Tackle reviews - do we trust them?

[MarkTheSpark]

Kind of a carry-over from the AT: irresponsible reporting thread which strayed on to this subject.
I used to do tackle reviews in angling magazines and know the problems; criticise a manufacturer's tackle and they cancel their advertising. In effect, they have a gun to the magazines' collective heads, and with the recession, that advertising is keeping our mags going.
So it's difficult for the reviewers, and most just review what they are sent or avoid booking any rubbish tackle, and thus avoid having to tell the truth about it.
The problem with this strategy is that rubbish tackle stays on sale and anglers unwittingly buy it because there's nobody around to tell them any different.
That said, there are some great reviewers and some great reviews. I'm just interested to know whether FMers trust tackle reviews, or if they've ever bought recommended gear which turned out to be rubbish.
What do you think about the 'marks out of ten' which reviewers give? Are they realistic? Are reviewers tough enough on bad tackle?

 

[Old Nick]

I always take tackle reviews with a pinch of salt, and will try to find independent user reviews whenever possible - although the amount of research is determined by the value of whatever I am buying! small items tackle very little, but rods reels etc a fair amount.

Some years ago I used to work in the computer games industry where millions were made based on magazine "reviews" and scorings out of 10's - every products marketing budget had an element for "buying" positive reviews!!!! Although, if a product was really **** - it was **** and reviews wording carefully to reflect this! But I certainly agree most magazines are in an impossible position if the majority of their funding is from advertising (IMHO).

 

[Wobbly Face (As Per Ed)]

I'll read the reviews, take acount of what the reviewer says then try and get an independant review especially if the product has been around for some time. If it brand spankers, then I'll leave it alone for a while until an independant one comes up. Also check out who has it in stock. If plenty of stockists, then it can be a good. If hardley anyone stocking it, then leave it.

 

[J K]

Ok so how does someone who is inexperienced find out about tackle. When I started fishing again after a long lay off I hadn't got a clue who most of the "names" were. Also a review by someone unknown to me would have meant nothing. I wouldn't have known if the reviewer was experienced or otherwise.

What I did was ask questions and see what answers I was getting and if the the answers were the same then I judged that rod or reel etc was OK.

One of the things I have found with the majority of shop owners is that they are basically honest.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

The best person to ask if an item of tackle is any good is a match angler, or rather a number of match anglers, they usually know whats good and what isn't. Those tackle shops that have a resident group of match anglers chatting away like fishwives do have their uses and that is one of them.

Paper and mag reviews are totally unreliable in my opinion.

 

[Scott Whatmore]

I tend to trust reviews by people I know and have respect for their opinion. Dad has a good point with asking match anglers. I do like to go with my gut feeling at the end of the day.

 

[Steve King]

To be honest I take most reviews with a pinch of salt.

I remember a certain mag giving a rod a bad review because the top section was such a sloppy fit that the section came flying off 1st cast!

The next month the mag ran a new review on a rod "selected totally at random" (or words to that effect) and what do you know? Yep high scores in all departments!!!

We all know there is cr@p tackle about - now where are the honest reviews of the aforementioned tackle?

 

[Paul C]

The only problem being that most match anglers now only know about margin poles or gear targeted at commercial carp type waters.

I was in a shop the other day and 6 of them were discussing tactics for a forthcoming festival. They may as well have been talking spanish.

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

I like to read reviews of new tackle if only to see if it has a purpose. I've seen some items and had some that only deserve to be in the bin, far better had I not bought them in the first place. The Rainbow system of depth finding for poles was a definite no-no from start to finish.

Beyond that, is the tackle any good? Well, here it might be possible to stretch a point depending on whether the manufacturer advertises with you or not. If he's spending £40,000 a year with your group, are you really going to upset him by saying it's cr@p? But is it them right to say it's marvellous and mislead all you readers?

I've tried to be truthful in all of my reviews for FM. There's a Korum rod I tested that I thought was cracking and I still think so, yet I don't owe Korum anything right now. Conversly, I gave a Fox video a bad write-up, but largely because they wanted to charge £10 for it. Had they given it away, as I suggested, I would have been OK (not brilliant, but OK).

