It all started when Al Gore invented the internet (...........). "Information" became cheap. This said "information" quickly replaced hard earned diplomas from "University of Duck" and "Trout Tech". Information is no longer passed from father to son, but from DRTROUT579 to RIPPNLIPS_PLAYA.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
THE GOOD
The internet can be an awesome tool. Stream flows can be found on USGS.GOV, and the fishing and hunting reports are more numerous than the fish that swim in the river. Its nice to be able to look up fly recipes, and duck decoy jerk cord riggings. Google earth really changed the game (especially hunting) when gallons of "scouting trip gas" can be conserved by just scrolling over and zooming in on the desired terrain an outdoorsman might think about chasing his/her quarry. Trust me, I've used and continue to use the tools mentioned above. Checking flow charts have saved my rear on many a day trying to stay ahead of a mud bubble blowing down a swelling river, and google earth has found me many a new honey hole to work out the retrieving skills of my lab.
The internet has also spawned many a social network and there are more people participating than not. Even my grandma has a profile on facebook. Social networks are great for finding new fishing/hunting buddies, and share your newest fish porn. Fishing/hunting forums can double in this fashion as well.
As a guide, I use the internet as a marketing tool. I (not that successfully) reach the masses with my stellar fishing reports, fish tales, pictures, and just let the world know "how big of a deal" my outfitting company is.
What's the internet without the fishing reports?!?! I check them every time I go fishing out of state, or try to find my next new destination. As a fishing guide with a very secretive and competitive nature, I like to check the local stuff to see if the "other guys" have figured out my sneaky little plays on the river or use it as a pressure check to see where everybody IS fishing to avoid it when my playbook says I need to find fresh water and unmolested fish for my game plan to work.
The Bad
Information flies as fast on the internet as a Used Car Salesman's mouth trying to sell you a "mint condition" 1990 Jeep with 300.000 miles and "beauty marks". As an outdoorsman, sometimes its hard to wade through 95% of the BS to find 5% of the gems. I have clientel repeatedly calling me saying they heard this or that and the fishing was horrible. I simply ask them the source. 99% of the time they got the info from RAINBOW_WARRIOR1967 on whiteriverguru.com. Turns out this mythological warrior who did not fight any rainbow trout that weekend was from out of state and very new to the sport. chances are he was probably online fantasizing about fishing he's never been able to catch, but he won't let you know that he's sitting on the couch watching Oprah and eating cheeto's instead. His 5,000 posts would never elude you to that fact. Sometimes searching for a credible fishing or hunting report is like following Jennifer Aniston's love life via The Enquirer. You never know what to believe....and you'll never see Rainbow Warrior's experience level
As I have said previously, that I have used tools like Google Earth, they have also come back to bite me in the rear. Many a hunter have inherited mental GPS coordinates to some hunting honeyhole passed on from their Dad who inherited it from his Dad. No one knew about that tiny cut that opened up into a big timber hole with the prettiest, and lowest lying timber in the county. Greenheads would instintively flock to the hole like the swallows of Capistrano year after year. Well that changed when some pimple faced 17 year old used Google Earth and saw from space that the little bitty cut opened up into something magical. Consequently that Pimple faced hunter....lets call him DUCKSLAYER666 beat you to your magical place in the morning, brought all his pimple faced computer literate buddies, and hunted every day of the week scaring every duck off the hole until the next big push of northern birds come down. It gets worse when his buddy SHOOTDUX12 from duckslayers.com decides that he's to lazy to go burn time and find some birds and does some "internet scouting." DUCKSLAYER666 wants to let everyone know how great of a hunter he is so he shows his glory shots and pretty much gives out the gps coordinates to your hole. Now you're not just racing the pimple faced death squad to the duck hole in the morning, but half the state.
As a fishing guide, marketing applications are also a double edged sword. Websites need constant updates. Mastering google rankings to reach the masses is a constant battle. I spend my "days off" not just tying flies, and writing corresponding booking emails to clientel. Instead, I'm writing this article, trying to keep my website updated and relevant. I could be scratching the dog, watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns, or earning brownie points with the little lady by cleaning something....shoot maybe even fishing or hunting. But I can't....I've got tweeting, facebooking, and blogging on the menu for the next couple hours.
The facebooking part is a monster of its own. Its pretty simple. Just create your profile, throw a bunch of grip and grins in the galleries, and update your status atleast every couple days with something like "fishing is off the hizooook!"....I dunno thats how everyone writes on Facebook. The part that gets me is when someone I have no idea who they are in real life (happens multiple times a week) asks me to take them on some pro bono fishing trip. Apparently I should be so lucky to fish with them. In reality, I rarely get time to go out and fun fish (see paragraph above pertaining to taming the google monster), let alone with my real life friends (real life means you interact with them outside of the virtual internet sphere). I really only get to fish with my Dad, they guy that changed my diapers and taught me to catch fish and live life, probably only one or two days a year. So don't take it personal virtual buddies, when I use the line"until Unicef gets in the biz, I'm the guy to call, and WILL have to charge you for my time." Guiding is my job, not my hobby. I like writing, but lets be honest. I'm not doing this blog for the theraputic qualities. I'm hoping someone thinks "This guys is fricken hilarious, I would love to book a trip with him and hear some funny stories."
The Ugly
I've always thought there was no room in fly fishing for ego's. On the river, chances are no one is in earshot to hear you proclaim your superiority...and quite frankly the trout and ducks don't care. The internet, however, has given many the perfect stage to show off everything they know and don't know but claim they are the authority on...in fly fishing or duck hunting. The most common place for these "sexual intelectuals" to dwell in are online forums. The more a person types, the more they must know.
Client- I want to cancel my trip. RAINBOW_WARRIOR1967 said it was terrible
Forrest- Fishing is great. Who the heck is rainbow warrior??
Client- I dunno, but he has 1,299 posts on whiteriverguru.com and every post is as long as a novel.
Forrest- You've fished with me for 4 years. When I say its good....its typically good. Right? Trust me...we're crushing them on dries. Yes its flowing big, but the big boys are munching.
Client- But rainbow warr...
Forrest- has many leather bound books and his house smells of rich mahogany.....shoot i bet he's the best fishermen he knows....trust me its going to be good.
Client- be there tomorrow
post trip......50 million fish later.
Client- can't trust anything on the internet these days.
Forrest- lucky fish don't read fishing forums or they may not have decided to eat today.
I used to contribute to these said forums. Occassionally I will reappear to squash some new fangled theory that threatens to scare every fisherman thinking about booking guides in the area code. When you see that or an errant article on the web, you've got to put up a valid defense quickly to save possible bookings. An outdoorsman's forum can sometimes be like a hallway filled with middle school girls. but I still read them quite frequently. Not for the information, but for the comedy. When attitudes go south in those suckers, they make the Battle at Gettysburg look like a civil backyard get-together. Everyone's always defending or trying to show off their proverbial manhood. Portrayals of sarcastic and witty comments are lost in a forum. Even emoticons (those smiley face things that make different mood emotions) can't portray the joke in the light you could with your real fishing buddies in the boat. Consequently, you've just hurt RAINBOW_WARRIOR1967's feelings and he's going to sick his internet posse on you. Chances are that posse will never find you if you hide on the river.
The good news is trout aren't thin skinned, they don't care how many posts you have, how many virtual likes you have on your facebook, or how many twitter followers you have. All they care about is you putting the fly in the magic shoe box, and not dragging it out.....they way they used to be, and always will be. God forbid they start following me on twitter to figure out my plan of attack. Maybe I should have titled the article " the life and death of the OUTDOORSMAN" and not "OUTDOORS".
