best sea anger or total fishing mag

I would have to agree with Donagh, Irish Angler is too wide ranging for my tastes.

Sea Angler is a good read and yes there are a lot of articles for Boat Fishing - but the mag is called SEA ANGLER for a reason.

I have picked up a lot of tips and advice from the mag and will continue to buy it.

As for Alan Yates, I think his tips are great and yes - he is not particularly 'photogenic' but having already met a lot of the members from this forum - pot, kettle and black are three words that spring to mind :lol: :lol:

I'm sure we could all discuss this topic from here to eternity but everyone's tastes are different - just stick with what you like best.

It could be worse, Matt Hayes could start writing a column in your fav mag - now that would be off-putting :shock: :shock:

Jude

i stopped buying all of em a while ago if i do buy one its usually sea angler (usually for the free gifts) but i agree with the comment that they are repetetive and totally ignore our wee coast.i emailed the editor of tsf about a year ago and challenged him to come over and do a feature on northern ireland.he responded favourably but never replied again so i stopped buying tsf i and a few other people badgered mel russ on the same topic to no avail and like others here i dont find enough in irish angler to keep me intrested enought o buy it

Interesting comments.
I remember Steves article, re Sea angler which turned me off them after their conduct.
I gave up on Irish angler as I found it boring even though I try to do a bit of everything. Yes they have some good material especially on locations but the overall content was limp.
I very rarely buy any of the mags as I get enough reading here on the site.

Reading the topics covered here shows the interest in Sea angling and the amount of knowledge built up by local anglers. Long may it last.

i dont buy any of them, but i read them all. good old easons i spend hours in there every week.

i buy sea anger sometimes its more the same usely story but i like when they have reports about here :D

I buy the sea angler. It does have some good article in it and some handy tips. The skills centre helps for a beginner like my self. I would only get it if i see it though. Personally i would rather get a book and read that instead.

I was just wondering what it is that sea anglers 'actually' want from a magazine - do i notice a little bit of discontent with the current publications?

i buy SA, TSF and BFM ever month, stopped buying irish angler due to the lack of sea fishing articles( i only have interest in sea angling these days so it doesnt justify me spending that amount on a magazine for the sake of 4 or so articles)

sometimes i look at a few magazines and think to my self....they are talking crap.....it works better this way or that way, or mmm, never thought of that before, i must give it a go...
basically, the authors of the articles can only be knocked by those who actually do a better job than them by producing articles themselves....

one or two of the authors who used to appear fairly regularly in the sea angler etc are no longer there, and i miss their input, but it was much better meeting the authors face to face and having the things explained fully and also shown to me hands on.

how about someone who is good at articles and can produce the fish for a good article on their home patch gets in touch with the magazines, should it be IA, SA, TSF, BFM etc and invite them to come along with you for a day or two to get the best promotion possible for sea angling here in ireland.... i know that some forum memebers already have done this and made a good job of it into the bargain....

ps, recently contacted mel russ at sea angler as to why there is no ireland report in the 'where to fish section' of the magazine every month....so far no reply.
also, understandably they always come over and do their features in ireland mainly around the south and west coasts, and i know that a good few copies of their mag get sold in the north here, but they never come here to do articles.... i may be wrong but the last one that i remembr was years back when they were float fishing at stucken head giants causeway.
the fishing here isnt great, but surely if they bring the likes of alan yates , chris clark etc over, they can make the very best out of what is available...?

anyhow, back to the question in hand....presently i find TSF to be more informative, but i like sea angler for the shimano mission accomplished and penn league etc

Yatesy hits the Dee! 8) :lol:

As far as I can see the reason as to why magazines such as SA mainly do features on the west and south west is they are aimed out english anglers as holiday destinations. Also the CFB and Irish tourist board are also involved in bringing them over and the 6 counties don't seem to have the same resources pushing for sea fishing tourism. Maybe they could try and pouch Norman Dunlop:-)

After the catch reports was overhauled I sent an email complaining about Ireland being dropped to alan yates as he replied that that it got cut as they reduced the number of pages dedicated to it and that he hoped it didn't ruin the enjoyment of the mag. I didn't bother pointing out a paragraph would do so we'd at least by on a par with wales.

Donagh

the problem many years ago when it was last dropped was that they did not have anyone giving accurate up to speed reports well enough in advance......some of the advise it gave for marks and relevant months up here was just absolute nonsense. they just used to repeat whatever they had printed for say east coast northern ireland for the same month in the previous year

there sneaky putting the same report in :(

Have to say BigPhil is right on the same reports being reprinted every year,and once they dropped the Irish reports(except articles of trips from 3-6 months ago) that's when i decided to quit buying the mag. (OK like i said before once the Dec. issue comes out ) as for the Irish angler mag. I'll still get that and TSF as i enjoy the different stories be they sea ,coarse or game just like i enjoy the different programs on Discovery(just because i like sea fishing and probably would never try game or coarse doesn't do no harm to watch different disciplines of our chosen sport,some tips could be used for sea fishing)but even saying this we still could do with more sea related stories in the Irish Angler..... hint,hint :wink: :lol:

Thanks so far for the feed back guys - i can understand some of your issues as i have experienced them myself. Its not always easy for an editor to come up with something new every month and im sure the repitition is there to capture the 'inexperienced' reader.

Regarding more 'Sea Fishing' articles i can honestly say if you have a good set of 'logical' fotos, and maybe 1400 words send them to IA. Dont be shy!

Jim

I would also like to see some reports for the north. Think of the amount of people that would buy it if they did a special report on somewhere like Benone or Strangford.
As before i find that it can be repetitive, but I would say its main market would be novice anglers like myself.

What about someone starting up an irish sea fishing mag

It would have to be run on a shoe string, filled with voluntary contributions to make it anyway viable Croppy. Between printing, delivering, distributors and retailers getting their cut and the HUGE amount of wastage there is in mags, there wouldnt be a hope of it ever making money. This is then further compounded by the fact that some publishing houses tend to choose one main distributor (there are 2 big ones in this country) over another and therefore are unable to stock a full range of titles. I'm no expert but I am in the newsagency trade and I know for a fact it would be a non-runner.

I do however think that the lads across the water with their TSFs and SAs should devote a little more time and space to things this side of the pond. They are happy enough for us to buy their mags after all.

As one of the few contributers from the wrong side of the water :cry: I canhonestly say I would rather hear stories of the rich fishing in Ireland rather than how to catch one or two******* flounder and dabs on three hook rigs. Good luck to you!

I buy the SA now and again, there can be some helpful tips and info on new tackle but there are way too many adverts compared to other mags. I much prefere reading angling books for good info.

Can anyone recomend any half decent Sea fishing books they have read latley?

Cheers...