Has the day of the 'true angling consultant' gone?

Question

Has the day of the ‘true angling consultant’ gone only to have been replaced by advertising anglers who are paid to promote bait and gear and yet have no input into products at all?

Ian Chillcott (Founder of E.C.H.O)

“Talk about putting someone on the spot! Lets all be honest here, magazines, in the main, are run by those who pay the most for the advertising they take out in the different publications. And if there is an editor or owner who would argue otherwise I would be very surprised. To that end, as part of the advertising stream a company takes on, they will insist that so and so does this one month and so and so does that the following month and so on. The companies can put anyone they like in there, talented or not, bait up a swim on a private water for a month, provide him with all the gear and the products are actually sold by someone who has as much talent as my poor old grandmother and she has been dead for 30 years! Talent is the last thing that most magazine contributors need in the modern era of carp fishing, many don’t even write their own articles. For the love of God, they are even giving consultancies away as prizes, and that one act has devalued the consultant position almost irretrievably.

“I am a consultant; I provide feedback and ideas to Fox, along with a whole host of promotional projects. However, I got to that position through years of hard graft, effort and sacrifice. In a world that is dominated by ‘instant everything’, I suppose the genuine consultant will inevitably fade away.”

Jerry Bridger (Trakker Products)

“For me, an accurate definition of a consultant is: “a person who provides expert advice”, so I think it’s fair to say that the word ‘consultant’ could have possibly misused to a degree within the angling industry. My direct answer has to be a resounding NO, albeit I can’t and won’t comment for how any other companies operate, purely focusing on my view as Marketing Manager for Trakker Products.

“At Trakker we have a balanced team of anglers who each bring different skills to the table. Some of the Trakker team have a massive wealth of information and a mind-set that makes them perfect candidates as legitimate angling consultants and this is why they are on the team – to consult. These members of the team actively propose new product ideas and ways around issues that they find while they’re angling.

“Other anglers form our ‘new product testing team’, and some of these guys are people that you’d never even know had any association with Trakker. We also offer some people sponsorship because they are amongst the best in the game and we are proud of the association that these anglers bring to the Trakker brand.

“Not everyone has the capability to be a consultant and just because someone is extremely adept at catching carp, it doesn’t mean that they can come up with new product ideas, solutions to problems, or ‘consult’ for want of a better word.”