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The History Of... Irish Angler
The idea for Irish Angler began when fishing guide and guesthouse owner Roger Baker, based on the shores of Lough Currane just outside Waterville in County Kerry, approached David Hall with the idea of DHP getting into the publishing market in Ireland.
It has to be said that David was a little surprised when he took that initial phone call from Roger. Although the pair had known each other in the 1970s and were kindred spirits in the sense that they were both “children of the 1960s” (In David’s words!), they hadn’t spoken a word to each other for 20 years before Roger got in touch!
Their paths had gone in very separate directions over those 20 years. Roger had emigrated to Ireland to ‘find himself’ and catch big sea trout, while David had started DHP and turned it into Europe’s biggest publisher of fishing magazines.
Their initial conversation went something like this:
Roger: “Hey David, it’s Roger Baker! There’s a fishing magazine over here that’s for sale. I was wondering if you might be interested in buying it.”
David: “Eh Roger! How are you? It’s been a long time! Okay, I’d be interested in that, so how about I come over one weekend and we can talk about it and meet up with the people selling the title?”
A date was set and the pair met up in Waterville a week or two later to discuss matters further. They visited the headquarters of the title that was for sale and began negotiations to buy it – but David was not impressed. The owner seemed more interested in politics than producing a fishing magazine, and the one he was producing wasn’t of the highest quality.
So the decision was made not to purchase it. Somewhat disappointedly, David went back to Roger’s guesthouse deep in the Kerry mountains and, over a large whiskey (or two), they began talking.
The heavily scented, smoke-filled atmosphere of Roger’s antiquated living room became a hive of visionary conversation that evening. The more the pair drank and smoked, the more creative their thoughts and ideas became, until the craziest thought of all was uncovered. We can only imagine what was said in the late-night conversation that led to the eventual launch of Irish Angler, but it might have gone something like this:
David: “What I say now must stay within these four walls for the moment, but let’s launch our own Irish fishing magazine.”
Roger: “Yes. What would we call it? It would be an Irish magazine about angling in Ireland.”
David: “Irish Angler sounds like an ideal name for it.”
Roger: “Yes, I agree. I’d like it to be a romantic kind of fishing magazine, with fishing stories in it. You know, like the magazines we used to get in the 1970s. We could combine all the fishing disciplines you get in Ireland and have a bit of instruction in there as well.”
David: “Eh that’s an excellent idea. Don’t tell anyone for the moment, though. We don’t want to stuff the goose that lays the golden egg!”
Okay, so that’s not precisely how the conversation went, but it won’t be far short of the mark!
After looking into the financial requirements of starting a new magazine in Ireland, and agreeing that we would definitely do it, a number of strategies were formulated for the launch. The first was to ensure that this was a magazine specifically for Irish anglers and the trade in Ireland. We knew how key it would be to support Irish manufacturers and retailers, and help their trade grow.
The second was distribution – we also wanted to ensure that the magazine could be easily found in newsagents, supermarkets and even garages across Ireland, north and south of the border. The third and final strategy concerned editorial content. David and Roger wanted a romantic-style magazine that would entertain with stories, as well as educate. They felt that the typical target reader would identify with this. No magazine is a success if it doesn’t sell copies, and to that extent the reader is the most important part of the equation when you launch a new magazine.
It was decided to create a generic fishing magazine that covered every angling discipline. Yes, Irish Angler needed to appeal to every angler in Ireland, and for this to be the case we needed articles on fly fishing, sea fishing and coarse fishing from the best-known Irish anglers.
Roger Baker was the ideal launch editor. An experienced and accomplished fly angler, he also had bags of knowledge when it came to coarse fishing and even sea angling. He had all the contacts, and started commissioning articles the moment he was given the go-ahead to do so.
Within two months of the green light being given by DHP for the launch, the first issue of Irish Angler had been designed and was ready to hit the shelves. Coffee-table-type reads for game anglers included the ‘Jewels of Ireland’ series, where we focused on a top Irish game fishery every month and told the reader everything he or she needed to know about it if they were to catch there.
Top fly tyer Frankie McPhillips was commissioned to write a series, and other top Irish game anglers subsequently to appear in Irish Angler include Paddy O’Reilly, Robert Gillespie, Rod Tye and Gardiner Mitchell.
Sea anglers could associate closely with Jim and Sean Clohessy’s dinghy fishing series, which is still running now, along with regular contributions from Kieran Hanrahan and Terry Jackson. And coarse fishermen found something for them with top instruction on catching pike from Irish expert Matt Dean, and Ian Kitson on catching tench, bream and roach from rivers and loughs. Roger edited the magazine for two years, before handing over to the current editor, David Dinsmore. David had been contributing to the magazine from an early stage. Under David’s stewardship, several new features have been introduced, such as an advice clinic – Fish Doctors – The Carp Column and a revamped Around Ireland focusing on a particular shore angling venue each month. David has also revisited the previous Top Ghillies feature, which continues as ‘A Day on the Water With…’ and features anglers from all disciplines talking about the issues that are important to them.
Also key to David’s approach has been a focus on reviewing products under actual angling conditions, with contributors and members of the editorial team taking products out for field tests. This has met with approval from both readers and advertisers alike.
On the advertising side, David has worked with business development manager Mike Shanks to foster closer relationships with existing advertisers and develop new ones. This has led to us running a series of ads for properties of interest to anglers and of ads from several of the fisheries boards.
David has also taken the decision to focus on young anglers, the future of the sport. The First Fish section has proved popular, and activities aimed at young people are featured regularly. Taking a young angler out for a day with one of our contributors has proved extremely popular, and more events like this are planned.
The main task now is to ensure that the magazine continues to provide balanced coverage of angling in Ireland, and to provide a forum for debating the hot issues.
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