“It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, but it’s kind of like a trip to Disneyland. You get so excited about a ride on the Matterhorn, and then when it’s over, you realize you wasted all that time in line for a minute and a half upside down and the chance to throw up.”
–Murphy Brown
Today marks the end of a longstanding decline in creative enthusiasm for this platform. In the beginning, numerous lessons were learned, the foremost being that quality endeavors demand time—time borrowed from family life, career, and hobbies. Frequently, the “brightest” ideas would strike in the dead of night, under the illusion that our partners wouldn’t notice, only to face the consequences the following day by spacing out in conversations with those who really matter. Regardless of opinions about The Chum, it represented an enormous investment of effort. Initially, this was of little concern. `A backlog of unvoiced creativity finally found a vent. The output has been voluminous, albeit often nonsensical and amusing only to ourselves. The platform served as a gymnasium for our strategic musings, a workshop for honing our writing abilities, and a classroom for understanding a formidable new medium about which we were clueless.
However, the situation eventually turned serious.
Esteemed readers started paying attention, we inadvertently angered several corporations, and we received our first cease and desist letter. The increase in visitor numbers was addicting, yet it introduced a pressure to “perform” that influenced our behavior.
Therefore, this marks the end. We are disabling the author’s login and halting all fresh content.
I can’t possibly thank my wife and daughter enough for watching me wrestle with finding content every night. Long live The Chum Nation! We cultivated a genuine community with many actively participating. Your humor, feedback, and support truly enriched this journey.
This has been an entertaining and informative site and it will be greatly missed.
This is a sad day, but you had a great run with The Chum and you should be extremely proud of what you achieved and of how many people enjoyed the ride along with you.
You clearly poured everything you had into the effort and I hope your family will now get some time back with you.
You have an incredible intense spirit and sense of humor and your conservation work raised awareness for the right ways to steward our great waters.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with you on the Cast From The Past feature and may the Chum archive live forever online so that everyone can continue to enjoy your amazing body of work over so many years!
All the best,
Steve
I read the Chum every day. I am sorry you are closing it down. Thank you for your efforts.
Well, I must say, I enjoyed the “early days” with the Friday Pin up and the “real talk” of fly fishing back then. The view from here is that the Chum went woke, maybe pressured to go woke, and that contributed to the “we must follow the narrative talk”, which didn’t help in losing the “original authenticity” of the site.
I was critical when The Chum “got political” and lost its way. I don’t regret being an honest contributor. I was also very supportive when they stuck to non-political fly fishing only topics.
Maybe there will be a re-birth, at least I hope so, as I was a loyal reader (pre-woke and post-woke), because I learned so much in the early days.
To the owner/author: thanks for never censoring me when I was critical of the whatever topic it was……that’s a sign of intellectual maturity and my respect for your commitment to the 1st Amendment cannot be higher.
Best of luck in your new endeavors.
“went woke” ? As opposed to being brain dead? Fking MAGA infection
A brain dead person would believe those are the two only options.
It was a question. Comprehend?
I do make it a point to read Moldy Chum every day
It has been a part of my morning routine for many years
Thanks for all you have done to promote the sport of Fly Fishing
Thank you for providing a great platform for armchair fishing diversions. I’ve been a long time reader and don’t fish much these days so the Chum was my touchpoint that reminded me there is more than work. Enjoy whatever comes now.
Thank you so much for so many years of morning reading with a good cup of coffee. I will miss my daily dose of Moldy Chum.
Marty
The first thing I check every morning, sad to see but I understand
It’s sad day,reading the chum has been a morning routine for many years!
Thank you for all your hard work!!!!!cheers!
To quote a great book,
“Thanks for all the fish!”
This is the first page I check each morning, it will be missed! Thanks!
I am very sorry that you had to make this unfortunate decision. The same thing happened to us with the chilean fly fishing site “RiosySenderos.com”, the most read site in Spanish. It was too much personal, family and professional effort, so we had to close it, after 15 years of providing quality content and teaching new generations. A big hug from the Chilean Patagonia.
