Quick Quip...

It's a Crappie time of year! If you live in the northern US or Canada, the first 2 weeks after ice-out (or for southerners, when the water temp reaches 60o) bring about some of the best crappie fishing of the year. Find the warmest bays and, in particular, creek mouths and channels and you may catch them by the bucket-full!

What's New...

If you've got this far and haven't noticed the 'new look', I'd be amazed. We completely overhauled the entire site (with a few of the 700 odd pages to go) for 3 basic reasons: to accommodate the growing number of you with screen resolutions above 800 x 600 pixels,

1. to make the appearance of the site a bit 'cleaner', and
2. to speed up the loading of the pages

We've also changed a few of the navigation buttons and names of some of the sections to make better sense.

The sections we still have to re-program are the Derby and the Club Pages.

This is the first month that we will actually be producing 2 issues of the Web-zine. It was getting too confusing to adjust the Table of Contents pages half way through each month. In addition, the number of pages for each month is running around 30 at the present (we expect that will grow), so it make sense to split one large issue into 2.

This Issue...

First of all, I'd like to officially welcome Tim Tipton to our family of Web-zine contributors. Tim has a wealth of experience in the southeastern US from which to draw for his column. You may have read some of his work in the past in such print magazines as In-fisherman, Kentucky Afield, and Kentucky Game and Fish.

Beef of the Month...

t seems to me that not only is there a tremendous upheaval occuring in the economy, but also in society itself. All my life, I have believed in the old 'Dale Carnegie-ism' that "What a man can conceive and believe, he can achieve." In otherwords, if you have a good idea (by 'good', I mean an idea that works), and work hard to make that idea become a reality, you will eventually reap the rewards of your efforts. But there are now three groups standing in the way of virtually every industry and enterprise, including the fishing industry and companies like The Fishing Network.

The first group, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone, is the banking industry. Here in Canada, we have 5 major banks: the Bank of Montreal, The Toronto-Dominion Bank, The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, The Royal Bank of Canada, and the Bank of Nova Scotia; all of which have returned record profits after record profits -- quarter by quarter -- for the last few years. It's interesting to note that the number of personal and small business bankruptcies has also either remained high or risen over this same period, in spite of a stable economy. The oligopoly of the big banks is nickle-and-diming every last penny out of small business.

For example:

To be able to accept credit card payments over the phone (or Internet), you must provide the supplier of each card with the greater of 3 months estimated sales, or $10,000. So to be able to accept 3 credit cards, you'd better be able to come up with $30,000! Now the banks will tell you that it's VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover that insist on these amounts, but who runs these companies? Who provides them with 100% of their business, and why are the rules different in the US if these international companies are running their own show?

It's no wonder the banks profits go up while ours go down! The second group to deal with is government. Governmental Paperwork has long been the bane of the entrepreneur, but now these guys are grabbing our cash as well. The cost of merely registering a business name has increased by over 400% in the last 5 years. The cost of incorporation has increased by 200% in the last 3 years. And to boot, even if you declare a loss for tax purposes, the government demands an automatic $50 - I guess just to keep you honest. (?)

But the third group standing in the way of prosperity is the newest, and most dastardly of all -- social interest groups. These folks really make me mad!

Now, I'm not only talking about those members of the PETA religion here, but also those others whose effect on the world is just as self-serving, just as poorly thought through, just as maniacal, and just as dangerous.

If you recall, the folks from PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (I thought I'd be nice) -- want to hang you up by the short-and-curlies if you so much as accidentally step on a tick. Personally, I think they've missed the boat, and should protect all things living. That way they wouldn't have anything to eat other than edible oil products (there are organisms even in the water we drink).

But I digress... There are more and more spcial-interest groups cropping up every day, and the most unfortunate effect is that because they are so noisy, the media picks up on their stories, granting them free exposure for their often wacky ideas. And, of course, the more exposure they receive, the more that governmental and banking types listen to their message. Why? Probably because it is a lazy way of determining the pulse of the people.

This point has most recently been driven home with the current war going on over tobacco.

I smoke. I'm not proud of the fact, but it remains a fact. And the more I sit in my home-office, pounding on this computer keyboard, the less likely I am to quit, no matter how much I would like to do so. But I do not smoke in elevators, in offices, or in other places where it is not allowed.

However, and in spite of the fact that the last time I looked, tobacco was not an illegal substance, special interest groups are once again biting off their noses in order to spite their faces by being vocal enough to dupe the government types into what they deem to be politically correct and sociably responsible action.

There are currently 2 battles being waged. The first involves smoking in restaurants and bars. The City of Toronto, in it's infinite wisdom, has passed a law whereby the only establishments that can allow smoking are those with completely separate premesis, including ventilation system, for smokers. A rough cost for a restaurant to build such an animal is about $50,000.

The short-term effects of this legislation have been the closing of restaurants and an increase of about 1,000 unemployed workers. The long-term effects will include the acceleration of inner-city problems since the lack of restaurants will result in people going out to the suburbs for dinner and entertainment - leaving the city core empty -- which will cost thousands of more jobs and increase the stress on the welfare system, causing taxes to go up and therefore even more people to leave -- a viscious circle.

And all this because city officials forgot to read the newest scientific and health reports that have determined that about .01% of smoking-related diseases are caused by second-hand smoke. The least they could have done was come up with a different type of solution, such as the one my wife, Brenda though of: allow smoking on alternate days.

But the really big battle, and one that affects the fishing industry more directly, is the federal government's new legislation that prevents tobacco companies from advertising or otherwise sponsoring events or programs where their name is prevalent.

To put put this calamity into perspective, let's take a look at some current tobacco company sponsorships. Of course, there's the Indy-Cart Races in Toronto and Vancouver (which have now been officially scratched after 1998), the major tennis tournament stops in Canada, golf tournaments, boat races, hundreds of cultural events, jazz festivals, fireworks festivals, and fishing events and magazine advertising.

In all, tobacco companies are responsible for over 30 Million Dollars in advertising to support all of these enterprises. And you don't just remove this type of money from the commercial sector of the economy without serious repercussions. The government says that other companies will pick up the bill. Well, sorry folks, I've been selling advertising and sponsorships for over 5 years now, and those "other companies" don't exist!

The beer and liquor companies as well as the automotive manufacturers are tapped out. And no-one else has that kind of money to throw around... except for... just maybe... hey, I know... THE BANKS!!!

And why not? The companies who are going to be most affected by any downturn in the economy are businesses, and that means that they will not be able to maintain their current cash reserves, thereby reducing the amount of assets the banks can use to make those outrageous profits.

But on the other hand, if the banks were to take, say 5% of their collective $5 Billion profits and put that money into supporting small enterprises such as... say... The Fishing Network, not to mention the larger enterprises such as international sporting events, wouldn't the economy benefit? Wouldn't there be more jobs created? Wouldn't there be less taxes? And most importantly, wouldn't we be able to replace the money (recently absconded by government) needed to renew our favourite resource?

Wouldn't the economy run smoother and everyone be happier?

Nah. Too Simple.

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

Scott M. Binnie, Managing Editor