Over complicated BS

[Pennywise74]

I have recently been looking back 20 or so years to my diaries of catches, baits, rigs etc and can’t believe how much iv been taken in by media BS. When I look at my fishing now and realise how much I overthink things and how much I spend on tackle to get the same results and actually most of the time worse than I used to when I was less experienced is ridiculous.
Is it me or are we slaves to advertising and as gullible as I think iv become in recent years?

I get that all the products that we read about and view in the media do work and a lot makes fishing better especially the care of the fish side of things but I believe I can get the same results or better with simpler methods

Hope I’m not alone in this.

 

[valetudoguy]

I think it’s a big chunk convenience, a large dash of bull$h;t and some genuine advancement all bundled on the same shelves.

I remember years ago when I was a kid, my grandad took me to the local carp lake, everyone there was tackled up to the eyeballs. My grandad hadn’t fished for years so we didn’t have much tackle to speak of, we got a cheap extendable rod, a matching reel... put some decent line on it. He pushed the importance of a good net, so we spend money on a decent one with a fine mesh.. we stuffed an old towel into a rubble sack for an unhooking mat and took two camping chairs. Other than that we bought some Size 8 Kamasan Hooks (packet still in my old tackle box with a couple hooks still in) and proceeded to catch more fish than anyone else by free lining bread.

 

[theartist]

There's so much BS in the media and to be fair on the bank, I remember as a kid being told things like you had to tip your luncheon meat with a bit of hemp, or you had to feed exactly twelve pellets per cast, worse one was that barbel are hard to catch on float mg:

And then there's marketing, there's definitely more baits on the shelves than there ever was

 

[Pennywise74]

It must be a mine field to a new comer thinking they need to spend thousands just to get going. I miss my Gardner pod and Optinics

 

[sam vimes]

Angling has always been as simple, or as complicated, as an individual wanted to make it. Te biggest difference in more recent times is that the manufacturers are only too happy to offer a multitude of items to make it complicated. You certainly don't have to buy them, but a beginner/newcomer/returning angler is now bombarded with information that suggests it's all absolutely necessary. It's not strictly an angling thing, just a product of modern marketing.

 

[Pennywise74]

Yeah agree and I’m going back to basics these days and loving my fishing again

 

[stillwater blue]

Carp fishing has become a very innovative market, there are a lot of excellent product that are well designed and are genuinely useful, unfortunately there are also a lot of products designed for what appears to be the sole purpose of getting somebody to spend money.

IMO the biggest problem with carp angling is marketing and the magazines, they've managed to convinced anglers you can buy products that'll catch you more fish than the fella down the bank who hasn't bought the latest wonder gadget and hundreds of anglers fall for it week in and week. It's experience, thought and practise that makes a good angler not a box full of the latest wonder gadgets.

I remember having a chat with a very well know carp angler who worked for Fox. He described his job as writing about a problem that didn't exist and then writing about the solution to this problem which was a brand new Fox product available to all at the local tackle shop.

 

[Pennywise74]

Agreed and that’s the reason iv stopped buying them due to every article using blatant brand products in most pics and just a sales pitch. Take a well know terminal tackle brand (k***a) who went on about their lead clip system saying it’s all u need but don’t mention it much now when going through rigs as they have new products out.