PERRY, GA—The Go Fish Georgia Education Center is a massive new fishing museum with interactive models and bream and bass swimming in aquarium-size tanks. Its pre-recession sites were aimed at generating tourism buzz, but a $14 million price tag has left critics questioning the merits of its ongoing state-funded expenditures.
The New York Times reports: “Mr. Perdue said the site was chosen by independent consultants for its proximity to Interstate 75 and the state fair. But critics question whether a 13,000-person town more than 100 miles from both Atlanta and the Atlantic Coast will draw enough fishing tourists. Since it opened, the museum has drawn a small but steady crowd.
What no one disputes is that fishing is big business in Georgia, having an impact of $1.5 billion a year, state economists say. But for years, Georgia has lagged behind all neighboring states in fishing tourism. It ranks sixth in the nation in sending its fishermen to other states and 22nd in luring fishermen from elsewhere.”
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.