What's up with WON fish reports?
Once again the WON says Skinner "Striped bass are cooperating, but mostly for guys dipping their own live shad out of the lake to use for bait." WTH? Nobody, and I mean nobody is dipping live shad. There are no shad in any part of the lake shallow enough to dip. I'm there multiple times a week and have never seen anyone dipping shad. This paper is well regarded but to make up false reports like this ........ hmmmm
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.you know you cant trust them guys pat..........
I heard the frog A-rig is the go to..... yip saw it on WON.....must be true...
With the exception of seeing someone you know (or don't) holding a nice fish, Western Outdoor Lies is a waste....I vowed never to buy that paper again after the way they "handled" the debacle of a tourney they had at Irvine in 2010 and the subsequent way they treated the prize winners at some of the other tournaments they hosted. What a joke and your "live shad dipping" report is a perfect example, Scott aka "Bing Jr." and I were just talking about this the other night in fact.
Good luck at Skinner, hopefully that gets popping for you guys soon!
TD
If you follow these "reports" they are just cut and paste from previous columns, probably a month or more old "report" that has been carried week to week due to a lack of new information based on current normal winter doldrums.
Hey I guess in the winter reporting week after week of "fishing is slow it's winter" just doesn't sell newspapers or magazines. By the time you get info. from these sources the bite is usually over, yes pretty much a waste of money and trees.
Last edited by seal; 01-22-2016 at 08:54 AM.
It took me 3 years of subscriptions and tournaments to realize exactly all of these opinions. I knew for a fact the Irvine reports were total BS other than an actual photo of a big fish caught. The "hot baits/lures" were always the ones that were lake sponsors; you would almost never see a lure mentioned that wasn't sold in the tackle shop. The Jess Ranch report basically read word for word the same for 3 years straight; they had a winter format and a heat wave format. The best baits were always the same 3 flavors of powerbait. And the TroutfesT was also a bust. I fished it 3 years in a row, and it was just a mess. All that money they rake in from fees, and the top prizes were a joke. You could win more money at an Irvine tournament placing 3rd than if you won first at TF. The good prizes were the ones put up by sponsors, not paid for by WON or with entry fees. Most of the info provided in the paper can be found for free online, and the forums are much better at getting real intel vs. how the bite was a week to 2 weeks ago. It's great that there is a weekly outdoors newspaper available to us, but it's just not for me anymore when it's the same tired material.
I like reading WON, been a subscriber for many years. Used to read it cover to cover before dinner the day it came, that night dreaming about some day doing whatever trip they were writing about. Took twenty five years but I finally did the fall 10-day on the Qualifier 105, actually managed to do a handful of those before she became a research vessel. Besides, it just feels right having the paper in your hands and not scrolling down a computer screen.
WON relies on reports from a representative at the lake or landing given via phone when the paper calls. I have always wished they marked the formcharts in a manner by which readers would know whether the location was a pay-to-play venue or a park ranger. There's just more reason for a pay-to-play venue to fluff up a report than there is for a regional park. The Internet changed so many things and now we're used to instant reports so when WON comes in the mail it's sure to have information we read about last week on FNN already forgot about but there's still great articles and information to be had. It is what it is, nostalgic yet still a fun read.
I stopped subscribing to WON after my first year's subscription was finished. I had subscribed mainly because they offered a free jar of PowerBait and a stringer at the Fred Hall Show and I was 12 at the time. When my pops asked me if I wanted to renew a year later, I told him the publication was probably not worth it, considering the 'reports page' was never reliable and I personally knew guys who had submitted pictures of 5 pound stripers and made them out to be 10 pounders and WON never thought twice and published their pics with the 'upgraded' weight, thereby proving my buddy's point that "WON would publish anything." It was like finding out Santa Claus wasn't real.
What was HILARIOUS was when one of the BakoDudes (maybe banned) convinced WON a year or so ago that the stripers at Silverwood were popping on umbrella rigs and rat baits? (Don't remember the details, hopefully some non-banned member can fill us in.)
When they published that, I knew that WON was on life support and 'relying on the community' for reports was akin to...well, relying on the community for reports.
I'm surprised that their publication hasn't gone the way of the dodo, considering the majority of the readership subscribe to get reports, and when anybody can call in/write in with fake reports and the publication has no way of vetting these and then actually prints them, perhaps Houston Has a Problem. "We cannot be certain of what we publish," is their way of saying, "yeah, we don't know what's going on with the local fishing."
I mean, seriously, if I'm the person answering the phone for a ANY lake, let alone a paid lake, and WON calls in and asks me how the bite is, what employee is gonna say that the bite is slow? This is my paycheck I'm talking about. I'm gonna tell them the fish are jumping onto stringers and to bring the entire family, we're dipping shad, free margaritas for the wives, 10% off coupons to Subway....
I do like their editorial section tho.
Sounds like the GenDisc with the informed minds that write in.
It was a frog bite on arigs and it was true! WON only posts the truth.
That won our yearly Trolling of the Year award for our group. The award was accepted by the BBC.Originally Posted by seal
Congratulations to those involved. That was a great troll, especially to catch such a supposed large specimen like WON.
Their old issues line my bird's cage. You'd think the old guard would focus on an online presence, or a completely different type of business model, considering paper print is going the way of...well, WON.
But they'll probably close up shop and blame it on....well, who knows.
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