We are kindred spirits. Two decades in the fishing industry as a publisher, writer and photographer. And now I help individual fishing companies build authority through authenticity and being genuine in their products and their information to help real anglers.
My hope is that more of us—you, me, the Flylab guys—all push back against the capital equity, content churn that is rife in our space by being genuine in our desire to help folks live more meaningful lives around fishing.
I don’t want to make memes and skits. I feel like our collective manhood dies a little more every time I see another content dude in fishing try to be an online comedian. So much that it makes me want to abandon all social media. Live out my days oblivious to the “for click” lives of others.
The fact you can exist in that capacity gives hope for a strong future.
I took a brief hiatus from all this, candidly, running. Not from the experiences, but the documentation. What's led me back I'm not sure, but I'm crystal clear on what I want it to look like, and that's what matters.
I've experienced the push to consumerism firsthand, and during my time away, I partook. Maybe that's why I'm so convicted now. I've been the giver and the given. In my short time back on the edges of what once was, I've found a few glimpses of hope, Flylab included.
I'd love to hear more about what you're doing, and to find the inevitably small degrees of separation between us.
Excellent writing and good points. All of us feel it, but it’s hard to put into words. I’ve played at the edges of The Industry, but with the responsibilities I had I could never justify the pay cut and time away from family, and the one thing I have always been sure of is you will at some point inevitably resent whatever you’re doing to pay insurance. When I started finding myself fishing, not because I wanted to, but because I needed content, that’s when I started to step back.
It’s a tough balance. Like any job that’s putting food on the table for your children, you do things you don’t like. But when you’re doing things you don’t like in service of something you love, it becomes an existential crisis.
As a kid who grew up wanting to be an outdoor writer, it eventually dawned on me that turning the experience into dollah dollah bills eventually killed the experience.
I have never read an explanation of how this corruption takes place that is any sharper/clearer/more accurate than “What Went Wrong.” Well and truly done.
This article has sparked a few different conversations with people far more notable than I.
I’d hate to create something that was a curmudgeons’ echo chamber, but I think a group, colony, collective of creative individuals who want to lay the grass back flat would be wonderful. The “Fat Boys,” McGuane, Harrison, Valdene, Brautigan, etc, chose Key West for cheap rent and proximity to influence and collaboration. Though I’d vote for a commune in paradise, the internet has given us an unfortunate scapegoat, but also no excuse not to build one anyway.
Definitely no need for curmudgeons' in a echo chamber.
But, nothing wrong with real talk from a group fo people with a wide, varied backgrounds + experience.
This is great. And their are realities + opportunities that come along with this truth: "The “Fat Boys,” McGuane, Harrison, Valdene, Brautigan, etc, chose Key West for cheap rent and proximity to influence and collaboration."
if the larger point you're making is that literature and marketing are incompatible pursuits, especially for the outdoorsman who is nauseated by modernity, then I think you're mostly right, though they've always happened alongside one another, at least in magazines like F&S. I would like to think that some brands are supporting literary pursuits, but I don't think many people are asking them to, which may be the main lament. If this article is secretly a hit piece on Fly Lords, then add my signature the bottom.
I absolutely will. I miss Steve living down the road from me. Him and I were kindred in most things sans politics(ha). I see Sam Bailey is the ad director. Is he still blowing shit up? I think about Dave a lot. Only hung with him a few times but no one left a lasting impression like that man.
Sorta yeah. Usually my notifications. We stay busy with the mag and the podcast. You might like the reading rainbow trout episodes we do. We read selected stories aloud for the “illiterati”.
Ha, no secrets here. I've got some work buried deep in Fly Lords, like a fossil nobody's dug up yet. I might have spoken too generally in this piece, but Flylab passing it around tells me somewhere out there, somebody agrees with me, and that's enough.
I own a 1960 copy of Philip K. Dick's "Vulcan's Hammer." There's a cigarette ad bound right into the middle of it, sitting at exactly the spot in the story where a man would want a cigarette. I bring this up to touch on your point about literature and marketing existing in parallel. Now it feels like something I'm supposed to chase.
I read this entire article in a noisy bar. Didn’t look up once. Thank you.
The proper place to consume...substack.
Love it. Keep writing.
Thank you, sir
We are kindred spirits. Two decades in the fishing industry as a publisher, writer and photographer. And now I help individual fishing companies build authority through authenticity and being genuine in their products and their information to help real anglers.
My hope is that more of us—you, me, the Flylab guys—all push back against the capital equity, content churn that is rife in our space by being genuine in our desire to help folks live more meaningful lives around fishing.
I don’t want to make memes and skits. I feel like our collective manhood dies a little more every time I see another content dude in fishing try to be an online comedian. So much that it makes me want to abandon all social media. Live out my days oblivious to the “for click” lives of others.
