yakass

To be honest, I'm actually surprised how little feedback I've had on the title I've chosen for the upcoming online kayak fishing show. But I have had a couple of comments, a sprinkling through email and more of it face to face (I appreciate the feedback - many thanks). I expected it and I understand the concern. 'War' on fish is a little harsh, if not sensationalistic. Without any understanding of the origin & inspiration for the title, it would be easy enough to perceive it as aggressive. War... I mean... that's brutal, isn't it?

Well, the term war seems more like a metaphor these days. Soldiers don't fire shots in a 'war on drugs' and missiles don't fly in a war on poverty. And hell... if you can have a war on terror (a noun, no less) then I reckon you can get away with declaring war on just about anything. Indeed, the Chasers crew proved with their TV series 'Chasers War on Everything' that these days nothing at all is off limits for a little war or two.

When you stop to look at the meaning of this new metaphor 'war on X', what the term now appears to mean is 'righto... now we really mean business. Now we're going to extraordinary lengths to...'

And that's the real point of it. To the average punter, the way we go about catching fish - especially those of us chasing game fish in blue water - it looks very much like we're going to extraordinary lengths to do so. And by most people's standards, we are. The title WoF  is just a play on words to elucidate the 'extreme' approach we take to our fishing and how seriously we take it. But anyone who thinks I'm actually declaring war on fish (in the 'I hate fish, they must be wiped out' sense) is being overly sensitive. And lets face it... I don't think I'll ever get to preface an episode with 'no animals were hurt in the shooting of this video'. By that I mean yes, fish will get hurt. Some even killed. That's a part of fishing, and its unavoidable if you plan to keep the catch for dinner, which I often do. So the overly-sensitive types probably just wouldn't like the show anyway... and thus, I'm not terribly concerned about pre-emptively offending them with the show's title.

I could have just called it 'the kayak fishing show' and no doubt soon enough someone will come up with a show titled exactly that (you heard it here first). I know that would be less offensive, but I think in time people will agree that WoF is actually a pretty suitable moniker.