Okay, coarsefishers can be aspirational and super-competitive, having to be seen with The Latest and The Right Stuff (think eye-wateringly priced poles and matchfishers, think Scene Water Carp Boys...), but they're not total, blinded by the pretty puff-'n'-guff, idiots; there's still a healthy scepticism about them; and, besides, few could or would be willing to part with the equivalent of $600 or £600 for a rod that merely slings a lump of lead or flicks a float and hits bites at best marginally better than one a quarter or a third of the price. Top-end U.S. fly rods, however, are VERY good (I know, I have owned and been using them since the 1970s), and might JUST justify their cost, but coarse gear...? I do hope that coarsefishing will never go the designer way that gamefishing has gone, for it will deter a lot of potential anglers from starting out and make others give up - already a very real consequence (and with more on the way) of the Branded Lifestyle Flyfishing Dream as exported from gorgeous Montana, Colorado, Idaho etc in the Rocky Mountain States, American West.
