Have you ever reached a point when sat at your PC, and you have been "surfing" the Net - you know the Information Highway! and you suddenly run out of things to look for - you have typed in all sorts of buzz words and been surprised at some of the things that come back - not all good either I must add. Well I used to do this a lot in those days, and I think we all did  - I had the internet on a dial-up modem and initially it was everything you could wish for, but slowly as time moved on you find yourself going back over the same old pages - and the novelty starts to recede a little.

So back to your favourite game, or application - All good stuff but only down to the novelty affect of having this machine that does things for you, and looking at what the world has to say on the internet !   Hazy days and life was good, but alas not quite what I wanted really - So I decided one evening to have a look round the Angling sites of that time - being an angler and needing to learn all the time, the internet served me well. Plenty of info there and new sites popping up everywhere, and some carrying good information on my life time obsession.

Funny what you see when typing key words in like "fish" - usually thousands of recipes and how to prepare your meal blah blah or "Fishing" - loads of info of how to use trawl nets or go scuba diving in some god forsaken place miles from anywhere.

The list goes on - Fishing - Angling - Ireland - now we are talking!!    Yes angling in Ireland and I found a good site where I got friendly with the Web Site host who sent me allsorts of info and my Irish Angling holidays were a success at last - I would make the journey with all the latest info and reap the rewards of good solid homework - at last the Net was paying me back!

When I look back now and compare to today's systems and offerings, what a change we have seen - Internet shopping - Holidays and allsorts of good things - We have progressed very quickly. Anyway back to the subject - So there I was with my angling now flourishing care of the internet, but still something missing - PC games and software were getting bigger and better and the need to upgrade my machine was unavoidable. I got hold of a DOS game called "Gone Fishing" based on Bass fishing in the USA and my life was very rosy at that time - Angling at weekends and evenings and catching Bass on the PC, but it lacked that kind of appeal we UK anglers are used to - watching a float !  I would add at this time my other passion was Flight simulators, and once I had a few Bass and Walleye netted I would then climb into the cockpit of my Tornado bomber and go and kick ass a ram a few JP233 on the enemy runways - of all my PC days the Tornado simulator was my favourite - it also is my career and second passion as well, so I was in heaven. I must say at this point I am not a violent person but, hey we all have shoot'em ups somewhere on a shelf - Don't we ??

PC's got bigger and better and further upgrades took place - also my Son was now into building machines so I had very good back-up as well (he remembered everything I taught him) as time moved on we came forward with all the latest gizmo's - DOS vanished though and with it my Tornado simulator, so I was grounded at an early stage in my flying career! - I got to Wing

Commander  before enforced retirement - a brilliant programme, only surpassed by this subject here.

So back to surfing the Net and yes - LARA - I loved this girl, she was my hero - she couldn't fly a Tornado though, and I could!   I was held in total hypnosis by Tomb Raider - I watched every move she made - I even loved the little groan she gave as she fell on the spikes or fell 100ft feet off those cliffs, which was on a regular basis with my limited skills. At this time I was still browsing round the internet, but this time my choice of words were wiser- simulator - Fishing - Angling. I soon realised that there were people out there that could make a fish swim past your screen and this was a Fish simulator - ok it worked for me, but  the science of it all was beyond my grasp.    Fishing Simulator - all those nice simulated fish were their, but then I spotted this line that read Fishing Simulator by JC Spooner - "fishing on your PC" or words to that effect. What was this ? - not noticed this before - lets have a look!

Andy T finds Fishsim 1

Or did Fishsim 1 find Andy T? - Whatever it was I needed to investigate, as it mentioned a float !

Can't be true I thought - it's impossible to see a float bob along and a fish pull it under - I am by nature very sceptical, by the way.

The Website was simply Fishsim.Net - In I ventured and there it was - The first thing I came upon was " Download the Shareware Version"  - Hang on a minute, is this a wind up ? I looked further - Steve Fielding's forum - clicked on the icon and there was a load of messages about fishy things, but I didn't quite understand some on the jargon like LOL - What does that mean? - I called son in who at this time was street wise on the internet, and he put me right to the meaning and also explained that I was on a forum where you can interact with other people from anywhere in the world - I was a little bit overawed with this and maybe a bit green.

Back to this Shareware bit though - I clicked on the Download icon and things started to happen, was my virus scanner on and will it detect any dodgy files etc ? - I had never, to this point, done this before and was quite wary of it all.

