[Sticky] Is the enthusiast community dying?

@dragon1 Having to perform a "rationalization" of all my fishing tackle will indeed be a surreal experience consolidating down to a single bass boat. For example, with four nets—two for bass and two for muskie—and an abundance of rods and reels, deciding what to include in the new boat is a challenge. I plan to make selections on the fly, choosing gear based on the anticipated fishing conditions for each outing and learning from each fishing experience sir!

Posted by: @city17banner

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@dragon1 Having to perform a "rationalization" of all my fishing tackle will indeed be a surreal experience consolidating down to a single bass boat. For example, with four nets—two for bass and two for muskie—and an abundance of rods and reels, deciding what to include in the new boat is a challenge. I plan to make selections on the fly, choosing gear based on the anticipated fishing conditions for each outing and learning from each fishing experience sir!

Simplifying is definitely a struggle, but it is absolutely liberating. It also makes each outing much more enjoyable. I’ve wasted way too much time trying to decide between hundreds of combos and it honestly takes away from the experience.

In my experience, what makes an item enthusiast is it's origin. The nature and intent with which it is crafted is what makes an item special, and, in our case, "JDM."

The globalization and bastardization of all things in this life has ruined the uniqueness and eloquence we all once knew and loved. Endless consumerism, coupled with mind-numbing media outlets, have resulted in the absolute dullest population of humans to ever occupy planet Earth. Mediocrity is encouraged, and even outright celebrated, whilst the genuine pursuit of excellence is dismissed as some foreign concept that is only pursued by primitive beings.

Tackle sales have become a mass-casualty event, and the upcoming "anglers" are fueling the fire as they purchase watered-down items from Googan Squad and the likes. Everyone is a bait maker these days, and the "drop" craze has become insufferable. Much of the latest tackle hype can be summarized as worthless chinesium, the total selling-out of the pride of nations.

But alas, here we are, still doing what we love, still keeping our enthusiasm alive and convening on this awesome platform. I am honored to be counted among you gentlemen, and I will continue to light the fires of enthusiasm for all things JDM TACKLE!

エリート

@triple_illusion 

SALUTE!

Good Evening everyone.

I am on the laptop and i will try to do better at getting my thoughts on pad.

Recently tariffs really hurt the enthusiast community. I watch one youber talk about how ordering from Japan directly would save you lots of money but not so much these days once they hit you with the tariff. Yes there are some vendors who will split the difference or probably eat most of the cost but honestly and being very transparent I spent almost 5 on lures just to get hit with a 200 tariff and so the other day i made a stateside order for 5ish and i had to pay full price for the lures. I love lures and have even ordered some lures I have always wanted but never saw them in stock , hence the reason i was ordering directly from Japan. 

Samauri tackle helped me out because I made two orders in probably 24 hours and they combined them and refunded me shipping for one. which was great business and common sense but i would not have faulted them either way because it was me that went back and made another order 

Just stating the facts and currently the USA is trying to right the world once again and I am not sure how that will effect anything but maybe gas?? I haven't gotten a rod in a while and although I really dont have space for one, If EG made a 7'4" casting rod I could use for jigs , crig t rig , i would cooked the wife the best meal ever and rub feet and dust the ceiling fan. to get one lol 

When I think about it, even with all the challenges that the culture is facing, the only way it dies is if we let it. 

I ordered four Blitz magnum SR' s and i cant wait to get them here. i am loving the Megabass bottle shrimp as a jig trailer esp for the IR jig and i have several rudra 130 Sp coming. 

I was reminded the other day about how I met my wife. I was looking for a fishing reel. Quatuam MG 1310 when we met. fishing was very much apart of my life and kept me out of trouble. Tinkering with reels has been about the same. Even on deployments I would order me some stuff and when it got to me I knew i was closer to home but having a reel in my hand was gave me a sense of peace and expectation. We must keep the community going because one day things will get better. 

Posted by: @goldrod

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Good Evening everyone.

I am on the laptop and i will try to do better at getting my thoughts on pad.

