The Truth Is Out There

Teh crack team in the basement of TWK's world headquarters is ready to blow the lid on the real mission of Field and Stream.

Most of you loyal reader(s) probably don't read such trash (except in the checkout line of the grocery store), but Field and Stream is a popular, mainstream outdoors magazine, known to snobs like TWK as a hook and bullet rag. One thing that F&S loves--almost as much as photos of guys with dead critters and B.S. bear stories--is ranking stuff. They probably are second only to People and VH1 in the number of rankings of the useless and unrankable.

A fishing pal, sent me a link to F&S's rankings of the best tailwaters in the U.S., presumably so we could share a good chuckle. I checked it out just to see how silly they were in choosing one fine well-known stream over another.

The article is mostly about the Green in Utah. Haven't hit it yet, but it isn't one to argue about. Then I got to the 'Best of the Rest' piece that is required in any ranking article and here is the summary:

Here's a quick guide to five of the best:

1. San Juan River [New Mexico]
2. Fryingpan River [Colorado]
3. Lower Sacramento River [California]
4. White River [Arkansas]

San Juan, Frying Pan, blah blah--all famous tailwaters. Then I got to:

5. Gunpowder Falls [Maryland]

WTF? The Gunpower? One of the top tailwaters in the US? Now, I love the Gunpowder and fished it all the time when I lived in the area--and even hit it a few weeks ago for old times sake when passing through--but no way is it one of the top tailwaters. Sure it may be one of the top tailwaters in the Bodymore-Washington Metroplex, but F&S listed it over some far, far better steams.

I was just about to close out of the window, when I noticed their latest list 150 Best Fishing Spots (near you). This one was complete with Google Maps of said spots. So, I checked it out in all the states with which I am familiar and it was even weirder than the tailrace list. Each state (that had all three) got a saltwater place, a bassin' impoundment and a trout stream. However the trout streams were either all very famous streams or completely wrong. Some crappy stocker stream that nobody but the greenest n00b would waste a minute on.

Then it hit me. Field and Stream is actually one of the good guys. Unlike many of it's 'highbrow' bretheren, F&S isn't telling anyone anything about where to fish, unless it is a stream everyone in the world already knows. Deliberate misinformation. A conspiracy.

Daddy likey!