So I had a download off the internet and next thing was to find where the hell it had gone on my hard drive - I eventually found it and read some instructions in a text file and started to install the programme. This placed an EXE icon in a folder, so I double clicked on it, and there was a screen that appeared, which, when I looked had a button that said "Go Fishing" - I pressed this button and found myself looking at a picture of what seemed to be a pond, and at the bottom of the screen what looked like a rod. Now remember I had done the Bass fishing earlier so I soon worked out the casting bit, and low and behold there was this almighty big float sat there in the water - it actually floated - there were background noises as well and the casting bit was good.

After sitting for while I realised that to catch a fish maybe, I would need to know how to work the rest of the programme, so I spent some time reading the text document and learned very quickly how to put baits on and generally work through all the screens etc. Alas I didn't catch anything, and no matter what I did I still did not see a fish. Time moved on and more goes at this little programme I realised the Tommy Tench and Percy Perch were ringers, as no matter what I did, they caught loads of fish - and I caught nothing.

I have to admit that for a short while I put the programme down, good effects but no good without any fish I thought, so away back to surfing the Net again, and playing other games.

All the time I had Fishing Simulator haunting me - I needed more info and definitely needed to try it again. I went to Fishsim.net again and started to read the Forum messages - page after page, I read everything I could - talk of record fish, and match results now ready, and this and that venue now available - I noticed that people were asking a lot of questions and this Jase fellow was replying very politely to most of them. I noted names like Jase - Glenn - Stephen Warnes - Roger to name a few - one name stuck in my mind for some reason - Debussy.    Debuusy was one of the anglers at that time, that seemed to hold a lot of records and was involved in matches.

Further visits now and more regularly, and I decided to order the full version - at the price asked it seemed like a good idea and nothing gained, nothing lost for me, and maybe I would catch something. I sent my order off by land mail and within a week I had a full version of Fishsim 1 running on my PC. Back to the web site and started to download venue addons and tackle and all the things that made this programme so irresistible. Next I started to catch fish - my first fish was a roach and the sound of that audible warning for a bite was music in my ears. Each time I started FS1 up I checked my record page to see that it was still there! -  I remember Packmoore fondly - big Bream and Tench, this was heaven and a great place to be.

My next move was to have a go at the matches - 36 matches on Jase's site and I would eagerly wait for any updates. I then realised other web sites existed - Pash's site - Davey's site and others at that time. I was absolutely hooked - I could not stop using it. I had also posted my first messages on the forum and received very warm responses. No doubt about it I was a simmer!

All those matches were offline and the venues were challenging with no easy method, and all the frustration and joy and satisfaction were there - just like real fishing.

It was around this time that there was talk of Fishsim 2 and Jase would post messages on his progress - and also a couple of anglers appeared on the scene called Roy and Netty.  Again I have to say that I did not believe at that time Fishsim 1 could be beaten, and talk of another simulator did not mean a thing to me - remember I am sceptical and at times I don't listen to anything I should do, so Fishsim 2 was just web talk as far as I was concerned.

Time moves on so fast when your life is full of enjoyment and pure fun - I began to win matches and Debussy was in my sites - This guy for me set the standard - he took no prisoners - his match skills were honed to perfection, and a very friendly person as well. You can see now that I am a frustrated match angler in real life, but I could cope with this, and made some good friends on the Net through Fishsim.  Roy and Netty opened their website up and straight away more matches were there to fish - it just got better and better. Also some of us became closer through regular e-mails and strong friendships were struck. This now was the best time I remember and around the year early 2001.  Fishsim 2 was still being discussed and eventually Jase was ready to release what was a BETA version at that time. During this period a certain person came to Fishsim and made an immediate impact with everyone - George Lockhart and along with other big names at that time like Tony A -  Roy & Netty - Pash and Bill - Glenn - Davey and a host of others, things were moving from strength to strength. George made some great venues for FS1 and was soon involved with all that was going on. Another name appeared to me at this time - Eddie - Eddie has been part of this long journey and along with everyone else we were in for some roller coaster rides into the world of Fishsim 2

Intro of Fishsim 2

FS1 was still going strong and Jase was busy working on FS2, with eventually a release of what became the Beta version of FS2. It was time for me to switch on and start to take note of what was happening here - early reports were always started with - "wow" - I had to know more.

