I became a life member 6 years ago and since then I have received nothing but disappointment from NAFC. The magazine more often than not is riddled with articles for bass fishing with the occasional article about one or two other species. I understand that bass fishing is a popular sport and I partake in it whole-heartedly but there are fisherman in North America who pursue other fish. Also why is there an article each issue about a truck? If I wanted to read truck articles I would subscribe to a truck magazine. In my opinion these are just more pages taken up with ad space. Also it would be nice if there was communication between the club and it's members. We pay to join and so we should know what is being done with our money. One of the main reasons I have been a member so long (first joined in 1998) was because of the Catch and Release Contest. This past summer I was excited to enter a fish and when I logged on I found the C&R to be replaced with a new monthly oustanding catch contest. I had received no mention of it in the magazine(unless it was overlooked in amongst all the ads) and when I emailed the club they did not answer me as to why the contest was no longer running. So my many parted question is this: Why is each issue overrun with articles about bass fishing when there are clearly other fish species in North America (the first two initials in NAFC)? Why are there truck articles? Why doesn't the club communicate more clearly with it's members?

I have to agree with you at some degree. I use to enjoy reading the humer articals now there gone, and the mag got thinner so now you can read the inside of the back cover without opening it. I also agree about the truck thing. If I want to read about some truck I'd buy Car & Driver. Why not write about boats other than Ranger. as far as the bass articals they are always about the mid west or east coast, Nothing about bass fishing in the West. Lets go one further. They gave us a chat room but no way of telling if anybody is on it. I get tird of asking is there anybody on here. How hard would it be to put a list of who's on. No one at NAFC listens to what it's members have to say. We got your money, so we don't care what you have to say, and we're going to use it to send Steve Pennaz all over the world to fish. Enough said.

I have never felt that my dues were more than a magazine subsciption with the added benefit of this web site. I chose life membership only because I didn't want to have to remember to send in a renewal every couple of years. In fact, I wish In-Fisherman offered a lifetime subscription! All publications rely heavily on advertiser revenues to make a profit and always tailor there content to please the big advertisers. When was the last time anyone saw a Fishin' Informer that was anything but the print version of an infomercial? Tom

Please remember that this is a business first , which is aimed at a specific group , fishermen, that is why they have umpteen different clubs all run buy the same company.

SO WHAT DO I GET OUT OF ALL THIS

A Place to network and make new friends. That is rite each member is a potential new source for a friendship
a change to field test or win prizes .
heck they even give you gear now when you become a life member.

it costs money to keep things going and this comes from add revenue. like this web site is not free publishing a MAG is not free. But i paid my dues .
so what is the average cost of printing and distributing the magazine ? and running the business.
website office mag paying for copy rites to print articles. photos what not .
some of you may think the members are paying for fishing trips as far as members paying for fishing trips for editors ,I doubt it it is more likely that add companies pay for them.

u are probably rite rod tosser.several years back i had the privelege of meeting steve pennaz at lake huites mexico. he came in the nite before i left i know from talking with the owner of the lodge previously during the trip that he was footing the bill for them to come in and in exchange he got the publicity. i dont know if this is the caqse with all thier trips but i have a feeling it is.so as far as us paying for them to take all those trips i doubt we do. i do believe the monies goes to pay salaries and expenses to keep the club up and running

Ever heard the phrase "Promotional consideration provided by"? It's a common practice where a company will provide a service to a media outlet like a magazine, TV show etc in return for what amounts to a free ad. Every single outdoors show and magazine uses the same tactic, it benefits all parties involved. Tom

I have been a member since 1991. I myself think that the mag is going downhill. I have been a fieldtester so many times and have gotten a bunch of junk to try out. I dont know what it takes to try out something good.

well folks,, i usually kinda just lurk and read around.. i found myself needing,, well more like wanting to respond to this,, i just spent 8 min's waiting for the main page to load, 2 1/2 minutes for the forum page to load, then to top it off, 2 min's for this topic.. this site is terrible, not the folks! the site. its like some corporate big shot's kid is designing and running this site. i have been a life member for over 20 yrs, so even tho i never have recieved anything to test, or won any contest stuff i still feel i got my money's worth. the mag used to be a good one and the jacket is cool.. i do have to agree that the club has gone down hill.. seems as, so has most media companys. my complaint over anything is this site. as far as i'm concerned this site will chase more folks off then recruit them. i'm sure they have an excuse why the site is slow, no good ones in my opinion. fix it! period. the priority's of the club need some evaluation by competant people, are there any left? in closing i bid you members prosperity and awesome angling. be safe and enjoy everyday.. as for the club corporate members i bid you all a very meaning,, WAKE UP!!.. you should never be satisfied with the results of your days work when you have a site thats as inept as this one.. you all should be ashamed of your skill level as online guru's and member support staff.