Recently tariffs really hurt the enthusiast community. I watch one youber talk about how ordering from Japan directly would save you lots of money but not so much these days once they hit you with the tariff. Yes there are some vendors who will split the difference or probably eat most of the cost but honestly and being very transparent I spent almost 5 on lures just to get hit with a 200 tariff and so the other day i made a stateside order for 5ish and i had to pay full price for the lures. I love lures and have even ordered some lures I have always wanted but never saw them in stock , hence the reason i was ordering directly from Japan. 

Samauri tackle helped me out because I made two orders in probably 24 hours and they combined them and refunded me shipping for one. which was great business and common sense but i would not have faulted them either way because it was me that went back and made another order 

Just stating the facts and currently the USA is trying to right the world once again and I am not sure how that will effect anything but maybe gas?? I haven't gotten a rod in a while and although I really dont have space for one, If EG made a 7'4" casting rod I could use for jigs , crig t rig , i would cooked the wife the best meal ever and rub feet and dust the ceiling fan. to get one lol 

When I think about it, even with all the challenges that the culture is facing, the only way it dies is if we let it. 

 

I ordered four Blitz magnum SR' s and i cant wait to get them here. i am loving the Megabass bottle shrimp as a jig trailer esp for the IR jig and i have several rudra 130 Sp coming. 

I was reminded the other day about how I met my wife. I was looking for a fishing reel. Quatuam MG 1310 when we met. fishing was very much apart of my life and kept me out of trouble. Tinkering with reels has been about the same. Even on deployments I would order me some stuff and when it got to me I knew i was closer to home but having a reel in my hand was gave me a sense of peace and expectation. We must keep the community going because one day things will get better. 

Beautifully said and I agree completely. It will only die if we let it. I know wholeheartedly that all of us here will not let that happen. I’ve had a lot going on these past couple years (much of which I haven’t shared) and I’ve definitely fallen off pace, but I can assure you and everyone else, that will change in the near future. I will open up more in the coming months.

In my eyes, we are crucial in keeping this community strong and moving in the right direction. Let’s make sure that happens. 

Posted by: @saoulons

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Lots of great points and I agree with most. I also feel like the market has changed quite a bit. I remember the days of yearly Megabass releases of Monoblocks and Lins and whatever else black magic Yuki Ito would dream up. Now it’s adding a Pop-X stick to the P5 lineup of 25 existing rod models, the 20th version of the griffon re-marketed as BFS and “limited color” #215 for the Vision 110. I am being facetious but I am so so so less excited about the market now than I was 7+ years ago. Maybe that’s what getting old is, looking back on the good ol’ days… lol. Maybe innovation has plateaued, maybe I’ve become a bit saturated and a bit jaded.

For me, the mail calls are few and far between, as are the outings, my Monoblocks have been through the mod ringer and most of my stuff has been through Ian’s magic shop.

I have less to say overall and less time / energy to say it. So I’ve become more of an occasional spectator than a contributor unfortunately and that’s really lame…

But I still love fishing and I still love enthusiast tackle. I’ve definitely focused more on enjoying what I have than chasing the next thing. And I still really enjoy seeing mail calls, outing reports, discussions about mods and tunes, etc.

Maybe I’ll make a New Year resolution to be more active 😎

 

 

Change can be good and life happens. Having a healthy work / life/ balance is important. Since things have grown to "Epic" proportions, my focus "Fury" has shifted in a major way. I can agree with you about change, but everything is changing, has changed or will change. The teachers had to worry about us brining in watch calculators now ever kid in the 9th grade and below knows how to use ChatGpt or that other thing to write papers and I have even heard of adults having AI write them a resume. Boats are a heck of a lot more expensive and the fuel as well. At the end of the day, getting away from it all with a unique and specialized rod and reel will always be therapeutic!

Of the current offerings I am not too impressed and I have not been on the water in great while.

i am pleased to see people modding their reels. I get some ideas from them and when the time comes and hopefully the tariffs ease up, i have some parts to get. For now its about getting more OSP Blitz Max Plus Dr and getting them wet..

