We are often bombarded with advertisements and the bait monkey riding on our backs when it comes to our fishing.  It sometimes clouds our better judgment and our ability to make rational decisions often becomes influenced from second hand hearsay.  Furthermore we are told such and such features are unique and proprietary to something, yet we can never fully grasp the benefit of it.  In the end it often comes down to two questions that I personally ask myself.  Would I recommend it to a friend?  Would I buy it again?

There could be myriad of personal experiences to make numerous assessments on anything that we've purchased or the information that we've glean from others.  Yet it still depends on who you talk to and/or what you heard about it.  Sometimes we feel like we want to keep up with the John's or be like Mike.  There may be a personal satisfaction of just being able to fish or being able to fish better that separates our evaluation of the products we've purchased for our own use.  Yet, sharing information is probably one of the fishermen's best kept secrets.

Fishermen or anglers do keep a secret honey hole to themselves or amongst a very trusted group of insiders.  It can be the same as with a lure or any product(s) amongst the group.  Yet, it seems that if that were always the full truth to it, there would be a lot more covert fishing operations and stings going about that would bring out more humor and entertainment to fulfill the dramas that we need to through mundane life.  Sometimes it's so simple as just asking to take a peek into a fellow angler's tackle box.  I can imagine all sorts of whimsical dramas in my head to fulfill a comic book.  A comical bait and switch tactic will always come to my mind when it comes to thwarting those who wish to sneak a peek.

This brings me back to our fishing product evaluations based on our use(s) of those products. It’s understandable to promote the products that we like to live and die by the words that we said. It does mean that omission or negligence of any shortcoming(s) or limitation(s) of the use(s) of those fishing products will not truly be understood from one angler to the next angler. If we all fish alike, we would all be catching fish alike. Yet there’s always some differences and truths behind that. That is where the eyes and minds of consumerism can help to bridge the gap amongst fellow anglers.

In short, it’s to see the pros and cons of each fishing products. There will always be some biased opinions but that’s where personal experience will always trump above all else. The whole ideal logical concept is using your tools to its most potential. Yet our ability to do that is influenced and swayed easily by our emotions. Catching lots of fish with certain products will be viewed very favorable. Not catching fish sometimes is unfavorable, but more like not fully understanding the shortcomings and/or limitations is what it’s truly at. We all want to get what we paid for, yet sometimes it doesn’t apply. Understanding what we got for what we paid for yet can be enlightening when shared views come to a consensus. So I come back to my recommend to a friend and buy again for myself concept. It’s about the most fair consumerism point of view I can assess it by. I hope to see more promotional products by members through consumerism.

That's what I'm thinking, everytime the bait monkey is riding on my back.

i think i understand what you are saying here. even with the full circle talk about what do we buy and why did we buy it. talking about how i can take a bait and use it and catch fish and you could take that same bait and use it and not even get a bite or its you catching and i'm not.

i believe your ? or your point of view is....what makes us buy a certain product and that you would like to see and/or hear our point of views on products a bit more often. also i think you are wanting to know what do we do when that monkey gets on our backs.

what make us buy.........is it the advertising that we see on tv....is it because of a buddy telling us about it....is it because we see a guy over there catching fish and we sneak a peek at what he's using and find out we don't have that bait in that color or size......

our point of views........the different ways we use a bait that works for us and have we tried to show that way to other fisherman/women and does it work for them that way or not....would i tell another person that this bait is a great bait or a bad one.....what have we done to change the action on a bait or tweek its looks.....

i believe there is many more things that can be said on this, but right now my fingers can't keep up with my mind on this.......i hope i'm at least playing on the same lake as you are there slipperybob so maybe we can share a bait er 2

I fall into the trap that others fell into as well. All the hyped up fish catching marketing of a fishing product. I become convinced that it will work. Then when the reality of it hits me, not even the buyers remorse, but the reality of being conned into buying such a product. Instead of saying to the next angler, "Try it for yourself." I will say, "It didn't work for me or it didn't work like they claimed it to do."