So does it all come down to price and value for money?

Perhaps. If someone buys a spool of line costing a fiver on your recommendation and then doesn't like it, then the buyer hasn't lost much except a little faith in you. But if he's just blown £150 on a new rod that turns out to be a stick, he'll rightly bear you a grudge for the rest of your existance. However, all I can say in my defence is, that's how I found it.

I might have a dilemma if an advertiser sends an expensive item for testing and I think it's overpriced and not worth it. How do I treat that? PROBLEM!

Perhaps a lesson for manufacturers - don't overprice your items, just give us good value for money.

 

[Rodney Wrestt]

I read the review in the mags and if I can see the item being a benefit to my fishing then I'll read up on user reviews via the internet. This (F.M.) has to be the best source of reliable information there is. We have a community of top class anglers who go out their way to give advice, my most recent purchase was a couple of margin poles and it was the F.M. user reviews that made up my mind.

As already mentioned, the advertising payment must hold sway in how the ed will portray an item, I take more stock of the articles starring guest anglers on a session, especially if they're non sponsored club matchmen as they won't use tackle that's not up to spec for their match days.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

You have a good point there Rodney about what gear the top anglers use. Take Bob Roberts for example, he uses mainly Daiwa gear but he was or maybe still is employed by Daiwa so obviously the cost to him is nil BUT Bob being the good angler he is, wouldn't, I don't think, use a rod or reel that wasn't any good just because it was a freebie, the same applies to Keith Arthur. I used to fish on occasions with and against some of the star names in river matches and a quick look at their gear showed a tendency to fish with the same rods and reels because they trusted them, they only used the best and tended to stick with the same proven manufacturers such as Shimano and Daiwa.

Go to any of the big matches, yes even on pools, and take a shufty at their float gear and you will find most of them using Shimano reels and rods from much the same big manufacturers, match anglers soon pass round what is good and what is bad. This applies equally to poles as well as rods and reels.

 

[Rodney Wrestt]

Hello Graham,
That's the thing, sponsored lads get the top range and it's the lightest, best balanced pole, finest quality carbon rods and fittings. But in truth is it's quite hard to find really poor rods these days as it's the mid to low end the average angler starting out will pay for and they all come from the same vendors but with so many companies out there these days the market is saturated with the same blanks holding different livery.

The amusing thing is the stars allegiance to "The best piece of kit" they've ever used...... then they switch companies. The one I had most respect for was Bob Nudd, he was with Browning for decades and I admired that, I'm sure he'd had offers to jump ship at his peak as a competition angler, but recently I see he's moved to Fox international and suddenly his current pole is "The best he's ever used".

 

[geoffmaynard]

Jeff said
"I might have a dilemma if an advertiser sends an expensive item for testing and I think it's overpriced and not worth it. How do I treat that? PROBLEM!"

I know what you mean mate. It's a big one. I've written a few reviews and 'advertorials' over the years and eventually decided to come at that question from a different angle.

It's a fact that a lot of anglers buy goods that are "fashionable" rather than suitable; see the mass market for big pit reels and 3lb TC rods in carp fishing, many of which are only used on small waters where they aren't needed.
Another group of 'high end' users wouldn't buy an item unless it's what they perceive to be the best of what's out there, and they'll often determine that on price. My boys wouldn't be seen dead in anything but the 'best' trainers and that's what the media and the Saatchi crowd have trained them to think. And we are all victims of that. Look at BMW cars - are they really that much better than Fords for the price difference? No, of course not, but many people want to pay high prices as a social distintion. So let 'em, because we do tend to cherish things that cost more. My favourite river rod is a 30 year old Hardy that would have cost an absolute bomb when it was first sold - well above similar rods by other manufacturers at that time - but the fact I still use it after all these years means, to me, it was excellent value for money.

