Bass123, I hear ya. A couple of years ago my brother and I thought the same thing. After commuting for over 20 years and tired of it all,how can we make money in this industry? We love fishing, been doing it all our lives, have a boat, travel to fish, watch all the shows, etc... This was a tough queston to answer considering that you need to break in to the industry yet generate enough revenue or income to match or exceed what we were currently making.
Well, we came up with the idea of an 800 number for fisherman to call into to receive the latest reports from our region. This was before the advent of fishing sites on the net. The idea was for party boats, charter boats, bait shops etc... to call into us with reports everyday and we would compile and put them on the hotline (in fact it was called "*************'s Hotline"). In return for the reports, we would give free plugs to the participants. Money was to be made from the calls. $1.99 a minute or whatever... This was tough to get off the ground b/c marketing and advertising costs are high and it placed a great deal of time constraints on us. It was hard to do it with a full-time job also! At the same time Rich Johnson had the "fishing line" radio show and just starting expanding. P.S. Rich busts his butt and probably doesn't make a helluva lot of money yet...
Anyway, I still think it's a good idea. Plus my wife thinks I should do a TV show like Bill Dance, Hank Parker, etc.. Man, some of those guys are boring plus they don't do many saltwater shows.
I'm sure there are other guys with ideas like ours but can't find the time or money or resources to get it started. Give credit to those that run the boats, bait shops, tackle reps etc.. b/c they are busting their hump for something they love to do! I think it's too late for me. I'll just "fish fast" on the weekends!!
good luck!
Fatal Attraction