I admit that I was wrong. Takes a lot for a person to do, but I will do that. Sometimes it does requires some creative tinkering to enhance a lure. Sometimes, it is hopelessly trying to recoupe some benefit to a lost cause.

I think that if I was to recommend a fishing product, it's probably not the sole reason just for the product. It probably goes with the use(s) of that product. It may involve situations that favors the use of such a product. It may involve in benefits to having such a product for potential situations down the road. It's a lot to think about...That bait monkey sometimes gets a midnight feeding.

The biggest obstacle to a "correct" answer to the question "how well does _______ work?" is that we all have differences in the way we fish, therefore the lure or bait that is a killer for one angler is a complete dud for another. I personally cannot buy a nibble on a plastic worm, but other plastics produce for me. We should all keep this in mind when talking to others about "what's working"  Tom

i agree totally..........like i love to fish rapala's and i told great with them. i fish them many different ways at different times of the year or on different species of fish. i to for a long time could not catch anything a rubber worms and then 1 day i was just fooling around on a small lake and just for fun i put 1 on and bang, then another fish. this went on all day for me. then after that i have caught many bass, even big bass on rubber worms.

Flourocarbon Hype

When I think about flourocarbon, all I can think about is how hyped up it has turned out to be.  I think that whenever I hear about someone using it for a leader, first thing that comes to my mind is, "Is it leader material?"  All too often, somebody is using an expensive spool filler line as a leader.  Next thing I hear, is their assessment of how weak the line to line knot strength is.  Well now there's a big contradiction in the flourocarbon hype.  Coming to an acceptance that the leader material has provided excellent knot strength and finding out the spool filler line is weak in terms of knot strength is a sure spoiler.  Yet we are constantly bombarded by Pro-Fishermen as wells as Pro-Staff Fishermen of the great knot strength promises that flourocarbon provides.  I think that after over a decade, it's time to dispell it.  Spool filler flourocarbon lines do not have great knot strength, along with a host of other false promises.

Well then we're bombarded by 100% flourocarbon lines.  So what was all the hyped up flourocarbon lines all about then?  Were some of the first generations of flourocarbon lines nothing more than a copolymer of a flourocarbon coated nylon line?  Okay so as a fix, we're getting an influx of many different formulation of 100% flourocarbon lines designed to be more limp, stronger knot strength, better abrasion resistance, etc.,...  So manufactures have quietly admitted their false promises and are now giving us improved flourocarbon lines.  In effect the price for this stuff easily doubles, in some cases tripled or even quadrupled for some copolymer-flourocarbon lines.  It's very easy to see the price of a fishing line that will surpase the cost of the reel in a few seasons of use and in some cases merely just one season of use.  All the while we still don't even see that we require the use of even more expensive equipment to justly take advantage of these expensive lines.  Sort of a little dirty secret with superlines, that may have some effect on flourocarbon lines as well.

The recreational anglers seems to be phasing out as more and more marketing advertisement are trying to convince us all to fish like tournament anglers.  It's one thing to learn from the successes of others, but it's a totally different thing to say it's not for me.  I'll be one of the first to admit my eyes are not designed to see underwater like a fish, so the invisible factor of flourocarbon seems pointless to me.  Furthermore I don't have a spatial awareness sense like a fish's lateral line, so invisibility factor is even less than a sell point.  On top of that, I sure like to do night fishing, so line invisibility is a moot point for me.  So what are some facts about flourocarbon lines that is useful for the rest of us anglers?

I can accept the light refraction index closer to that of water.  So long as I'm fishing with sunlight mostly directly above me.  I can reason an educated fish, that's visually cued on a lure that might shy away from seeing an attached line to it.  Yet, I can reason a counter-argument that fish are not line shy at all.

