Knee Deep: Did it finally happen?
Spanning my Western Outdoor News tenure, we’ve playfully kept tabs on the fact that whenever a reader sends a photo and says it should be on the cover, it never gets on the cover.
Now I know what you’re thinking. We just make sure that remains the case and blackball any photo that comes with that suggestion. That’s not the case at all. We would never deny the best possible cover image just because the sender said “oh this would be a perfect cover shot.” If we did, it would not be nearly as fun as monitoring just how long it’s organically never happened without our meddling.
Well, it may have recently happened. At the very least, it’s up to interpretation.
The November 7 issue of WON featured Lars Walton with a big Long Beach Harbor lobster on the cover. While it doesn’t always happen, we try to do at least one lobster cover per year, and that comes with challenges. For one, a lot of the photos are taken at night (we fight the same battle with white seabass imagery), and lighting for a photo that’s going to be published that size (digitally and print-ally) is key.
This one checked all the bug-pic boxes: big bug, big smile and a cool background (which is also a rarity when it comes to lobster “art”). We’ve got a city-lights-peppered horizon, and a bonus propwash as the boat charges back to the barn after a successful outing. I remember saying to all WON staffers with a vote when it comes to the cover, “if we are going to do a lobster cover this year, this is the one.”
When Walton sent the photo, it included the following message:
“Tried to leave plenty of dark sky in the pic so you use it for the cover 😉 Ha!”
He definitely mentioned the cover and his efforts to make it a contender, and he even threw in the keyboard-winky-smiley-face thing and a “ha” for good measure.
As far as I’m concerned, he was definitely trying to plant that seed, he just did so in a more tactical, stealthy, ninja-like fashion than our usual “THIS SHOULD BE THE COVER!” based on nothing more than you being proud of the fish you caught.
A month prior, John Petroski of C3 Baits finally landed on the cover with a big Castaic Lake bass. I say “finally” because he has been sending me photos and throwing the “cover” thing out there since I started, which was 10-plus years ago. He was one of the first sources I cultivated for local, expert intel on a given body of water, and I finally had to tell him about the long-running streak. I told him we don’t do it on purpose, but if you are superstitious, you might want to just keep sending pics without the “cover” mentions and “it will happen eventually.”
When it did, it was a matter of the planets aligning while still being well deserved. It was a great fish with a cool story that went with it. The photo was solid and not his typical distorted GoPro shot, and we were due for a freshwater if not bass cover. Petroski sent that image with barely (he may have mentioned it without really mentioning it) a peep about the cover.
Also, dumb luck does come into play. In the last issue of WON, we had four legit cover contenders to choose from. Freshwater, saltwater and hunting all in the mix. On the other end of the spectrum, there have been print days where it’s noon and we’ve got nada enchilada. Then out of nowhere a decent photo with the right specs and resolution gets casually sent right in the middle of panic mode, and it goes straight to the cover. Boom.
So, keep sending photos, with or without cover mentions as on one hand the suggestion can’t hurt you, but on the other, there’s been only one in at least a decade. I had an article on tips on taking possible cover photos, but it went adios when WON got a new website, so maybe I’m due for a fresh one.
