Fool A Fish

[Dick Dastardly]

Rigorous double blind testing and statistical analysis. No other way round it.

 

And I simply just dont believe this is done by either the manufacturers or the angler!

 

I think a lot of so called testing by anglers falls into (well eventually) the "self full filling prophecey" catagory! My "always use it always have" mate being a prime example!

 

I saw a lot of this in the early 90's at Claydon Lakes with catfish anglers. Basicly this water was so overstocked that the cats,carp and bream would eat anything! By the nature of cat fishing you can go some time without catching simply because the fish arnt feeding (a bit like pike cats dont need to feed every day).People were always looking for new,weird baits to give them the "edge". Like I said when feeding they would take nigh on anything that was in front of them so picture this-

 

Cat angler out shopping in Tescos sees a (for arguments sake) Red Snapper reduced on the fish counter and thinks its worth a go.Next dfay he uses it for bait and catchs a cat on it.Everyone sees this and next day all arte back with Tescos Red Snappers.Now its quite obvious that if they are the only/most used bait then the only/most fish that are caught will be on them! A new "super" bait is born!

 

Seen it loads of times! Meanwhile us naughty live baiterts are still consistantly catching whilst publicly agreeing that Red Snapper is the dogs doo dahs! Seen it loads.Exactly the same with boillies on a lot of crowded carp waters. Richworth Tutti Fruttis on Harefield being a top example!

[Dick Dastardly]

Also have any of you ever noticed how many many anglers swear by a particular bait/piece of tackle just because it happens to be the one they brought regardless of if its any good or not or they catch much on it,or if they have ever compared it to anything else? A strange phenomenon!

Edited August 3, 2009 by BUDGIE

[dapper64]

It should probably be called fool the angler.

[Steve Walker]

And I simply just dont believe this is done by either the manufacturers or the angler!

 

Nope, I don't either!

 

It would be interesting to try, though, and not that difficult to set up. If you have enough anglers, you can easily account for the effects of chance - with a good design, you can also account for the difference in skill. The only difficult bit might be stopping the anglers figuring out whether they have the real treatment or the bottle of water.

[Steve Walker]

Also have any of you ever noticed how many many anglers swear by a particular bait/piece of tackle just because it happens to be the one they brought regardless of if its any good or not or they catch much on it,or if they have ever compared it to anything else? A strange phenomenon!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-purchase_rationalization

[Dick Dastardly]

Im glad its not just me who has recognised it ! Your right Steve it would be both interesting and good fun to set up some properly formulated tests.

[Anderoo]

Also have any of you ever noticed how many many anglers swear by a particular bait/piece of tackle just because it happens to be the one they brought regardless of if its any good or not or they catch much on it,or if they have ever compared it to anything else? A strange phenomenon!

 

You see this all the time Often on forums when someone asks, what's the best [insert rod/reel/boilie/hook/etc. here]?

 

And everyone just lists what they use! Well, we wouldn't buy something that's not right, would we? Except we all have something different...!

 

Just think though, if you caught one of the big bream using this, you'd have to use it every time just in case...

[Rusty]

Pah! Who needs additives to fool fish? I do it all the time, I cast out my bait and they never manage to find it.

[bigginz92]

I decided, your all right, we dont need to buy things like this to catch fish. Its cheating. Fishing Is A skill and lets keep it that way. Chris

[Guerilla]

Saw an old 'Des Taylor - Pike on Lures' video the other week. He had two sprays; The first was applied to his hands before touching his lures thus removing his own scent, the second was a fish attracting additive paste that he applied onto the lure.

He then went on to land several rather large pike!