I downloaded the Beta and immediately saw the differences - better images, slick tackle screens and everything else that made the difference. Jase was making another classic and there was no doubt about that. I think  the first version I saw did not contain any fish but just showed the programme off with all the latest additions and enhancements.

Slowly and over time FS2 Beta evolved with fish included and all that was to be Fishing Simulator 2. Even with Beta, people were allowed to create venues etc as part of the proving stages - the potential for a great piece software was there to be seen, and the addiction was clearly set in stone, for all of us!

I remember Jase asking for people to view some graphs and charts which formed the weather pattern and water temperatures in FS2. I viewed these and Jase was concerned at the Autumn predictions for climate etc. Any angler will know that Autumn can be a quiet period in angling and I mailed Jase with my thoughts of which Jase politely responded with a warm message, and I felt I had contributed in a very small way. The subject at that time was Thermo-clines or layers of water with sudden temperature changes - any divers out there will know exactly what these are. It was a brief little thing but I felt good that I could comment on something, but at the same time realised to what lengths, Jase was going in detail - incredible!

Testing, testing, testing, - everyone was trying this that and the other - offline matches was a thing I remember and was a carry-on from FS1, but the big breakthrough was to come, when the online part was to be tested.

It was never meant to be used over the internet, but only across local LAN connections, as I understand it, and to this this day that is still the case. However Jase created a server that could be used over the internet, but to what degree was never certain. The first test of this was between Jase and Roy and it was a major success, and Roy's online Barbel was the first fish to be caught - and remembered. After this more people were involved in trying the online server and again it was just awsome ! - To fish and chat to each other added another dimension to what was already a fantastic programme.

Fishsim 2 is released

September 2001 saw the release of Fishsim 2 and you would think at this time that all the work was finished - but no - since that date to this, further upgrades and improvements have been made, to what we have now - all this is history as they say, and we all enjoy this programme as much now as we did in FS1 days, if not more!

There have been times throughout, when things have not been what they should, but nothing ever runs perfectly smooth all the time - and this was no reflection on Fishsim however.

We are the proud owners of a fishing simulator where records - matches and being interactive play a major part for us.

I can't leave this section without a special mention of Paul C - Paul of Nuneaton was his original web name if I remember correctly, way back in FS1 days.  Paul has run a server almost every day since Fishsim 2 was released - and only letting it slip due to illness or other important needs.

He has been responsible for introducing more poeple to the world of Fishsim than any other - by helpful advice and encouragement on his servers. so if you are new to Fishsim and need some friendly advice, just pop along to Paul's server and let the experience start for you, it's a must!

The Community

If you have read any of the above you will see that a number of people have been involved in Fishsim and it's development, but none more so than Jase & Teres, who have given us an excellent piece of software, but also in line with this a strong and thriving community has evolved. The community has been there since early days and has grown and grown.

People from all walks of life and around the world have taken Fishsim to there hearts and log-on daily for all the latest chat or gossip and news.

I mentioned above that nothing runs smooth all the time and this has been very predominant within the community that has grown, but given the scale of things and the world wide usage, it goes without saying that many friendships have been struck, and the good times far out-weigh the bad times, which are very few I am happy to say.

Over the past two years I have had the pleasure of meeting many people who use Fishsim, and I can say with confidence that I have met only good people, and we all share things in common - Fishsim - Angling - and a very good sense of humour!

All I will say now is I hope you have enjoyed my little story and exchanges, and briefly ( yes briefly) summarises my time with Fishsim and all that it stands for. I think it has changed many of our lives - people will come and go but the community spirit will stay for ever - the best on the Net!

The Present and Future

The future for Fishsim will be as good as the past, there is no doubt about it. At present there are thousands of users world wide, and the number grows daily. FS1 is still used for matches also - Pash runs an offline league to date, and there are now a multitude of web sites, leagues, and various activities across the internet involved with FS2.

A lot of the people from FS1 are still here as well with Roy and Netty now playing a major role in things - The Kingfisher site has grown to a massive size and plans are afoot for expansion on this with a sister site.

Jase plays an active role still, and is aided by Roy with many new developments occurring. Pro-fishing has been born and this upholds all the finer points in Fishsim, and is a credit to all involved in it's birth.

So what of the future? - Who knows what is around the corner, but the roller coaster has not pulled in yet. Can it get any better? - I think it will go from strength to strength and never stop.

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