Funny how things work out in the world of fly fishing some days.
Several weeks ago we posted one of the absolutely beautiful tying videos that the Flymage team had produced and posted. Several days later Jose Weigand, the editor / publisher of Flymage fired an email thanking us for running the vid.
As fly fishers are sometimes wont to do, an actual conversation broke out which we continued after Jose returned from his pilgrimage to Patagonia. Jose has been leading the team that has assembled and launched Flymage and we thought he’d be a guy we should all get to know better.
He shares a bit of his history in his answer to our first question below.
Congratulations to you as the editor and your team at Flymage for getting off to a great start. What prompted you to start Flymage?
Thank you very much. Starting with Flymage was a logical consequence of my work for the last 20 years. I worked in a couple of fly fishing retail companies, then I worked for 14 years as fishing editor on a fishing and hunting TV channel and I finally decided to edit and produce Flymage. I have always been tied to (the) fishing press, my father was subscribed since the early 80´s to some of the main US magazines and later I continued with it being subscribed to some of the main magazines such as Fly Fisherman, Fly Rod & Reel, American Angler (since issue #1!), Atlantic Salmon Journal, Wild on the Fly, The Drake and The Fly Fish Journal. We love fly fishing magazines. Here in Spain and (in) some European and American mags I´ve published articles and photographs and always dreamed of publishing a magazine. The large window offered by the Internet is wonderful, in addition to the costs that are saved over the printed editions.
We’re jealous of your recent trip to Patagonia; how was the fishing?
I have the great fortune to travel frequently for my work. Chile is an amazing country and the trip was primarily to fish in lakes at the height of dragonflies and grasshoppers. Casting a big foam fly and see a trout rising is great. You’re more used to it in the US, but in Europe (it) is not as frequent …
What are you most happy about with the Flymage project so far and where do you see the magazine going over the next year or two?
We started in June 2010. Despite the short time we’ve been around the response has been very good. We like people to be entertained with the magazine and dream of fly fishing. You know that a hobby like fly fishing (produces) close ties between people and becomes a universal language.In 2012 we are confident we will overcome the million visitor hurdle; we’re close now. On the other hand, we have begun a new monthly fly tying video series. My partner is a video producer with extensive experience and we are preparing a half-hour video about wild trout fishing between Spain and France. We have some other very interesting video and article projects for this year.
Where are most of your Flymage readers and subscribers located; we’re curious about your English language readership?
50% of our readers come from the US. Canada, Europe, Russia, South America; up to more than 106 countries share the other 50%, so English is essential to us . We are from Spain and Flymage is done here but fly fishing is universal as I said before. You can not start a project like this on the internet without thinking about English language that in terms of fly fishing is universal too.
Where’s home and what are your ‘home waters’?
I´m from Madrid, my home waters are in the north side of the province, in rivers and lakes in the sierra.
Tune in for the rest of Jose’s interview tomorrow…
