, and Harry on-line mag that comes along.  

In fact .... I hope that it encourages a few folks who are now in the on-line only business to go live, with press, paper, and mailings.  Hell the post office needs all the action they can get these days anyway and paper is a renewable resource as it stands (just ask the state of Michigan that chopped out couple of hundred acres in front of my place just last summer).

So, beware who you send that product to for sure.


Live Free, Fish Hard

Memorial Day

I will be painting the new TCS world headquarters and putting the very final touches on the new issue this weekend.  A big thank you to all the vets out there for their service and we will always remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this great country.  I will make some time to have few of these on the new deck out back for sure.

Buffett - "Free Shit Unsustainable"

If you have followed this blog at all you know that I am a little bit of a business geek.  Well, here is a little bit of a contradiction coming from the guy who thinks he should pay more taxes so the government can give away more free shit.  Bloomberg has excerpts from a letter from Buffett to the editors and publishers of the newspapers that Berkshire owns, the excerpts pretty much say what I said a few years back when so many papers were going belly up; "what did you expect when you give away your shit on-line for free".

The free content websites associated with newspapers don't work and the last time I looked information and news was not in the bill of rights.  Tom Kirkman over at Rodmaker Magazine makes great points about on-line and electronic ads and I will say it more bluntly here, they don't f'ing work.  Stop and think about why on-line advertising is so much cheaper.  Think about why I throw in the on-line ad at this blog when somebody advertises in the magazine  ....  I give it away.  Why do you think I don't post articles from The Cedar Sweeper on-line?  Because what is the use of going through the trouble of creating a magazine if I am going to give it away for free on-line.  The writers and photographers who inform and entertain have to eat just like you and I do and deserve to be compensated for their work.

Kirkman is also right in saying that very little good information comes from the Internet.  If you do find good information it has probably come from a magazine, a book, a newspaper or other published source.   It didn't originate on-line. 

In short, Buffett pretty much nails this one.  Nothing and I mean nothing is free and really that's the way that it should be.   Now, if we can just get him thinking that way when it comes to the government. 



Live Free, Fish Hard

Small Streams In Michigan

The guys over at MidCurrent issued a challenge today to read Thomas McGuane's Small Streams In Michigan and not want to pick up a 3 weight.  After what I have been through recently the story is a fitting one and I thought that I would issue my own challenge.  If you have lived, really lived a full life you will understand that it is made up of all these different experiences.  I challenge you to read that story with its descriptions of fly fishing, of Michigan's lovely little streams, of Michigan's lovely little brook trout, with beaver ponds and cedar swamps, and with the description of learning of the death of his father-in-law.  I challenge you to read that story with so many things that are so important in life to a fly fisherman and not cry when he learns about a good man's death. 


Live Free, Fish Hard

Si Fi

Si-Fi Baby!

I knew Si existed before Duck Dynasty but I never knew he was this freakin funny.











 Live Free, Fish Hard

Proof That We Are Useful!

Check out this forum post over at Fishing Porn.  A reference?  Yes we are.  It even looks like we contributed to the creation of this little fly. 


Live Free, Fish Hard

Why I Publish This Magazine .... Captured

Spencer Turner over at the Columbia, Missouri Daily Tribune has perfectly captured the essence of why I publish this magazine.  He writes in his latest piece, "Scratch a serious angler and you'll find a reader and a library." 

This is precisely the reason that I publish this magazine, because its true; serious anglers are voracious readers and usually maintain small libraries.  We devour writing about water, fish, gear, and search out other peoples takes on why we fish or fly fish. 



Live Free, Fish Hard