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Spoons, spinners, and wallydoos In my eyes were reflected the multicolored metal spoons, chromed spinners and camouflaged plastics which lined the wall in front of me. Yellow green goose backed dippers, bug eyed wallydoos, rubber bodied eel feelers, deep diving Petes, and the enticing scented blue mongoose. The ice has receded and the summer sports fishermen are crawling out from under the piles of fishing magazines they hibernated the winter under. From spending nights upon nights in the darkness like the fish, they too will be caught by the glittering lures. Yes, the lures lining the sports shops are designed to catch more than fish. When given the choice between a flat black spoon and a chromed, hand painted minnow with jointed midsection, which would you choose? If you don’t catch a fish to hang on your wall you can always hang your lure collection. The glittering displays of lures are not designed for the seasoned anglers but the novices. Like me. Oh yeah, I’ve fished for years but only when I need an excuse to pass out on a beach somewhere. The gig is up, for me fishing is an excuse to get outside and do nothing. Often, I have thrown an unbaited hook and sinker into a lake and dozed off to the sound of mosquitoes buzzing away from my head covered with toxic insect repellent. But my tackle box is full of some of the neatest lures around. The lures carefully designed by advertising and marketing executives are, the ones that catch my eye. If it twists, shines, buzzes, clicks, smells or glows, I want it. But after losing some of my prized possessions to the greatest hook collectors of them all, the logs strategically placed by the lure manufacturers in all the sports, fishing lakes, I quit using my favorite, lures. Some of my neatest lures somehow slipped from my father’s tackle box into my once empty tackle box. I’ve got this great rubber minnow with about eight hooks on it. I couldn’t use it if I wanted to because it’s too dangerous to hold without getting it permanently caught in my skin while trying to tie it to a line. Once in a while, after managing to tie one of my favorite lures onto my line, I’ll drag it around the shore or alongside the boat and try to decide if a fish would ever bite it. That’s really important when buying lures. Do fish bite on lures because they are hungry and think the lure is edible or because they attack the lure trying to rid their environment of anything so gaudy to be called a Fluorescent Zaa Zoo? I can’t really answer this question for I have never had the opportunity to read a government study on the matter, although I’m sure the study exist So whom do we presume uses these lures? I think no one. Everybody buys them at some stage in their fishing careers but once they are lost in the tangle at the bottom of the best tackle boxes they are handed down or doomed to tackle box rust. Seasoned veteran’s tackle boxes seem to contain one or two funny lures and a lot of the classic spoons. The red and white striper, the red diamonds on yellow and the black squiggles on orange have existed on the walls of hardware stores throughout the country as far back as I can remember. And the price! Spoons still sell for under a dollar, while the scientifically proven Max Freewater Trout Tickler retails for about $7.25 This is it, the one place inflation hasn’t hit hard enough to discourage anyone out of a hobby. A kid can still set himself up with a fishing kit that chould last a lifetime. The rod may not have the finger-light touch of a $100 graphite rod but it will take the beating any kid wiping out on his bike with a creel full of carp can dish out. Fishing marketing executives may have forgotten lures are to catch fish, not consumers. Even though they do still catch a lot of suckers, they haven’t forgotten about keeping fishing cheap enough for everyone’s enjoyment and experimentation. So whatever kick you get from the lures and tackle you buy remember if you don’t catch fish with the diamond head bangle whopper you bought you can always give it to your punk rock sister for an earring. |
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