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Cat

Neil Blood

Neil Blood

Senior Member
Any regular readers of Coarse Angling Today a bit miffed at it's revised format:mad:

In what direction is it going? It's as if the mag is trying to fill the void left by Coarse Fisherman, which was a **** mag full of product placement!

Having just flicked through July's edition of CAT, I find 3 full pages of adverts for Seat Boxes (isn't this supposed to be a specialist mag!), various articles which appear to contain product placement, an unconvincing tackle review section (you can't review a barbel rod in a paragraph), an Anglers Mail type venue guide and a mag that has reduced from 81 pages down to 65 pages (based on this time last year). Finally 'Think Tank' does nothing for me either, It's just copying other mag formats and it isn't original (another excuse for product placement too)!

What was wrong with the old format where contributors wrote more freely (and without the Cheesy profile window)?

I've long blown CAT's trumpet and recommended it to many people; however if this current format continues I will not be renewing my subscription. why fix what wasn't broken to start with!
 
This has happened with several publications. Most likely, in the not too distant past, they had a reader survey which told them that the majority of anglers these days are of the pole and puddle brigade. This inevitably leads to a change of format, and it wont be long before the likes of Bob Nudd are writing about how to fill your net with F1 pasties, Ugh!
As soon as I see one of these surveys I count the months before the change.
 
I stopped getting it a while ago, it was getting repetitive. Sounds like it's going downhill which is a shame as it was the best mag.
 
I was speaking to one of its best contributors on the Trent yesterday and he was saying the same thing. He's been cut down to once every two months.

It's a great shame - it seems to be abandoning its target audience. It will leave we all round specimen hunters with nothing to read by the looks of it :(
 
Haven't bought the mag for a couple of years now, it was starting to get to repetetive for my liking.
 
Looking forward to canceling my subscription to be honest, I have had enough of that fat kid telling me how to buy cheap bait for Tench and Bream!

Tony Miles’s articles are just repeating earlier material and pics, same with Phil Smith but with less sustenance.

Last months issue was the last straw with that <edit> Steve pope telling me how to hair rig a pellet and singing the praises of the Barbel Society!

There also hasn’t been any contribution from Chris Turnball for some time which is a shame as I enjoyed reading his articles most of all.

In all seriousness CAT in my opinion was the best magazine available with some of the most unbiased opinions and articles around, it’s a shame when you notice more adverts and an increase in poor quality material thus lowering the quality of what was a very good publication. Oh well better renew my subscription for Razzle!
 
Yes it's a shame about CAT. The articles used to be 6 page long 'diary' style pieces, which you could learn all sorts from.
I remember buying it for the 1st time and thinking how much better it was than the other monthly tackle catalogues, but now it seems to be turning into them.
Stef Horak, Phil Smith and Tony Miles' articles are quite good, especially Horaks.

I dont know how many times they have printed a picture of Bill Rushmers wife eating a full english breakfast! His articles are OK but do we need to know what she had for brekky every bloody month!

Matt
 
I had a couple of items ready prepared for them but they did not want to know!

I suppose people are not interested in stuff that does not sell bags of pellets or Boilies, so there is no interest in my way of fishing.

These days if you can’t sell a product on the back of an article no one is interested!

And there is no margin in 3 pints of maggots!!
 
Keith Speer said:
I had a couple of items ready prepared for them but they did not want to know!

I suppose people are not interested in stuff that does not sell bags of pellets or Boilies, so there is no interest in my way of fishing.

These days if you can’t sell a product on the back of an article no one is interested!

And there is no margin in 3 pints of maggots!!
Click to expand...

I was also going to add that there are people on this forum who, could and can write far better and more thought provoking articles than the magazine currently offers.
What were their reasons and justifications behind not wanting any contribution from yourself Keith if you don’t mind me asking?
I remember speaking to someone at Angling Times who said that they were crying out for contributions but every time I pick that up its full of the same old repetition and product placement, I agree that AT is marketed at a far more general audience but CAT is/was not, unless that is their new marketing strategy.....
 
My subscription renewal form arrived in this months copy and it's fair to say I was overcome with apathy. It was out on it's own as a good mag in the original format, now it's bordering on rubbish. I was alarmed to see the new venue guide, do we need that?? And yes, Bill and Virginia must be sponsored by Greasy Joes Cafe, there is more emphasis on that than fishing! But that was always part of the mag and quite amusing. What isn't amusing is the blatant copying of failed former coarse mags. Why??

Quite ironic that the editorial is celebrating a 10 year anniversary. Do they not stop to think how they got to 10 years in the first place?
 
As someone who has been a subscriber for 5 years now, and recommended it to others I could not agree more with what has been said.

As has been said before, I think that CAT has moved to fill the gap in the market left by CF and all the other adverts sorry I mean magazines that made me start buying CAT in the first place.... And to be honest I now cannot wait to cancel my subscription. It all started going downhill when James Holgate sadly passed away IMO, god knows what he'd think of it now.......

Sadly a once great publication ruined, and now there's nothing for specialist anglers to read. Shame.
 
As far as I can remember Tom it was because they were going to change the format of the magazine, it was to be more compact and "punchier".

Trouble is I don't tend to fish the same way as a lot of others and to be popular you do need to sing from the same hymn sheet as every one else!

They always say they want something new and exciting but what they really want is conformation that what they are putting out is the correct way of doing things, apparently people don't want to pay for an alternative view, if the market research says catch F1's then how to catch F1's is what you can expect.
 
Keith Speer said:
Trouble is I don't tend to fish the same way as a lot of others and to be popular you do need to sing from the same hymn sheet as every one else!

They always say they want something new and exciting but what they really want is conformation that what they are putting out is the correct way of doing things, apparently people don't want to pay for an alternative view, if the market research says catch F1's then how to catch F1's is what you can expect.
Click to expand...



The Chairman on Thursday

Subject; F1


But caught in sufficient numbers, then minced, they make a decent barbel bait, as do Flyfishers and presenters of Top Gear and television shows that feature 1970s Fleetwood Mac music.


As ever,

B.B.
 
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