‘Lucky’ Andy Taylor, Today’s Fly Fisher’s editor talks about his career and why fishing has played such a major role in his life..
I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to make my career out of my hobby. Having been brought up on a commercial trout fishery, my dad’s, in Cheshire, I always dreamed as a young angler, that I would work in the countryside and around fisheries. After four years at university I started my working life as a ranger and five years later I stepped into the world of teaching in Further Education, it was here that I started training the next generation of fishery managers and rangers.
Drifting into the margins on Carsington Water Andy finds success with a his favourite floating line approach.
During this time, I was asked by the then editor of Total FlyFisher if I would write some articles, I did, and it went well for me. Long story short, after doing that for several years, the editor, Steve Cullen moved on and I was asked to become the Editor of this magazine!
I had no editorial experience but being close to the world of fly fishing for so long meant that I had a pretty good idea of where the sport was, and I used that knowledge to help me.
I’m now the editor at a new, and dare I say it, better looking magazine, and I have carried that fishing philosophy into Today’s FlyFisher; showcasing the best of our sport, the opportunities out there for us all and to get people involved, to encourage them to learn and gain experience.
I want to inspire the current and of course the next generation of fly anglers.
Being the editor of a fly fishing magazine is a once in a life time opportunity, let’s face it there are only really a handful of print magazines out there now.
It’s good because one day I can be editing a destination feature on one of our dream fishing articles, one of those, we all wish to tick off our bucket list and the next I can be in a river taking pictures for a feature on grayling fishing with one of the UK’s best anglers!
I have had the opportunity to see some of our best anglers and share their knowledge and skills with the fishing community through the magazine. No two days are the same and in my time as an Editor I have had the chance to experience some of the finest fishing in the UK, tried out some of the latest items of tackle before they hit the shelves, seen many and varied fly patterns and met some truly brilliant people. But, as with any job there are days, I wish I was doing something else!
Trying to fool some sipping grayling with dry flies in slack water on a favourite pool on the Welsh River Dee.
The long hours sat behind a computer, the stress of meeting a print deadline, the frustrations of waiting for features to come in and days where technology seems to be against you… can make things challenging to say the least.
But I wouldn’t swap it, fly fishing is so diverse, and the modern world has opened up so many opportunities for the fly angler. Who would have thought thirty years ago that we could hop on a plane on Friday afternoon fish for trout and grayling somewhere in Europe and be back for work on Monday morning!
Fly fishing is constantly changing and evolving and Today’s FlyFisher magazine will help share these opportunities.
As a magazine editor I will do my best to share as much as I can to make this wonderful sport sustainable for future generations.