Correa as in the Family on the Palena?
Thanks for many great years and May you never get Moldy!
My first internet access in months and now this!
Thank you for all the hard work and passion! Looking forward to your next project!
–
I’ve come here a daily dose of chum whenever I’ve had access to internet for more than a decade. Thanks for the entertainment. I’ll miss it.
OMG !! Bless for what you have achieved.
We made a lot of MoldyChumies that will remember you.
One love !
Benoit
You made a lot of MoldyChumies that will remember you !
Thanks, take care and now you will have more time to go fishing !
Thanks for all the years. I read every day. Well done.
Now what am I going to do to procrastinate starting work in the morning?
Thanks for the fun, fine writing, insights and passion for all you shared.
What’s Paul Boote gonna do?
Thanks for all the years of fun (gotta be like 17?) This site was a one of a kind and will be missed.
Cheers,
Nate
Many thanks. Followed the Chum daily for many years. You’ll be missed.
Steve S
Nate wrote above: “What’s Paul Boote going to do?”
Terrify the change-resistant and swivel-eyed Official Fishy British Hard of Thinking with his silence!
As Sir Edward Grey, author of “Fly Fishing” an 1899 Angling classic and British Liberal Foreign Secretary 1914-16 observed on the imminent outbreak of World War I in August 1914, “The lamps are going out [all over Europe], we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
Same with that bright beacon of better Angling judgement and sanity, Moldy. Expect garish nasty fishy mean streets neon from now on.
Boote out.
Stay in touch, Brian.
Right on Paul! Always enjoyed your contributions.
Cheers,
Nate
Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into this. moldychum.com has been a daily stop for me for several years and it will be missed.
I’ve been reading the chum since undergrad. Now I’m a dull old(ish) man.
Travel well and best of luck.
j.
” Today marks the end of a longstanding decline in creative enthusiasm for this platform ”
& so it shall be written.
Here’s hoping you’ve found at least a small percentage of the enjoyment that you’ve afforded us over the years. Well done & thank you.
Time is the only thing of true value one will ever possess, enjoy the newfound freedom as you see fit.
.
Since I first started working for ‘Trout Fisherman’ magazine in the UK, your blog was go-to when it came to wandering off fly fishing’s beaten track in search of inspiration. Thanks for that.
You will be sadly missed but you’re right; if the motivation isn’t there any more, you might as well get out while you’re at your peak.
But I’m all ears as to what earns a fly fishing blogger that magical first cease-and-desist letter.
I am so sorry to see the Chum shut down. As a life long fly fisher you fed my addiction to the water.
Moldy Chum has been a near daily check on the interwebs for me. My favorite flyfishing blog of them all, but hats off to you for seeking better balance for you and your family.
Thank you for great years reading the Chum. Go fishing! It will cure all.
All the very best, I wasn’t here every day but a hell of a lot of them.
Tight lines
This is a sad day. I’ve enjoyed Chum regularly over many years now. Thanks for all of your hard work and I wish you all the best .
Thank you for all the content though all the years, I for one will miss it all. From the videos to the articles, the commercial to the educational to the political to the satirical to the Sunday tunes.
The breadth of content was refreshing, ever-varied and entertaining. Many of the videos were awe inspiring and opened insight to places far and wide that I can only hope one day to visit. You provided a needed voice for some serious issues, I can only hope you realize how important this has been.
Thank you for all you have provided, i doubt this can ever be repeated. Selfishly I wonder where I can find a fraction.
Take care, enjoy your family and all that the futures holds.
I enjoyed my years of browsing this site. The combination of videos, news articles, and other fishing related goodness was a must read every day. The bookmark has followed me through many jobs over the years.
Thank you for all your hard work and Moldy Chum will be missed.
All good things must come to an end. THANK YOU for years of good reading! Please keep the Instagram content going!
I looked forward to seeing what you had come up with each morning almost as much as my morning coffee. I know it was difficult to find appropriate content to post every day, but you were very good at it. Good luck and thanks.