The term ‘show season’ may not reside in your vernacular, but for those of us that work in the recreational fishing industry, it’s a thing. Here in the Northeast, winter comes with a lot of uncertainty for tackle manufacturers, shops and captains, while at the same time many New England anglers succumb to boredom and lethargy. Somewhere along the way, probably over the last 100 years, or so, someone had the bright idea to capitalize on the this predictable outbreak of cabin fever and use it to inspire hibernating anglers to count the days until spring and to spend some money to pump up the anticipation. And as these successes grew, we saw an explosion in fishing and outdoor shows which seemed to hit their peak in the 1990s and 2000s.
In the years since those glory days of a show nearly every weekend, we’ve seen many of them disappear. We’ve also seen some evolution in how they’re run, their size and who will take on the inspiration and responsibility to run one. The big difference that has really cemented itself over the past 15 years is that the focus of these shows has been narrowed over time, and many of the most successful shows are smaller and focused on a niche within the greater realm of fishing. You might see a show that is marketed to the surfcaster, or the offshore guy or the freshwater swimbait enthusiast. I think YouTube is to blame (or thank) for this.
When you think about it, we used to be conditioned to flip through the channels to find something that we deemed to be acceptable entertainment. And even when it came to TV shows about fishing, we’d settle for Roland Martin fishing the Amazon for peacocks, or Mark Sosin casting flies to redfish in Louisiana, because it was fishing and that was better than the Golden Girls or Alf. But now we type in exactly what we want to see, and we can even skip commercials after the first 8 seconds…so we’re becoming more and more programmed to expect to get exactly what we want and therefore, less and less tolerant of things we’re less interested in, even if it is related to fishing.
But, on the other hand, we have also seen a major spike in anglers who want to learn to target many different species and that’s where so many of these celebrity YouTubers fall short. We saw record subscriptions this year across all three of our regional editions and many of the ‘new recruits’ were offering a similar reason for choosing The Fisherman, they said, “You guys cover it all, it’s not just stripers, it’s not just saltwater, it’s tuna, it’s albies, it’s tog, it’s codfish, it’s steelhead, it’s largemouth bass and more.”
Another common thread was the attention to teaching instead of just focusing on fishing stories. As an editor, I always strive for the trifecta; a good story, that’s regionally and seasonally relevant that offers a takeaway for every skill level. That’s certainly not always attainable, but as a lifelong angler, the one thing that really gets me excited when I read a fishing article, is learning something new. Those ‘lightbulb moments’ come more often than you might think when you have great writers, and we have some heavy hitters for every species and every technique, and that’s not by accident.
The other thing I saw this year was a return to something closer to the fishing expos of old. Maybe we just needed 5 years for everyone to collectively “let go” of the COVID pandemic, maybe it was as simple as having to endure a really cold winter for the first time in a very long time…but the crowds were bigger and the enthusiasm that hung in the air seemed more palpable, like a great homecoming of sorts.
As we leave the show season behind and embrace the warmth and anticipation of the spring fishing season, I’ve been left with a strong feeling of optimism. I’m optimistic about the fishing season, sure. But I’m especially optimistic about the spike in new subscribers and I’m looking forward to introducing myself to all of these new faces and taking you all through the 2025 fishing season with an eye for diversity, relevance and, of course, the trifecta.
