Paddle-Fishing.com

I still visit this site daily, I don’t use my kayak as much as I used to though. I need a new one but, besides that I got my Jon boat all spruced up and have been using that a lot more these days. I can’t see posting fishing reports or pictures of fish I caught out of a Jon boat on a kayak forum, kind of sacrilegious, I would think but, I still have a kayak and I still use it and as long as the site is here I will come back to visit.

Delayed post. If I were in the Tampa area I would be much more active. The forum isn't as big for South Florida. I would rather visit this forum than using Facebook though.

PF started its long spiraling death when Jay died. He was the only one who had “fire in his belly” for this place and the sites activity level was a direct result.
As Jay’s influence withered, so did the site.

Manning,

I agree with everything you say.

Not sure if much can be done about the shrinkage of this great forum

Bluebill

Remember Hula Hoops? Intense activity followed by obscurity. Has Kayaking followed this trend? I am a fisherman and Kayaking sends a "Thrill" running up my leg. Those who Kayak see Eagles, Dolphins playing sea turtles close up sharks all in 3 feet of water. It is the best fishing trip inshore available.

I definitely don't think Kayak Fishing has gone the way of the pet rock or the slinky. Fishing is fishing, I don't care if it's from a dock, boat, canoe or kayak, it will be around until the end of time. IE. SUP fishing is becoming a trend, still fishing just another way of doing it.

Other online social media ....Geocities, AOL, MYSpace, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook just to name a few have had their highs and lows. It's hard for the small guys (PF), local bars and restaurants they will never compete with the Big Chains, they don't have the same resources. One of biggest things going for small establishments including PF is history. You can't reproduce it, you can only preserve it.

I personally don't use facebook, and a lot of people I know have started to pull back, it's all consuming and commercialized.
I do use online forums, I find them personal, focused and easier to interact with.

Yes the PF forum is very, very quiet, but it's still here and I think that's important.
I believe in PF and I want it to stick around.

I want to be more active on the kayak fishing forum side of PF but I've been very busy, hopefully in the next few months this will all change.

I think, MPO, younger generation than mine have moved on to blast style communication.. "send blast and forget it" the technology has moved forward to this style. They are way to busy, in their own minds, to peruse this style of message board, post a message, and then come back later to see if there was ny response or new activity. Plus the fact that there are way to many forums & boards around, the numbers have multiplied soe people just loose interest and move on, some get upset by something or somebody and move on, and some hang around.

I started out many years ago in the early days teletype, then to 300 baud acoustic coupler style modems, then along came personal computers and modems with chat rooms, then the modem went by the wayside and people could get internet connections at home, all the way through todays mode of communication the Cell Phone.

There used to be 2 or 3 main paddle centric web-site forum/boards around, which expanded to a dozen or more right here in the state of Florida, many gone some still here, then along came FaceBook and everyone had their own personal board for free, then along came Twitter, Instagram, and other similar app's that made blasting a message simplar and much less personal.

I'm not even sure, (I should), what the current tech generation uses as the main communication media today. I worked in that field from '73 for companies providing leading edge communication mediums and kept pretty much on the bleeding edge of it until 2013 when I was laid off and decided to retire... now I'm finding myself years behind the technology.

What is the 15 to 30 year old generation using ?

OK, so, if this forum does not disappear, then it remains a nice place for us good ole boys to share thoughts. A few years back there were some youngsters posting here and they were few but good fisherman. It would be nice to attract some younger fisherpersons back.

I know that I kayak fish less often than 10 years ago for several reasons. One is that I am still doing consulting engineering work to keep my mind active but also to make a few extra busks. Household expenses keep going up. Secondly, living on Pine Island, I have such fun fishing from shore and I can do that in the spare hour whereas the kayak is at least a 4 hour trip the way I do it. Then there is the wind that often keeps the kayak in the yard.

Snook are not in my local canals thick yet but another cold front may do it. Baby tarpon are in those same canals. Had a 7 ft gator grab one of my baby tarpon tarpon. I tried to yank it away but it slid up on the gentle slope where the gator followed. I broke off the 15# leader at the jig head.

RIK - finally found a little dog ( a Maltese rescued in Miami) to replace the mini schnauzer and she likes water. So, will take her in kayak for the first time as soon as I get a dog PFD.

yeah!! That's right bro. Now-a-days, people are doing less postings on the forum sites which indirectly declining their popularity, but we guys just love chit chatting.

Interesting that this thread is still going. I have to say that the lack of activity here has lead to me not checking in here all that often. I do really miss the "community" that PF was when I first joined. I also really miss the the PF tournament series. Again I miss it for it's community aspect not so much as a competition. Recently FB sent me one of those memories of something I had posted 3 years ago. It was a picture of a fish on my measuring board during one of the old PF events.

Really don't think there is any practical way to revive this forum. It is a victim of changing technology.

Video killed the radio star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