My non-fishing brother and his non-fishing family went to Japan over New Year’s, and as a thank you for watching their (assumedly non-fishing) Portuguese Water Dog while they were gone, they brought me a generous care package of fishing tackle from the Sansui tackle shop in Tokyo. It wasn’t necessary, but much appreciated. While the lures were the show ponies of the haul, I was equally thrilled by the inclusion of three Japanese magazines – Lure, Basser and Angling Bass. Like much of the media I otherwise consume, I can’t claim to be in it for the articles, but it’s just as visually compelling as anything else.
Of course, if I read even a smidgen of Japanese it would be better, but it’s still pretty damn good. I’ve pored over the mags multiple times, dog-eared a few pages, and whenever possible gone to the JDM companies’ websites to learn more about their products. Most of all, I sit and wonder how and why these magazines remain so numerous and so vibrant. Not only are they printed in full color on thick, premium paper, but they’re thick themselves – Basser clocks in at a remarkable 144 pages, while the few remaining US mags seem to be about a third of that, including ads. Maybe it’s because of decreased market demand – after all, we consume our information on screens now, with social media in general and YouTube in particular surpassing just about everything else in terms of market share. Go to a supermarket or chain store and you’ll be hard-pressed to find more than a small selection of tabloids on the magazine rack, and bookstores are a shrinking category. Perhaps the Japanese market’s retention of bass literature reflects insurmountable cultural differences.
But after thinking about all of that, I see that there are magazines out there making it with quality content. Publications like Texas Monthly and Garden & Gun are amazing, and feature the occasional sporting piece. Within the saltwater and fly fishing (as well as saltwater fly fishing) communities, there are creative, colorful and meaningful publications that you can take on a plane or to the crapper in hard form. Anglers Journal takes it one step further, producing a high-quality, highly-literary magazine that spans all sorts of angling, occasionally even – gasp – the bucketmouthed residents of Swamp Gas Corners.
Maybe it’s because I’m old, or sentimental, or a book nerd at heart, but I want to believe that there’s still a market out there for a really in-depth hard copy bass magazine, a mix of good info, tackle porn and personality features with no corners cut. I may not be good enough to write for it, but I’ll definitely be a subscriber. Until then, I have to rely upon the Japanese and Google Translate.
