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The story
A Yahoo! News article reporting that the fishing specialty magazine Lure Magazine is ending its print edition became a hot topic on 5ch. The thread saw a mix of voices: some said “in an age when anyone can broadcast online, specialty magazines have lost their presence,” while others pointed to “the fishing population itself shrinking” or “the spread of no-fishing zones and fish becoming harder to catch” as the real cause. Posts reminiscing about the venerable magazine Tsuri Top also stood out, with opinions divided over what’s really behind the decline of print media.
Yahoo! Original Article — Sat, 10/3, 8:31 AM
I’ve lived a life devoted entirely to fishing. I’m the bearded old man of Kanto fishing strolls.
Drawing on my years of experience, I share all kinds of useful information about fishing and life by the water, from fishing spots to tackle.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
It's because of guys like this that most spots are now off-limits for fishing
Print used to be something not just anyone could produce, so a specialty magazine could become the voice of an entire industry.
Online, though, anyone can put up a website or post on social media, so information just gets scattered — which ironically makes it harder to find, not easier
Wasn't it already at the point where you'd think, "who's even buying this?"
Honestly, they'd just run out of material, if we're being real
Today's news articles everywhere are just badly written
If you don't catch anything, you've wasted the whole day.
Even if you do catch something, releasing it makes the whole thing pointless.
Cleaning the fish yourself afterward is a hassle.
And fishing ponds? I genuinely cannot wrap my head around those.
As a way to rest your brain or give it some stimulation, I think it's actually a good hobby.
Though it's probably not for people who get fixated on one spot or think of their catch in terms of profit and loss
Same goes for video games, honestly.
To someone with no interest in it, every minute spent looks like a waste.
That's just what a hobby is
The decline of bookstores tracks right along with the decline of books
Reading top anglers' technical breakdowns and methods is genuinely useful.
Casual anglers and family-fishing folks just want to know where to catch what, so they don't read magazines anyway — and besides, print info runs 1-2 months behind, so for "what's working right now" there's no beating YouTube
The demand's just too niche to turn a profit
Man, Tsuri Top brings back memories. My hometown spot got featured in that corner — I think it was ZEAL's "Let Kashiwagi Catch One Too" segment — but it was a brutally tough spot in the city, and even Kashiwagi came up empty (got "skunked"). Remember thinking, "wow, even a pro can't catch anything here."
That's about the only thing I know of
The last ones standing will probably just be the women's fashion magazines you read at the hair salon
That's played out too. These days the magazine itself is paper-thin and the whole selling point is the free gift bundled with it.
Make the gift fancier and the price climbs too — 1,500 yen and up is normal now — which just makes it sell even less. A vicious cycle.
What actually gets read at salons are women's weekly magazines — those won't disappear.
Bottom line, it's only old ladies reading them; the young ones are all on their phones
I hear some salons these days just hand customers a tablet now
That must have places like Joshuya going pale (Joshuya = a fishing-tackle retail chain)
I'm not into fishing, but I actually owned the volumes of Tsurikichi Sanpei (about 3 in a row) covering the long-distance casting competition arc — those were fun
Oh yeah, now I remember — I only had volumes 13 through 15, the casting competition ones
If so, what's the reason?
It just doesn't mesh with today's kids at all, honestly
As a practical matter, fish really have gotten harder to catch.
And over roughly the last 15 years, no-fishing zones have expanded rapidly.
I think it's because beginners just don't get those beginner's-luck moments anymore.
There was a bit of a fishing boom during COVID, but it didn't last — you can't catch anything, and it's bad value for both money and time.
Might as well just play games on your phone, lol
Golf will stick around as a social venue though
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Lure Magazine, the subject of this discussion, had long run as a dedicated lure-fishing publication, and other specialty magazines mentioned in the thread, like Tsuri Top, have likewise already ended their print runs. Where the thread split was over the main cause of the decline: one camp pointed to a shift in how information circulates, arguing that magazines can’t keep up with the immediacy of YouTube and social media for the latest updates, while the other pointed to changes in the fishing hobby’s environment itself, such as the spread of no-fishing zones and worsening catch rates. It’s worth keeping in mind that both views are speculation based on 5ch posters’ personal impressions, not on official statistics or any explanation from the publisher. It’s also worth noting that the original article was an individual contributor piece on Yahoo! News — the view of a single fishing enthusiast, not an official report.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisoku+) thread “Fishing Magazines Are Disappearing… Fans Shaken as Lure Magazine Ends Its Print Edition! The Harsh Reality Facing Paid Print Media.”
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