Well we made it past our first year! This issue, the first of Volume 2 marks the official First Birthday of TFN, and it's been some year. We started out with only a few contributors and only about five odd articles. We're now up to over 20 articles per month. We've also added the TFN Fishing Forums and Derby, increased our Clubs section and experimented with tournaments, the Sportsman's Show (we're working on that one), and started to develope some new additions you'll hear about in the not-too-distant future.

Although the work has steadily increased, you, the readers and subscribers have told us that you like what we offer and that you want more. And hey, who wouldn't at the price! (-:

Speaking of which, it says here that the magazine will continue to be offered for free.

Responses to the Survey have been steadily coming in, and some of the initial results have been quite interesting. Of course we knew that most of you would be male, what with the basic 'Net demographics and all, but just under 1 in 5 of you are female. This statistic is particularly gratifying, because the stereotyping of anglers as "Bubba 'n Skeeter in a tin boat with a 2-4 of beer" won't change until the sport generates a more global appeal - demographically speaking.

In fact, we may soon add a few questions to the Survey to find out how many of you fish with family members. If angling becomes more of a family activity, then the pool of advertising dollars available will expand, enabling companies like this one to grow more rapidly and deliver exactly what you want on a consistent basis.

But enough about business musings. This month's issue introduces Franco Fumolo to the TFN Community. Franco is a very well respected contributor to the top fishing magazine in Italy, and will start our quest to bring anglers from around the world together at TFN. Hopefully we'll continue to increase our international content over the next few months.

But one of the main requests we've had from many of you is that you would also like to see more regional and local reports appear. And, hey; that's fine with us. So if you are an experienced angler who spends the majority of your prolific fishing time in a specific area, and would like to provide us with information as to what's biting and where, let us know and we'll set up your own column in the 'zine.

We've also slightly altered the TFN Derby this month - removing the requirement of a notary to sign the entry and the threat of a polygraph -- which we haven't the equipment for anyway -- and have also added a special treat for those who send in the first 25 entries this month. The first 25 will receive a promo-pak worth more than double the entry fee! Not a bad deal, huh?

And on a general Internet topic, I am currently testing access to the net provided via Cable TV from our local cable operator. All I can say is to heck with the phones! How else could I download a 2-megabyte file in under 5 minutes? And receiving pictures with articles that used to take 5+ minutes each now only takes seconds! If you get a chance, check it out!

So that's a wrap for this month. As always, if you have questions, or want to provide others with answers, check out the Forums. They're starting to pick up now and I hope that all of you will soon be checking in every couple of days to find out what's going on. After all, they're only useful if they're used.

Until next month...
(tight lines, get it wet, good fishin', see you on the water, etc., etc.).

Scott M. Binnie, Managing Editor