# Who Started PFF?



## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Who originally started this forum? And are they still around?

I'd like to talk to them or someone about what it takes to start a forum page for a hobby. It is totally outside the geographical range of PFF and outside the scope of what PFF covers. Not competitive at all.

There is already a local Facebook page for the group, but I know many people in the hobby that do not use FB. So, I am thinking of starting a web page with a forum. I know there will be work and costs involved. I'm needing some direction and a rough idea of costs. Anyone?


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## 192 (Oct 1, 2007)

Chris Couture if I am not mistaken.


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

I have a forum and use blue host. It is actually very easy to do these days


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

John Soule started it first then Chriss Coture made it great. Then, what you see is what you get. To answer your question. A lot of Money and time. Better not say anymore


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

Fish the bridge was a great time.....seems like a loooooooong time ago lol


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## John B. (Oct 2, 2007)

Crazy to think I've been posting on this forum more than 1/2 my life... 

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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

John B. said:


> Crazy to think I've been posting on this forum more than 1/2 my life...


That means you still 18? Year Old, really?
Golly Gee Wezzz


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## BrakeTurnAccelerate (Jul 1, 2012)

VBulletin (what PFF uses) is around $200 for a license. You can use PHPBB if you want something free. 



You'll obviously need a domain/hosting/etc. Domains are usually about $10/ea, and hosting will really depend on how much traffic you get, but a smaller forum, you can probably get by with a shared server, which would be like $15-25/mo. Once you get bigger, you can upgrade to a dedicated server @ $100-150+/mo.


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Cool. Thanks for the info.

Looking through who all replied, I see that almost everyone (including myself) joined in 2007. I was under the impression that PFF was aslready well established and pretty much on PFF2.0 by the time I joined. Just out of curiosity, how old is PFF?


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## John B. (Oct 2, 2007)

2007 was when the PFF switched sites again(To this current platform) the PFF had already been established for 4 or 5 years prior to the switch, every now and then a very old thread will get bumped up that has links to the old forum. 

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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

John B. said:


> 2007 was when the PFF switched sites again(To this current platform) the PFF had already been established for 4 or 5 years prior to the switch, every now and then a very old thread will get bumped up that has links to the old forum.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


The old forum is officially gone for good. Lost it when Chris sold out I believe.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

I'll guess 2003 or 04 john Sole started it. He was on here a year or two ago. I been with it since Sole had it. I think he started it when he ran the fishing pier on the east end of 3 mile bridge.


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

from ye olden times there


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Crap! What have I started?


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

A retrospective lol


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## capt'n slim (Feb 8, 2008)

john started the fish the bridge forum, it wasnt much, if i remember right john got mad when people would post about catching fish other places than the 3mb. Chris Couture invited a bunch of us to his new platform. We went and it was great, then chris sold it and now we have this. Its was super cool in its hayday. Everybody had fun we posted actual fishing reports, everybody hated will mills, clay had get togethers. those were the days. back then your post would go from post #1 to #100 in about 15 minutes.


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## camuchi (Oct 31, 2007)

I wonder who has the oldest ‘join date’ on their sig?
I jumped in back in 07. Always been a cool site
Was cooler when Chris ran it. He was kind enough to invite me out on s trip with him 
On his boat to learn. Is guess he isn’t on the board or around any more??


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## capt'n slim (Feb 8, 2008)

camuchi said:


> I wonder who has the oldest ‘join date’ on their sig?
> I jumped in back in 07. Always been a cool site
> Was cooler when Chris ran it. He was kind enough to invite me out on s trip with him
> On his boat to learn. Is guess he isn’t on the board or around any more??


after the reset in 07-08 we all lost our join date. a lot of people were pissed off because we all started from ground zero again. the good old days. i guess i been around since 02-03? not sure what # i was on the fish the bridge, but i know i was one of the original 55? on the pff


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## capt'n slim (Feb 8, 2008)

For what its worth i was maybe 19-20 years old, was installing cable in a guys house in GB that had just moved from Michigan? he was a spear fisher and looking to get to know the area. Dude seemed as green around the gills as possible and had a pretty good yankee accent. i told him about the PFF and all the people and how it was a great information site. i left his house not really thinking about it but he became a good member here for a long time. anyone wanna take a guess who that person is?


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

capt'n slim said:


> in a guys house in GB that had just moved from Michigan? he was a spear fisher and looking to get to know the area. Dude seemed as green around the gills as possible and had a pretty good yankee accent. i told him about the PFF and all the people and how it was a great information site. i left his house not really thinking about it but he became a good member here for a long time.


Duh!! Doh!


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

I ditto what Capt slim said. I was one of the first on chris's site 02 or 03 sounds about right.