I can accept the mass density of flourcarbon to be heavier than water.  So the line sinks, but I'm not going to be fooled into thinking the line doesn't bow in the water while retrieving a lure.  That's just a matter of application of lure retrieve speed and line diameter agains the resistance of water.  Put a lure heavy enough and your line will pretty much straighten out.  Granted in many application, it will benefit to have a lure on a more straight path to your rod.  I can see a bottom crawling/pulling jig would benefit from this.  However a swimming jig, that would do better to be pulled up and off the bottom would not.  I can see for some suspending lures that have a slight float rise would benefit from a heavier flourocarbon line to achieve netrual bouyancy.  I cannot see how it would benefit suspending lures that have a tendency to sink.  Since they're are designed to sink against the bouyancy of standard monofilament nylon lines.

We hear about the low stretch property of flourocarbon lines.  We kind of just fool ourselves into believe that coming from a leader material.  Spool fillable flourocarbon lines stretch a lot, but they do not have the elasticity of nylon line.  It may take a more pressure to stretch flourocarbon lines.  Furthermore line stretch property varies greatly from manufacture to manufacture as well as the line extrusion process of individual labled finished product.  It's very hard to determine exactly what is low stretch to make a grasp on the meaning of it.  As far as I can conclude, the more stiff the line is the odds are it's more low stretch.  It sort of goes hand in hand with the springy feel of the line as soon as you open the bail on your reel.

...Thats' what I'm thinking...

thats allot of thinking there bob

i just never got into the flourocarbon mainly because of the price, but also because i hadn't found a good reason to try it

Flourocarbon Reality

I had once asked if my favorite company could make a nylon or flourocarbon coated superline or braid hybrid.  I said that I would be for sure be one of the first customers that would purchase it.  They laughed at me.  Said that was preposterous.  There is no one who would want anything more when you've got choices like Vanish, a fused line like Fireline, or braids like Spiderwire.  Okay, I can accept that.

Now a decade some later 2010 ICAST, we have Spiderwire Ultracast Flouro-Braid. Awesome, the reality of a dream looks like it's coming true.  Would sure be nice to get some more information on this new line debut.  So far I guess Steve Pennaz seems to be witholding information from the rest of us or maybe he doesn't know much more about it either.

 http://www.versus.com/blogs/pennazs...ing-braid/

I'm very curious about this line, very.  I sure hope to see it on the shelves of my retailer.  Looking past all marketing hype, we see a tool with certain characteristics that can be used to specific advantages.  Sinking property is the noteriety of it along with less elasticity.  Now looking at probably almost no stored energy in a braid line with a fusion of florocarbon.  This looks very promising with much potential.  Now if only I can get my eyes and hands on it.  What was once a preposterous notion, is becoming a reality.

I know I'm already thinking of applications for this...That's what I'm thinking...

Suspending lures

Sometimes this is just a complete contradiction.  I heard often that the lures are designed to operate at a certain temperature.  Well yes, that would apply as physics of temperature changes from a hollowed bodied lure.  I really don't know enough to say a lure needs to be at a certain temperature to perform at a certain temperature in the water.  I just merely want to tie one on and fish it to perform under specified conditions.  However, some lures are slow risers while others are slow sinkers.  Which I wonder is better for the average angler?

There are times that I thought a slow riser would be better, since I can upgrade to heavier hooks or attach a snap and swivel for the additional weight to suspend the lure.  Maybe even the application of flourocarbon line would be useful for such a slow rising lure to suspend.  More than often, the majority of suspending lures that I've used seem to be slow risers.  It has even come to a point that I have began to notice and look for such slow floating lures for this effect.

Then there are supposed suspending lures that sink.  There are times that I thought that a slow sinker would be better, since fishing line often bows and want to float upwards when pulled.  They could potentially suspend at a much lower water column as opposed to the slow rising suspending lures.  This totally changes the outlook of large bills for deeper water suspending lures that I've come to understand.  I'm thinking that maybe, it's to avoid the angled lure profile that often comes with large bills.  Maybe a better lure to have the fish inhale the lure with less of a large bill?

How am I going to keep track of which suspending lures sinks or floats and the myria of reasons behind the applications for the techniques...That's what I'm thinking...