We had the chance to talk to Sylvain Legendre, an emblematic figure in our French fishing landscape, on the occasion of the launch of his new online fishing store: Fish & Ship.
It's not easy to sum up almost 40 years of fishing… We will say that I am 41 years old and 2 children, and a passion for fishing that has never left me, to the point of making it my job. First as a sales representative then as product manager and brand manager for the group Pure Fishing, then as brand manager for Fox.
Honestly, no idea! An attraction to water and fish has always been, however small the puddle and its inhabitants may be.
It's my life ! In reality it is not only a question of fishing, I even fish very little. I also take pleasure in taking up professional challenges in the fishing industry. This is what prompted me to explore all aspects of this field, or almost.
I had this project in mind for a long time, and it collided with a desire for change and independence. So I launched this Online Store which is unlike any other. This is really the essence of the project.
At a time when online sales sites are flourishing, I wanted to stand out and bring added value. Any teenager can create a sales site in their bedroom and, from the smallest site that imports a few chinoiseries to the biggest player in the field. It is ultimately only a more or less well sold online catalog. My personal approach is really the online store rather than the sales site. That is to say that as a physical store, I have the products in stock, which I sell as soon as possible individually, and as a retailer (not all), I provide advice via the central module of the site which functions as a blog.
On the one hand it generates traffic on the site, and on the other hand I have the feeling of creating the link between the products “stupidly” put online, and the waterfront. Advice, analysis, knowledge are lost today and fishermen are often left in the wild or what is left of it without the necessary weapons to have fun.
To join the explanation given above, I think that the link between the store and the waterfront has completely deteriorated. Information is both much more accessible now on the internet but also completely depersonalized. A poorly translated text from the American explaining how to catch bass may not help you take more poles down your house.
My guiding principle has always been to do what I can to promote fishing in general and to make people have a blast by the water. I think this project is in line with my personal convictions. It's a subtle balance to try to be both true to your values while making a living. I ran after that, I left employers for the same reason, I hope Fish & Ship will allow me to be okay with it all.
It's actually open to anyone who wants to collaborate, regardless of the labels, as soon as it really brings something to it. I started to fill out the section with friends who have things to say (but obviously not the time to do so, judging by the number of articles!). No seriously, the speakers will be varied and the subjects too!
The selection is based on my personal sensitivity, which I consider to be good products. Again, you have to find the balance between what people want and what I think is good.
I'm going to make some mistakes, sure. But overall I think we find on Fish & Ship everything you need to fish in good conditions. After all these are today (after less than a month of existence) almost 4000 references available at 92%. So there is plenty to do!
That will be impossible. The idea is to focus regularly on an article, as I started to do with the Dolive shad or the Replicant. I want to give the keys in detail, so I won't do the showdown. I try to stick to one item every 1-2 weeks, which I usually couple with a little commercial action, to allow anglers to try the product.
The problem is, I have 100 ideas a day. I have to sort it out. For the moment, I am looking at how I can talk in detail about rods because on the internet it is a real problem. It is hard to get a clear idea of the actions. At the same time, I am planning a Youtube channel to provide “living” content.
For the moment, I am very satisfied and above all extremely grateful to the dozens of customers who placed their trust in me. I've had 100% positive feedback and it is very rewarding. The priority is to ship as soon as possible and I do my best for that.
Imagine that it wakes me up with a start in the middle of the night. Suddenly, I sometimes jump in my car at 4 am to come and prepare the packages. It may not last but for the moment it haunts me. I've never done things halfway at the pro level and I don't see it any differently with Fish & Ship.
Fish & Ship is above all an online store. I have offices and a warehouse, and I offer the possibility of picking up orders on site to avoid shipping costs. Strictly speaking, you can't come and shop there. Everything is organized like a warehouse so the products are not on pins.
It's a trick question ...
On the one hand, we have a brilliant hydrographic network. You can fish everything in France and we have huge fish. On the other hand, we have an associative management with its faults, conservative, orchestrated by a federation which is not less so. In my opinion, the situation is the same as in a large company. Politics often takes precedence over initiatives and changes.
I do not see any major positive substantive development, but I note some brilliant local initiatives in federations, led by more visionary, less political people, and that is really cool. So I don't expect miracles but I'm not overly pessimistic either.
What worries me more, however, are environmental issues. I am deeply affected by the profound changes so accelerated that they are noticeable on our scale. I am disgusted by the way our society operates, and worried about my children.
Sure ! Especially when I travel. In exo systematically already, and it also happened to me in fresh water. In the US, Spain and Asia. It has been a great help each time.
Difficult to choose! I find it extremely restrictive to catch the same fish all year round. It's missing out on so much. I much prefer to fish for what bites rather than struggling to catch the only fish I decided to catch.
However, I think that if I had to keep only one it would be the trout. This fish fascinates me, the shape, the colors, the behavior, everything pleases me. It is a species that adapts to everything. It is on every continent, from the smallest stream to the largest river, and even at sea. It is able to endure extreme conditions. I am worried about this species in many places back home. Seeing rivers massacred by pollution or even rivers that have dried up because man has been working to disrupt everything for 50 years drives me crazy.
They all are! Strangely, this is not the catch of a big fish. I remember much more often my teenage fishing with my friend Gaël than the catch of such and such a fish, even if it has unusual measurements.
Our escapades in streams, to fish for trout with the grasshopper, until the expeditions of night with the eel. I don't think I have any bad memories on the matter. We knew less than today, we took advantage and we learned everything. I believe that the more consciousness grows, the more we are unhappy when we love nature.
I still amass “the best memories”, don't believe the opposite, and most of the time these are moments shared on the water with friends. And I intend to accumulate lots more!
I could write a book on the subject, but to sum it up in a few lines I think I won't get there. No other activity to my knowledge brings so many emotions. Fishing is an excessively stimulating activity, contrary to what you might think as long as you keep the usual cliché of the guy on his folding bed waiting for the touch.
Nothing to do with luck, nor with patience for that matter. It calls for memory, reflection, skill, concentration, knowledge of the environment and fish, observation. And at the same time, it conveys the values of sharing and respect which are very nice. Fishing has that elusive part that makes it so charming. Because if hitting a ball with a certain angle and a certain force always produces the same result, it is different in fishing. It is not enough to throw a decoy precisely to trigger an attack. We interact with the living, we propose, the fish dispose!
The sum of experience and knowledge, the investment in short, will help us to offer better, even if this is never a sufficient condition for success. To look cultivated, I will quote Kant "An incorrect proposition is necessarily false, but a correct proposition is not necessarily true"…
This is precisely what is fascinating, doing everything possible to offer correctly, to finally be rewarded, without knowing in advance the size of the reward, while taking advantage of the little authenticity that remains in nature, the wild behavior of our prey.
I encourage everyone to discover fishing, especially by company of a guide. This is where the link is made with Rodmaps, because whatever you search deep inside, chances are you'll find it in one peach or the other.
Learn more about Fish & Ship:
En guidage, je vous ferai découvrir et partager la pêche des carnassiers dans le Gard et dans l'Hérault,…
Vous êtes pêcheur à la mouche depuis quelques années mais éprouvez quelques soucis "techniques", cette…
La pêche à la mouche est à la fois une activité de pleine nature, un loisir et un sport.Cette technique…
Ce séjour est un stage d'initiation à la pêche sportive de la truite sauvage à…
Toute l'année, je propose des stages de pêche sportive des carnassiers en bateau notamment sur un des…
À 40 min de Clermont-Ferrand, au coeur des Combrailles, le Domaine du Balbuzard vous propose…
View Comments