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## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

FB and other social media sites like farmersonly.com give the PFF and other forums a run for their money.


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## H2OMARK (Oct 2, 2007)

capt'n slim said:


> john started the fish the bridge forum, it wasnt much, if i remember right john got mad when people would post about catching fish other places than the 3mb. Chris Couture invited a bunch of us to his new platform. We went and it was great, then chris sold it and now we have this. Its was super cool in its hayday. Everybody had fun we posted actual fishing reports, everybody hated will mills, clay had get togethers. those were the days. back then your post would go from post #1 to #100 in about 15 minutes.



This is about right. Slim left out the great parties Norm used to have though. I still have nightmares about them damn cherries. I know I was in the first 100 to join with names like Deeplines, RiseNShine, Monoman, ReelFeisty, Grome, (anyone still have that picture of Grome with the tobacco stuck in his teeth? ****?), Tunaman, Skylar


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## stevenattsu (Apr 24, 2009)

sealark said:


> I'll guess 2003 or 04 john Sole started it. He was on here a year or two ago. I been with it since Sole had it. I think he started it when he ran the fishing pier on the east end of 3 mile bridge.


Big John is still on here. He posted last week


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## ul412al (Oct 2, 2007)

I miss the hotsauce challenge(s).


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## DLo (Oct 2, 2007)

How many of you still have one of these?


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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

DLo said:


> How many of you still have one of these?


I have about 10 of them. Sleep in one just about every night.


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## Snagged Line (Sep 30, 2007)

It’s about time for a redfish Regata....
Bonita Dan needs another trophy in his trash talking trophy case…


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## stevenattsu (Apr 24, 2009)

I still have a Fish The Bridge shirt


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

DLo said:


> How many of you still have one of these?


I wonder if the shirt was brought back if people would buy them enough to make it worthwhile?


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## H2OMARK (Oct 2, 2007)

DLo said:


> How many of you still have one of these?



I have a couple of those in white although they're falling apart, one of nice khaki ones that came from Cabelas with the PFF Logo on it and a hat.


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## H2OMARK (Oct 2, 2007)

Snagged Line said:


> It’s about time for a redfish Regata....
> Bonita Dan needs another trophy in his trash talking trophy case…


Reckon we can get Matt to cook us breakfast again? Seems like I had a T shirt from one of the regattas also??


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## DLo (Oct 2, 2007)

I got mine from Murph at the meat market


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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

fishwalton said:


> I wonder if the shirt was brought back if people would buy them enough to make it worthwhile?


I tried to sell them on here a few years back and damn near couldn’t give them away. Everyone wants one till it’s time to pay for them.


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## MillerLight21 (Aug 9, 2010)

Splittine said:


> I tried to sell them on here a few years back and damn near couldn’t give them away. Everyone wants one till it’s time to pay for them.




Haha I’ll buy one. Then I’ll wear it to Joe patties so I can be harassed every week


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## corrinas2 (Sep 27, 2007)

Yep. Karon, fishing medic and myself were among the first 100. Sure miss the good ole days 



H2OMARK said:


> capt'n slim said:
> 
> 
> > john started the fish the bridge forum, it wasnt much, if i remember right john got mad when people would post about catching fish other places than the 3mb. Chris Couture invited a bunch of us to his new platform. We went and it was great, then chris sold it and now we have this. Its was super cool in its hayday. Everybody had fun we posted actual fishing reports, everybody hated will mills, clay had get togethers. those were the days. back then your post would go from post #1 to #100 in about 15 minutes.
> ...


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

H2OMARK said:


> Reckon we can get Matt to cook us breakfast again? Seems like I had a T shirt from one of the regattas also??


One of the last regattas.









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## MrFish (Aug 21, 2009)

Splittine said:


> I tried to sell them on here a few years back and damn near couldn’t give them away. Everyone wants one till it’s time to pay for them.


If they were Gulf Coast Fishing Connection, they'd been gone. You just picked the wrong horse.


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## Sequoiha (Sep 28, 2007)

I am one of the originals as well, made many of norms parties, and lots of get togethers,


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## Sequoiha (Sep 28, 2007)

MrFish said:


> If they were Gulf Coast Fishing Connection, they'd been gone. You just picked the wrong horse.


Yup, I think its gone for good, currently turned off, but not looking good.


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

I talked with owner a couple days ago he is discoureged about it. But he started it when pff was really going strong. Doubt he will ever start it up again.


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## pcolapaddler (Sep 27, 2007)

I remember the FTB forum and John Soule. He was pretty active on his forum. I don't recall his being upset over posts referencing other fishing spots, but do recall frustration when folks would mention purchases from certain big box retailers of gear. A lot of posts would just list *** rather than the name. I understand his frustration - the bridge and its store was his livelihood and his $$ provided the forum. Hard to control folks' posts to that level. 

