Do we want Bill Burton to cover the Pickerel derby ?

[27 sailfish]

Had Bill Burton out fishing today and I told him about SRRKC concerns about the story on Pike being kept in the Magothy.He said in the future he will encourage C/R.He figures very few are kept-most people release them after finding out how bony Pike are.

I also told him about the derby-he seemed very interested.What's your opinion on the deby getting some press ? Skip

[mill686]

Go for it.

[goose70]

Indeed!

[clancy19]

Hope we don't get Angus'ed again.....the last time we had "coverage" it wasn't good....but hey, I'm for it if it is positive.....

[uncljohn]

I would be cautious as to what such public exposure could mean to the club. I don't think we need an advertisement in the Sun that could double the size of our club in a short amount of time. Eventually there would be as many "SRRKCers" as there are "TFers", and would dilute the feeling of commeraderie that I've found in the group.

So, while I don't mind a mention of us and what we're doing, i don't want every guy who reads the Baltimore Sun to decide that joining a fishing club and fishing on the Severn River is what he wants to do, and I don't want information that directs them to us.

[27 sailfish]

We could always change the "by laws" so that new members must buy rounds for 5 months . Skip

[uncljohn]

That will either ensure that a) noone else joins, or b) we will be eternally wasted after all of our meetings.

But I was being serious in my reservations.

[27 sailfish]

One thing to remember about the media or internet. 99% of the people read it but never follow through with going fishing.

I've posted great GPS #'s in summer- guess what-only 2-3 people show up.That's one reason I'm not scared to share info.

Bill was commenting to me about how few fisherman still go out in winter.Alot of baitshops either close up or have very limited hours in Jan/Feb/March because of no one fishing.The headboats in OC stopped going due to lack of interest.

We can discuss it at the Feb. SRRKC meeting.We should ask Virgil if the Magothy saw many new Pike anglers after Bill's story. Skip

[rem1224]

I don't think that people stop fishing Jan/Feb/Mar because of lack of publicity or not knowing that there are fish available to be caught. Think it's simply a matter of being comfortable. I'd say that 95% of fishermen are not "hard core" - i.e they are not going to be on the water in 40* and below air temps, with colder water temps, and a cold breeze blowing. Most guys winterize their boats so unless you are lucky enough to know someone with a dock or shore access or have a friend who runs thier boat all winter, they're not going to be fishing much.

We SRRKC'ers are indeed a different bunch of bananas in that regard

I don't see anything wrong with Bill mentioning the Pike derby in his articles - but I don't think it will have any great impact on the number of people fishing.

[goose70]

I agree. I think that the positive upside far outweighs the possibility that people who read the article will then track us down and take the time to come to a meeting, except for, perhaps, the very few people live on/fish the Severn and really like what we stand for enough to make the effort. And we want those few, those proud, those SRRKC'rs -- anyway.

Look at it this way. Over 30,000 existing TF'rs, who can easily learn our meeting times and locations with a click of a mouse, have not overwhelmed our ranks.

The positive upside to a Burton article is twofold: The article could highlight the benefits of C&R'ing Pickerel, and people get an example of how the Severn isn't dead, but still worth saving.