Posted By basbandit on 06 Jan 2011 01:36 PM
I have to agree with you at some degree. I use to enjoy reading the humer articals now there gone, and the mag got thinner so now you can read the inside of the back cover without opening it. I also agree about the truck thing. If I want to read about some truck I'd buy Car & Driver. Why not write about boats other than Ranger. as far as the bass articals they are always about the mid west or east coast, Nothing about bass fishing in the West. Lets go one further. They gave us a chat room but no way of telling if anybody is on it. I get tird of asking is there anybody on here. How hard would it be to put a list of who's on. No one at NAFC listens to what it's members have to say. We got your money, so we don't care what you have to say, and we're going to use it to send Steve Pennaz all over the world to fish. Enough said.

I'm not real fond of the truck articles, either, but I have more of a problem with the tobacco advertisements. 

I don't know if it is a result of the site problems or not but it sure seems the quality of the participation in these forums has gone to h___. It used to be I could kill an hour logged in reading and responding to posts. Now it is rare to find 2 or 3 new posts a day after you discard the "Good______" posts and the "I haven't received a bass boat to test" stuff. Between lack of content and dealing with the poor performance of the site, I find myself spending less and less time here and life membership notwithstanding I can see my presence dropping to the once a month level real soon! Sorry guys and galls, but I come here to talk about fishing, learn and share what I know and I am not getting a good return on my investment of time. I can't even remember the names of all the folks that used to be regulars here that are rarely if ever present nowadays. Tom

I got to agree with ya' Pegsguy.  Participation in the forums is way down.  Instead of ten or twelve new posts in the My Topics section, I usually only see three.  I barely ever hear from anyone I used to hear from regularly on the forums.  What ever happened to Northeastbass, Eric Ridenour, and Uncle Tom's Jigs?  Never hear from them anymore.  It's good that people like Pegsguy, Mr. Bill, and Pillman have continued to stay in the forums.  Without their input, the forums would be even more drab then they are now.

Uncle Tom is still around from time to time. You don't see Turnip, Wellsley, Lazarus or many of the old standbys anymore and I am afraid I am about to join them in never never land. Not much point in changing browsers and logging on just to listen to the same ol same ol if you know what I mean. Never thought I would be saying this! I posted in the Il State section on 3/26 and have yet to see a response! It is hard to believe that I am the only club member from Il that hits the forums! Tom

Alot has changed and folks have gotten fed up it really is too bad . so basically you could say the site has to rebuild from scratch . Which is to bad because there used to be a lot of us that went out of are way to make these boards great. now we trickle in to see if things got better but it is to late now . they had a great forum took it away, then things just went down hill from there .
Now here we are 5 years later . IF NOT FOR WEB GUY GREG WE WOULD STILL BE TALKING TO THE WALLS.

The site and the club are really what you make them. If you choose to focus on all the negatives then you will tend to see things through a negative perspective. I choose to focus on the positive things about the club and the site (even if they may be hard to come by these days!) and try to make the best out of it. I have much more important things in my life these days than this site so I tend not to expend considerable mental energy or emotion dwelling on it's particulars. I say, just try to enjoy it now. Because you never know, it could get even worse in the future!

I'm in on a regular basses but I usually only look at a few topics . If I am able to help some one then i have done a good thing . Face book has also taken away from the forums .
as staff is more active there and may answer a question faster or folks may jump in .

Posted By Pegsguy on 15 Apr 2011 10:58 PM
Uncle Tom is still around from time to time. You don't see Turnip, Wellsley, Lazarus or many of the old standbys anymore and I am afraid I am about to join them in never never land. Not much point in changing browsers and logging on just to listen to the same ol same ol if you know what I mean. Never thought I would be saying this! I posted in the Il State section on 3/26 and have yet to see a response! It is hard to believe that I am the only club member from Il that hits the forums! Tom

Totally forgot about Turnip.  He's never on hear anymore.

I think turnip might be more active in the future, check out his "adventure" in the misc. posts, he has been bust with a new home and his wife having medical problems. Wellsley comments to turnip once in a while. Sure a shame when it seems that some of the state threads are rarely accessed.

I should proofread, that "bust" should have been "busy". Maybe I'll learn, or not.

ditto

I wish I could get the magazine to read. My lifetime membership get canciled every 4 to 5 months for some reason. Then I email them and it gets reinstated.I've only received 1 magazine in the last 6 to 8 months.Thats why I have only been coming on once a month or so.I have gone to customer service same old results.