Eventually I came to the review decision to try not to concentrate on 'value for money' because it is just so subjective. At the end of the day, if I write a review, I always try to remember what my mum taught me - if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all. So I have refused to review the odd product in the past. But in this day and age, tackle is generally so very, very good - even the cheap stuff - so we can all get a different perspective on that saying about knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

 

[Cakey]

Im lucky that I know 100's on here and I know 100's off site and I listen to them.............................

 

[geoffmaynard]

Hmm. Well, I have trouble in listening to a crowd Cakey because in my opinion it's often akin to mob-rule. I'll prefer the opinion of 10 guys whos opinion I respect over 100s of possible/probable fashion-followers.

 

[preston96]

Hmm. Well, I have trouble in listening to a crowd Cakey because in my opinion it's often akin to mob-rule. I'll prefer the opinion of 10 guys whos opinion I respect over 100s of possible/probable fashion-followers.

Thats exactly my view too!.........tho in carping, Cakey's view is one i would seek......my own particular hate is those who tell me i have to use what they say because to do otherwise makes me a moron............w*nkers!

 

[Cakey]

Im not saying that if I wanted to buy an item of tackle that I would go to 100's ,Im saying that I would know where to go to ask and would trust a lot more than a review in a mag that dont want to upset its advertisers

 

[rookie_fly_guy]

I think reviews on a lot of things tend to miss out on an important point for me - the reliability of the product. Quite often you see reviews that say something is amazing, balanced, guarenteed to do this that or the other and sturdy but they're reviewing something they've had for a few days, a few weeks at most. Then after its been put through a bit of hard use then the issues start to crop up.

For example I brought a reel a little while ago, whilst it was a cheapy, it seemed to be of a fairly decent build quality, everything felt fairly smooth (for the price) but the last time my missus used it the retaining bolt inside started to unscrew itself and I had to stop every few casts and tighten the thing.

But thats the kind of thing you can only find out after using something for a while and magazines simply can't spend that long testing a single product and most online reviews tend to rave about something just after they've received it rather than six months or a year down the line.

I'd love to see a feature on FM that sent an email to people who had written a review after six months to a year and asked them for a follow up review, I think that would help to distinguish the good at first stuff (of which there is a shed load) from the truely excellent gear.

 

[Chris Season32]

Spot-on Krian, I couldn't agree more. We enjoy telling other anglers about a new bit of kit we've bought and how pleased we are with it, but rarely tell them when bits have fallen off it 12 months down the line.

In todays tackle market however, doing a retrospective review after a couple of seasons is difficult, as the product might have been replaced with a new one and is no longer on the shelves.

Build quality is the main reason I don't buy expensive gear anymore regardless of reviews, little of it is built to really last with the possible exception of handmade tackle. You get lucky sometimes and find (or get told about) a gem, this is where forums such as FM and good angling mates are invaluable. Commercial reviews from biased/constrained sources are flawed and rarely give a true account, often relying on the customer to 'read between the lines' which is highly subjective and full of pitfalls. Advertorials are next to worthless.

Phrases like 'its hard to find a bad item of tackle in todays modern tackle market' don't hold water IMO as the angler is looking to buy the best they can get for their budget, so the lowest value for money item automatically becomes 'bad' in todays marketplace.

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

I agree, long term reviews are great, but products don't usually last that long before the model is replaced.

For example (and this is no criticism) Shimano bring out a new reel, but they are no longer making that reel because the next model is now in production with improvements. And when finished that will no longer be in production because the moulds etc. have probably been made for the next reel which has just had its prototypes tested. The design team are then working on the next model's prototypes and there's some guy in a drawing office designing the one after that.

We think forward to the next quarter or financial year, the Japanese are thinking ten years ahead and towards the next century.

I have found a problem with a rod I reviewed recently where the swivelling keep ring has now broken off. There was also a reel I had that CF reviewed as well and the editor told me that he'd returned two models because the bale arm didn't close. I had the same fault happen with mine and fixed it myself, it was a washer that hadn't been centred before the screw was tightened up, that's all.