Quick Quip...

Fish are Recyclable... If you are one of the many anglers who eat what you catch, you know well that the left-over carcass of last night's meal can be one of the most ugly odours known to man. Instead of wrapping it up in numerous plastic bags to wait until garbage day, bury the thing in your garden. Fish are a great fertilizer for almost anything that grows!

What's New...

You may well notice a bit of a restructuring of TFN this month. We found that the menus down the side of the main pages were getting a bit long, so here's what we've done:

We have created a new section, TFN - interACTIVE! where we moved the Forums, the Derby, the User Trophy Album, added the Trophy Bass 2 page and, as of today, are pleased to introduce the TFN Weather Forecasting service (more about that below).

Fishing Clubs and the Website Map have been moved into the Reference Center, where they really belong.

Fishing Travel has been moved into the TFN Online Mall (where it was also available anyway).

Weather to go fishing today...

We're excited to introduce the TFN Weather Center, which gives you the availability of hourly-updated current, short- and long-term weather forecasts, provided through an arrangement we've finally made with The Weather Network. Canadian and American forecasts are currently available and the International listings should be available in about a week.

The TFN Online Mall...

We've once again renamed the TFN Outdoors Expo - this time to the Online Mall - to avoid any confusion about what the section actually represents. Even though it is now a mall, some advertisers may still choose to 'show' rather than 'sell' their wares.

For your reading pleasure...

And speaking of the new TFN Online Mall, we've also made an arrangement with Amazon.com Books, the largest bookstore on the Web, to offer over 200 books on fishing available from the TFN Bookshop in the Online Mall. Please make sure that if you purchase more than one book, you come back to TFN and order each item from here. Otherwise we don't get paid! (Thanks - we can always use the dough!)

A really nice award...

We were pleased to recently receive (completely unsolicited) a Lycos Top 5% award. This award recognizes sites that the folks at Lycos believe to be in the top 5% of their category on the Net. However, we were ecstatic when we learned that we had received the HIGHEST MARKS ever given to a fishing site by Lycos! Here's what their review said:

Content: 93%
Presentation : 88%
Overall: 92%

"The archives of the Webzine are stocked, and to
reel in a boatload of good advice all you need is to
know how to work the Net. Ouch! Just as we can't
resist bad puns, these guys can't resist going after
any old fish, and they'll tell you how to do it the
best way, in the best places at the best time.
From knot-tying and updated reports on the rivers
of British Columbia, to working deep water with a
fish locator, the feature articles cover quite a bit of
ground (water). That's fine for experienced anglers,
but can a newcomer make any sense out of
pike-and-muskie-chat? Yes, if they take a turn
with the Fish-On! Guidebook that's buried in TFN's
reference room. All fishing, all the time, updated
more frequently when they aren't biting."

Thanks, Lycos!

This Issue...

From international travel trips by a pro, to steelheading, to a salmon adventure to Labrador and how to winterize your boat's combustion engine, I think we've once again managed to provide you with a few timely tips and mulled-over memories, all for your enjoyment and edification.

Comment...

TFN - interACTIVE!

Interactivity is one of those buzzwords I just hate to use but can't avoid. I mean, let's face it; the whole Net is interactive. However, it seems that the use of this word evokes a certain feeling from people that causes them to do something - to interact. I guess no-one would use the word otherwise. The main reason TFN has introduced TFN - interACTIVE! follows this train of thought. Although we register over 2 Million total hits per month, it seems, for one reason or another, that many of those visiting don't make use of some of the most fun and dynamic parts of the site: the Forums, the Web-zine Contests, the Derby, Trophy Bass tournaments, sending in Trophy pictures to be published and the like.

In the second issue ever to be published of the Web-zine (back in November, 1995), I castigated those who didn't maximize there effort and derive the most benefit from TFN's interactivity by stating

"in order for us all to learn more and get
the most out of this incredible new medium,
we must all learn to participate,
not simply observe"

As TFN has grown, participation has increased, but not to the extent I'd expect.
Example 1. - The Forums

There are consistently only about 50-60 people regularly posting in the Forums - out of 500-odd currently registered users (if user accounts are not used for 90 days, they're deleted), and not including the 50-100 daily entries by people using the 'Guest' username, who look but don't get involved.

Example 2. - The Web-zine Contests

Over 10,000 people read each Web-zine article each month. This will be the second issue in a row that we don't have a winner for the CDRomco Way of the Walleye Contest. It doesn't cost anything to participate, and our survey stats show that of all those responding, 45%, or 4,500 of those reading the contest fish for walleye. And yet we've had less than 10 entries.

Example 3. - The Online Derby

What we thought was a great idea has gone by virtually un-noticed by most. Less than 30 entries in 16 months. Again - there is no charge to enter.

Example 4. - Email to the Editor

One would think that with articles being read thousands of times each month, there would be more than a small trickle of commentary about the content TFN provides.

Example 5. - Subscriber Contests

TFN offers a FREE subscription to our NewsFlash, which is currently sent out to about 4,000 subscribers twice a month, letting them know about new Web-zine Issues, new areas on TFN, and offers a monthly contest based on something written in the first of that month's issue. Generally, we get 50-60 entries each month.

We have plans to add more interactivity to TFN because you have said you want it. But it's difficult to allocate the time to get these programs instituted quickly when the support is so low for other initiatives (which were also requested by many of you) go so under-utilized. If someone can give me a reasonable explanation, I'll be more than happy to read it - and even respond interactively!

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

Scott M. Binnie, Managing Editor