Y'all, I came to the forum a little over a year ago after I broke ties with Facebook. Too much vitriol and hate on there and I'm sad to say Youtube has become much the same. for me it has come to the point that the bad over shadows the good. So, I am breaking ties with Youtube as well. I have set up a Rumble account and I am on the wait list for Truth Social.

I am happy to say this forum has remained apolitical thank goodness. I really don't care if you're blue or red if you chase cats we are going to have a common bond. So if I post a video in the future, in will be on Rumble, not Youtube...

I tried Rumble but couldn’t figure it out. I definitely agree with you on some of the folks on YouTube. I had more thumbs downs and negative comments on the bullying video I posted of my son defending himself against an older boy in his school. In the video I asked my 5 yr old why he came home with a black eye and he explained to me that an 8 yr old boy continued to throw a ball at my sons head and when he told the teacher what was happening she didn’t intervene. I then asked what happened next and he said the boy did it again and Jaxon’s words were “then I did what you taught me to do dad, I popped him in the nose and took him down and whooped him good!” My lord were people giving me hell for teaching my son to defend himself against a bully!! I removed the video after all the Karen’s lit me up!

I gotta say that the live stream community is nothing but friendly and nice people from my experience. I’ve seen only 2 people that were not friendly over the last year. I’ve made more friends in the last 4 months than I have made in a lifetime. I’ve had at least 30 guys invite me to come fish with them from all over the country. I’ve been in this Texas fishing community for 20 yrs and I bet I can count on both hands how many times I’ve been invited to come fish with someone. I have noticed more and more guys are switching on subscriber only mode on YouTube to eliminate the trolls. It’s hard not to let a troll bother you but for every 1 troll I’ve made 100 friends. Without YouTube I would have never become friends with Bill @ Killer Bee Outdoors, Tim Scott at Epic Catfish, Steve Douglas the Catfish Dude, Jeremy @ Creole Catfishing, Roger @Muskratt Adventures, Jeremy @ Jeremy’s Tournament Cats, Chunky @ Chunky Cats, Kevin @ Palmetto Cats, John Parker @Reeltime Catfishing, Pontoon Jodi, Big Mike, Haz @Haz Life, Lyn with Catfish Fever Outdoors, Bob @ Bobcat Outdoors, Art & Josh @ One Ton Fishing Club, Darrell @ Trophy Seekers Outdoors, Lee Evans Kentucky Outdoors, Chad Fields @ Fields to Water, Lyle Stokes with Catfish Weekly, Mark @ Catfish and Crappie. I could go on all morning with the guys that have accepted me into a much tighter Catfish Community than what we have here. It’s is all these high level YouTube anglers that have been so nice to me and accepted me as their friends that has inspired me to try and bring our Texas Catfish Community closer together like theirs. I wanted to go to Catcon this year but it certainly wasn’t to see all the catfish gear. I wanted to go see all my YouTube friends and shake hands but couldn’t make it happen this year. For me the YouTube Catfish Family is a blessing and I am proud to have those guys as my friends and I think it speaks volumes that they would accept me into their family and share me out and congratulate me on every good fishing trip just as I congratulate them. I see zero jealousy towards others in the YouTube Livestream Community like I see in most fishing communities and the only guys I see bad mouthing are the outsiders like Catfish Dave or The meth head @ Catfishing killed Trophy Catfish. It doesn’t surprise me that those 2 guys get along with each other and can’t get along with anyone else. They both talk bad about Kevin @ Palmetto Cats and Chunky @ Chunky Cats and those are 2 of the most friendly and nice guys I have ever met anywhere. I’m surprised you had a bad experience in the YouTube Catfishing community as that is the exact opposite of what I found. These folks are my family now. I have not received a single thumbs down from Live Stream community and get nothing but good vibes from everyone I’ve talked to except 1 guy who was mad because I use a aHumminbird to find my fish. Banned him from my channel and problem solved.

I know it is going well for you Chris and to be clear it has nothing to do with the catfish community. I agree with everything you said. The problem is all the other [censored] on there that Youtube insists on poisoning my feed with. Some of it is just madness and some borders on pornography. As I said it has come to the point where the bad over shadows the good. The catfish community is the good sadly about the only good...

Tim I hate to hear this, but I have heard others says similar things about YouTube also.

Chris who is the meth head you are talking about? I cant find "catfishing killed trophy catfisjh"

Txted you a link Matt

I’ve heard this as well Tim but the only thing that is on my feed is Catfishing and fishing related. I’ve never watched anything on YouTube besides Catfishing videos so everything that comes across my feed is catfish related. My feed is blown up with all my friends channels and their community pages that they share out everyone’s videos on. I’ve heard about some of these things your talking about but just haven’t experienced any of that in the 2 yrs I’ve been on YouTube. I just checked my feed and it was 100% Catfishing for as much as I could scroll that’s all there was.

