Yes, Gear Reviewers Sometimes “Whiff”

Svelte wading soles… Not even close to felt?

Over on Fly Talk, Kirk Deeter fesses up to whiffed product reviews, saying he “admits to having been made a sucker by the hype machine in the past. The benefit of hindsight and many months of actually fishing with some of these products has helped me realize that, in some cases, I probably drank a little too much PR Kool-Aid.”

First on his list, were Sharkskin Fly Lines…

“I was completely amped about 3M’s Sharkskin at a time when, even out of the gate, a good percentage of my angler friends weren’t believers. I forgave the annoying sound (like fingernails on a chalkboard with every stroke of the rod) because I believed the theory that bumpy surfaces on a line’s coating enhanced floating and shooting performance. But the 5-weight line I had broke 20 feet from the tip for no good reason after a few months, and the 8-weight grabbed so much grit and grime that the last 30 feet won’t float anymore, despite my best efforts to clean it. And for $100 (for a line?!), an angler should expect better. No wonder Tenkara fishing is gaining in popularity.”

See the entire  whiff list, which includes Cloudveil Waders, Korkers Svelte Wading soles and the Moffit Angling system over on Field and Stream.