|
2006(Apr/May) Fishing Annual:
(Table of Contents)
PARTICIPATE
When I first started working at Hooked, I had the pleasure of interviewing Curt Gowdy, who passed away this February. If you are a sports fan, you know Gowdy. He defined the role of TV sports broadcaster in the 60s and 70s, calling every major sporting event from the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the NCAA Basketball Finals to the Olympics.
If you fished, you wanted to be Gowdy. The amiable Wyoming native was also the host of The American Sportsman, the globe-hopping TV fishing show that brought the adventure, passion and pure fun of the sport into living rooms across the country for three decades. Gowdy stalked tarpon with Red Sox great Ted Williams in the Florida Keys. He tromped around the trout streams and high lakes of the Rockies with Bobby Knight, and snagged trophy-sized brookies with fly-fishing god Joe Brooks in the Andes. There was no other show like it. It set the standard for every outdoor sports TV show that followed.
The world has changed. Sports have changed. Fishing has changed. Bass bad boy Michael Iaconelli, who talks about how to make his sport better for television in “Be Like Ike” (page 56), has fished with “Neon” Deion Sanders on The New American Sportsman. But I think Gowdy would like the excitement of this change and enjoy this, our second Fishing Annual.
We feel there is no other magazine like it. This is fishing for young, adventurous people who like to play hard. In “Low-Ridin’ Fish Findin’” (page 67), lifelong paddler Kari J. Bodnarchuk tries her hand at kayak fishing and perseveres until she lands her first fish. In “The Singletrack to Paradise” (page 75), Buddy Levy mountain bikes to little-touched fly fishing in Northern Idaho. In “Kings and Corn” (page 48), a helicopter takes Isaac Stokes into the deepest wilds of Alaska to battle king salmon with Olympic alpine skiing gold medalist Tommy Moe. I can just hear Gowdy narrating these stories.
But this annual isn’t just about other people’s stories. It’s also a guide to get you fishing, no matter who you are. We break the sport down into five sections—bass, inshore, freshwater fly, heartland and big, bad ocean—and provide you with recommendations for hot spots to cast a line and all the gear you need to get on the water, whether you have never touched a reel or consider yourself a fish freak.
When I interviewed Gowdy, I asked him whether he would rather watch a baseball game or go fishing. There was no hesitation. “I’d rather go fishing anytime,” he replied. “I’d much rather be a participant than a spectator.”
We couldn’t have said it any better. Thank you, Curt Gowdy.
Doug Schnitzspahn
Executive Editor
|