Now I got to find out if my TV has a Rumble app.

I just watch fishing vids on Youtube. I pretty much only interact face to face with people anymore. I have a facebook acct, but I'm always banned.

I'm totally with you regarding Facebook Tim, and the primary reason I still have mine is to stay connected with my family and friends across the pond. Youtube is a double edged sword. On the one hand I love the Cat'n videos, both educational and entertaining like Chris', but their censorship and [censored] they 'push' at me like you drives me nuts. I am not a fan of Google and big tech. Period.

I will look forward to seeing your Smith Family Videos on Rumble, Tim. I can't wait to see the one of Catfish Tim landing a 70 pound Blue on Lavon in his new boat, ably assisted by that old guy who talks funny!

Live streaming is where it's at. There are a channels on Twitch where people live stream their fishing trips. People subscribe and pay 4.99 a month. You can still watch it for free and look at their past videos. They can also "gift" you for your content/live streams. It has a chat feature where you can interact with viewers while you stream. I dont understand why people pay to subscribe but they do.

These people probably make around 1000 a month on twitch
twitch

YouTube has the same features Sapalmer. You can become a member of a channel after they reach 1000 subscribers. Why do people join you ask? To help support their friends who are trying to put out good content. There are also super chats where you can donate money while watching a live stream. Let’s say your watching your buddy fish and he breaks off 2 rigs. You will see someone donate $10 on the super chat and say “hey, here is $10 for those 2 lost rigs”. And I think that’s cool! Fishing isn’t cheap and trying to produce good content on a regular basis is very expensive and time consuming. Trust me on that. Memberships are to help support these guys who have several 1000 subscribers and are trying to fish and buy expensive video equipment to provide people with entertaining content. You become close friends with the guys you fish with and the same is very true for the guys you go into livestreams to watch. I’ve made great friendships with numerous folks as we share our victories and defeats live. Fishing bonds you and so do live streams. This is the reason I’ve been going live and will continue to do so. I have not spent any time trying to get on any of the other platforms because all the guys I know are on YouTube.

I quit it years ago after a good friend at work got fired for posts he had done years before, it was a hit job! He was a long time worker, It hurt him and his family So much took years for them to recover. I deleted my whole history and quit. It took a bunch of time, it kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to quit over and over, then even later it was asking me if I wanted to come back more than once. I hated seeing every person I knew taking pictures of their walks, meals, kids recitals, their interestingly shaped potatoes. The only thing I miss is F@!$ebouk M@rketp!@$e, I can see it without an account but it is more of a pain to do it that way.. Good luck and good riddance it is a cancer on society stalking everything we do where we are and posting all kinds of ads directed at our history, and don't forget selling our info to the highest bidder (China). [censored] I'm probably going to tracked now. I changed the spelling in hopes I can avoid that scourge.

I don’t have to worry about getting fired because I’m self employed. I also don’t use it to talk politics or religion as that tends to upset folks. My only reason for Facebook is to stay connected with other Catfish Anglers. I have 350 friends on FB and 300 of them are catfish anglers and fishing guides. The reason I started Facebook 5 months ago was to reconnect with my high level fishing buddies that used to be on the TFF and I missed seeing their trip reports and learning from them. They told me that if you want to still get the high level info you gotta be on Facebook so eventually I broke down and joined.

At first I tried following some of the larger catfish FB groups but quickly realized those aren’t like minded folks and jealousy runs deep in those groups. I enjoy being a member of the FB groups that my likeminded catfishing friends run from all different parts of the country. I also missed seeing the big fish pics on TFF of guys who do it consistently and I look up to. I’ve asked quite a few of them why they gave up on the TFF and most said they got tired of keyboard fisherman that never post a big fish pic contradicting them every time they gave incite on a subject about catching big fish. Without giving names these are some of the best catfish anglers in Texas and it’s a shame they are no longer in this community.

I can certainly understand that at times as I have tried to share my experience and my journey and I am often contradicted by someone who never posts a trip report or has any real substance to contribute. I’ve almost given up on the TFF several times but it is the brotherhood and friendships that I’ve built that kept me here. My buddy Catfish Tim told me last year when I was ready to give up on TFF that you gotta filter out the bad and it’s the friendships you build and people you help that make it worth it. I told him I would try to build this community and help improve it and that’s what I’ve tried to do.

I wish there were more of my old fishing buddies still on TFF sharing but for me to get info from those high level anglers on a daily basis I gotta go to where they are which is Facebook. I certainly don’t use it to stay connected with family or friends as that’s what a phone is for. I use it to be a better angler and it has certainly helped me to continue to learn and get better.

I used to have a channel, with all of my racing videos. I changed service providers and email addresses about the same time that google acquired Youtube. I was unable to get anyone to reconnect me with my racing acct, because Google literally has NO customer service. So now I can't even post any newer racing videos, on my own channel.