Lure Angler's Anonymous

Hi ,  my name is Dave , and I am a Lure Angler .......so begins the introduction from someone with a problem .

There I have admitted it ! The great thing about lure fishing is its simplicity , a few ( remember that !) lures in a nice little box , a rod and reel , landing net and off you go . Well that was me twenty odd years ago , a few favourite lures was all I needed  and I caught fish and enjoyed the whole thing immensely .

I had two compartmentalised boxes , one for spoons and spinners and the for  other plugs . My favourite lures at the time were the " Big S" and its near relatives the " Midi and Mini " and various spoons plus of course Mepps spinners in different sizes . I had a couple of secret weapons in the " Barrie's Buzzer" and  some surface lures , the " Crazy Crawler " and " Jitterbug" plus the " Lucky Thirteen " . Plus of course a few really secret "rubbers " (ooh I say )and jigs .

Then it happened , I started reading about lure angling and joined the LAS ,  and being a gullible sort I realised that the fish I was catching with my limited selection of lures were obviously very stupid because you HAD to have the latest " in " lures to catch fish , so Harris Angling catalogues became my bed time reading and my collection began to grow . New storage solutions were also soon on the agenda and more boxes with nice compartments were soon gracing the fishing shed shelves . With one very happy angler ( collector ) who actually seemed to now spend more time playing with the lures  and planning on new purchases than actually fishing with the ever expanding lure collection . ( Some never got wet !)

I had it bad ! I refused to bait fish at all for 5 years  ! A fish caught on a lure was the only one that counted ! The phrase " A jerk bait at one end and a fool at the other " comes to mind .

Well ..... trips to Egypt , Sweden, Scotland , Ireland  and all sorts of reservoirs with lures of all types were fantastic and I did catch fish , but I spent loads of money ( don't ask I dread to think !) on rods , reels , braid and lures , oh and lure boxes , but there came a day , when my 5 years  of  no bait fishing had to came to an end .

So I went back to proper fishing and funnily enough I caught more fish ! And bigger ones too !

There is a time and a place for lure fishing . I always have the time but I don't want to fill up the place with lures that don't get wet !

Well after selling most of my lures , I still seem to have a lot but they are ones I know I will use and that they work , but  I have developed a new interest .....LRF. Could it be that the fishing tackle industry is having a LRF ( laugh) on us anglers ? Apparently you need special gear to do this type of fishing .

This seems like a re invention,  as I was dangling plastic worms and jigs all those years ago , but look at all those lures and worms of different  colours , and nice little boxes to put them in , plus new rods and reels . The dark angel of lure collecting is rising from the ashes of what ever compartmentalised box I locked it in years ago ..... to be continued