My user name was different then - I think I lost it in one of the upgrades/changes. 

Everything changes over time. It is still a good place to post, read and learn stuff.

Sent from an unnamed device running an undisclosed OS via a third party application.


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## pcolapaddler (Sep 27, 2007)

Realtor said:


> FB and other social media sites like farmersonly.com give the PFF and other forums a run for their money.


They do. There are a lot of groups on FB that specialize in specific species or methods of fishing. I don't do FB much anymore. I don't care to be tracked on that level and have my every post or comment mined for ad words.

Another thing i am noticing about Twitter, FB and social media sites is that a lot of the posts and people don't seem to be too sociable. 

I know there are discussions on this and other forums that get a bit heated, but it is easy enough to move on and leave the discussion. Moderators also step in when/if things get too out of hand.


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

I am happy to have this forum, despite having heard it was 'better' in its hayday. I'm not on any social media of any kind other than this and a similar type of forum in North Carolina (NCAngler.com). These forums are all the social media I care to use. :thumbsup:


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## Snagged Line (Sep 30, 2007)

Splittine said:


> I tried to sell them on here a few years back and damn near couldn’t give them away. Everyone wants one till it’s time to pay for them.





Splittine said:


> I have about 10 of them. Sleep in one just about every night.





Who wants to buy a stretched out wrinkled up shirt you have been sleeping in??? 

That’s just gross!!!!!!





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## swhiting (Oct 4, 2007)

I heard it started in the cabin of an old sportfisher and was the love child of Clay-Doh and Garbo after a night of heavy drinking.....


No t-shirts were involved.







.....................


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## Snagged Line (Sep 30, 2007)

swhiting said:


> I heard it started in the cabin of an old sportfisher and was the love child of Clay-Doh and Garbo after a night of heavy drinking.....
> 
> 
> No t-shirts were involved.
> ...




The PFF logo almost became a spoon because of that nite...


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## hebegb again (Oct 9, 2017)

FB is da debbil, deleted my account


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## First Cast (Oct 8, 2007)

PFF is still the first website I go to when I get to work in the morning.


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## need2fish (Oct 2, 2007)

Speaking of the good ole' days.... where has Will been hiding himself?


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

I have almost entirely given up on FB. The ONLY reason that I still use it is the local kayak fishing group only posts there. If I give up FB, then I give up the local kayak fishing club. That is all I use it for. Oh and to scan Marketplace for fishing stuff occasionally.


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## brnbser (Oct 1, 2007)

The original was called "fish the bridge" and started by John in the '02 time frame, when John started censoring posts that took away from his fish the bridge business (ie this lure is cheaper at xxx and wanting businesses and professional fisherman to pay him for exposure/advertisement in their signatures/avatar's) Chris Couture who ran the online sales side of his family business at All Pro Sound along with all it's servers and software was ticked off and created the PFF using his work servers. That was in "03, I was one of the first 25 members and when it started getting bigger and too much for Chris to handle, I came on as a mod, then a couple of others along with Wade. I had some experience and the equipment at home and took over as administrator again along with Wade. We diplomatically ran it for a couple of years and it grew pretty big and Chris incorporated some advertising along with shirts/stickers/caps to offset some of the costs. The sites activity eventually attracted the interests of some advertising based forum guru's out of Texas. Chris finally sold the forum to them and they along with Chris asked me and a few others to continue on as mods, some did, I walked away. That was '06-07. I felt pretty sold out and was done. It's gone up and down but a slow decline ever since (in my opinion and we've all got one of those). I wasn't a dummy like the "guru's" thought and still have a back door I built in with administrator privileges.....although I haven't used it........That's my fellow PFF'ers is the WHOLE story......correct me if I'm wrong on any of the info or timelines Wade...


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## Downtime2 (Sep 27, 2007)

Sounds right to me


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

Good post bet there going crazy trying to find the hole. I can tell them to not waste there time. You would never use it against them for any reason. I cant remember the exact wording but Chriss posted when he took over, Anything goes just keep it civil.


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## NKlamerus (Jan 4, 2016)

Realtor said:


> FB and other social media sites like farmersonly.com give the PFF and other forums a run for their money.


Yeah but Jason's Foot Fetish thread could put a lot of sites down for good


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## billyk (Nov 15, 2007)

I know I joined the "fish the bridge" crowd in 03-04 time frame. I was living in Maryland at the time and living my fishing life vicariously through that site.

I'd make the occasional meet and greet Wednesday night meet ups back when we had them at Sam's Seafood place on Main street.

I really haven't been active this summer at all


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