The fact you can exist in that capacity gives hope for a strong future.
I took a brief hiatus from all this, candidly, running. Not from the experiences, but the documentation. What's led me back I'm not sure, but I'm crystal clear on what I want it to look like, and that's what matters.
I've experienced the push to consumerism firsthand, and during my time away, I partook. Maybe that's why I'm so convicted now. I've been the giver and the given. In my short time back on the edges of what once was, I've found a few glimpses of hope, Flylab included.
I'd love to hear more about what you're doing, and to find the inevitably small degrees of separation between us.
Found this through Flylab. Hat’s off to them for the post, and to you for prose like a hammer on a nail.
Thank you, Richard. New to Substack — not to the fringe. In good company here thus far. Your kind words mean a lot.
How do I find more of this here and less of the endless doomscrolling.
Excellent writing and good points. All of us feel it, but it’s hard to put into words. I’ve played at the edges of The Industry, but with the responsibilities I had I could never justify the pay cut and time away from family, and the one thing I have always been sure of is you will at some point inevitably resent whatever you’re doing to pay insurance. When I started finding myself fishing, not because I wanted to, but because I needed content, that’s when I started to step back.
I enjoyed this.
It’s a tough balance. Like any job that’s putting food on the table for your children, you do things you don’t like. But when you’re doing things you don’t like in service of something you love, it becomes an existential crisis.
Thanks for reading.
This whole essay can be boiled down to “get off the internet and touch grass with your friends” which is excellent advice, but not particularly novel.
Thank you for reading. I could stand to listen to my own words at times too.
You’re right, it’s not novel. That it’s become a novelty is the problem.
This commenter is rooting for people to listen to you and take it to heart.
Thank you, Gary Gillett. Thank you.
As a kid who grew up wanting to be an outdoor writer, it eventually dawned on me that turning the experience into dollah dollah bills eventually killed the experience.
I have never read an explanation of how this corruption takes place that is any sharper/clearer/more accurate than “What Went Wrong.” Well and truly done.
This is well written, and hits a very real issue that has perverted going out into the natural world. Nicely done.
I really enjoyed this article.
I would love to be part of a group that discussed this in detail.
The sociological aspects at odds with capitalism.
The lifestyle at odds with the business.
This article has sparked a few different conversations with people far more notable than I.
I’d hate to create something that was a curmudgeons’ echo chamber, but I think a group, colony, collective of creative individuals who want to lay the grass back flat would be wonderful. The “Fat Boys,” McGuane, Harrison, Valdene, Brautigan, etc, chose Key West for cheap rent and proximity to influence and collaboration. Though I’d vote for a commune in paradise, the internet has given us an unfortunate scapegoat, but also no excuse not to build one anyway.
Thanks for the kind words, Christopher.
Definitely no need for curmudgeons' in a echo chamber.
But, nothing wrong with real talk from a group fo people with a wide, varied backgrounds + experience.
This is great. And their are realities + opportunities that come along with this truth: "The “Fat Boys,” McGuane, Harrison, Valdene, Brautigan, etc, chose Key West for cheap rent and proximity to influence and collaboration."
You've written a magnificent piece. Well done sir, very well done.
Thanks, Tom! A lot of heart in this one.
It shows.
if the larger point you're making is that literature and marketing are incompatible pursuits, especially for the outdoorsman who is nauseated by modernity, then I think you're mostly right, though they've always happened alongside one another, at least in magazines like F&S. I would like to think that some brands are supporting literary pursuits, but I don't think many people are asking them to, which may be the main lament. If this article is secretly a hit piece on Fly Lords, then add my signature the bottom.
I absolutely will. I miss Steve living down the road from me. Him and I were kindred in most things sans politics(ha). I see Sam Bailey is the ad director. Is he still blowing shit up? I think about Dave a lot. Only hung with him a few times but no one left a lasting impression like that man.
Sorta yeah. Usually my notifications. We stay busy with the mag and the podcast. You might like the reading rainbow trout episodes we do. We read selected stories aloud for the “illiterati”.
Ha, no secrets here. I've got some work buried deep in Fly Lords, like a fossil nobody's dug up yet. I might have spoken too generally in this piece, but Flylab passing it around tells me somewhere out there, somebody agrees with me, and that's enough.
I own a 1960 copy of Philip K. Dick's "Vulcan's Hammer." There's a cigarette ad bound right into the middle of it, sitting at exactly the spot in the story where a man would want a cigarette. I bring this up to touch on your point about literature and marketing existing in parallel. Now it feels like something I'm supposed to chase.
Thank you for reading, Hank!
I think you’d find other like minders at SCOF. Should submit!