God bless you all.  

I wasn't sure if I was part of this when it was resurrected and found out, yeah, I was.  I'm a firm believer that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything, so I'm a drawer of lines.  Daiwa over Shimano, RAID Japan over Deps, although I'm still working with Daiwa vs RAID Japan on rods ... but mostly JDM over USDM/KDM/ChinaDM and you got to put you money where your mouth is.

Certainly I'm not spending as much as I did BUT I really didn't need that much.  Yeah, I'm thinking about getting a new RAID Japan Power Nose rod because it's the most sensitive light plastic I have ever used.  I just bought 2 new A II reels because I lost info on them in a computer crash.  I'll prefer RAID Japan and O.S.P. baits, with a few exceptions.  

I don't need a Precision bass anymore, just knock around on an old acoustic.  Never was a gear head or tech nut.  When I quit smoking almost 25 years ago, it allowed me to put my cash into others more productive (?) places.

Tight cash makes for researched purchases.  

@blitzdr I love that you draw lines.  I am an incredibly opinionated person and it is difficult to sway my beliefs.  In today’s day and age,  I’d go so far to say I am anti-Shimano.  The way they kicked Iyoken out of their team and basically removed the Bantam line was the dumbest move to Shimano bass fishing ever.  No Ken Iyobe, no Shimano Bass, and that’s that, no questions or objections.  Imagine letting the face of your company’s Bass division go.  Shimano has given up on the bass market, forget all the stuff happening here in NA, doesn’t mean anything, a bunch of overly marked up mid-products I don’t care for at all.  And the partnership with loomis on top of that ruins everything.  

Daiwa went ahead and scooped up all the best bass pros in Japan, some of the most notable being Daisuke Aoki, Kyoya Fujita, and Katsuya Sasaki (up and coming).  They’re coming out with awesome stuff, just look at the steez lines.  Allowing Aoki to remake some of his famous tapers in Steez form is a power move.  Shimano is dead, Daiwa is only growing.  

Shimano is part of killing the Bass market, and another company that is responsible is Megabass.  They went from dominating in 2000s to 2010s to being absolute garbage.  They are terrible, mind-numbingly terrible right now, when it comes to dealing with retailers and even just their products in general.  What happened to the old megabass?

The sad thing is so many so-called enthusiasts flock to megabass ONLY when they look at JDM enthusiast gear.  L Catterton buying out megabass only made it worse.  I have briefly mentioned this in another thread before but given a chance to rant, I will keep going.  I hate it when companies get bought out and start deteriorating.

Geecrack is another company that pisses me off, when they went into the US market they became garbage.  You see some of their bait offerings now?  Terrible.  Cookie-cutter, copying other brands, just turning everything into their bellows series.  I can’t stand it, they were my favourite soft bait company at first.

In my opinion, all these companies that I pointed out are killing the industry.  And as an added effect, the community.  

To all the companies out there, please stop producing garbage and at the very least don’t market your garbage as diamonds.  I ain’t falling for you trashy bent handle rod (talking to you megabass), I also won’t fall for your stupid ribbed bait that is the same as your other ribbed bait (Geecrack).  

Innovation has been lost, everyone just jumps on the next big thing.  And the consumers are dumb enough to buy into it.  To be honest as consumers we are to blame too… if we weren’t dumb enough to entertain these trash companies they wouldn’t continue to make trash.  

Sorry for the long-winded rant, but this is coming from a guy who’s been an enthusiast for 10 years with a lot of pent up anger watching the industry go to absolute shambles (certainly a lot shorter than some of you but a long time for my age).

@hkbasser 

If you look at the RAID rod line, you can see a lot of the 2000 circa Megabass style rod style.  Talk about dissing your sponsored anglers, look at K Imae and how ABU treated him.  I'm sorry to politicize comment but the Romneyization of tackle companies will not end well.

I completely missed Abu, they also pissed me off.  Imagine fumbling and letting go of the best pros in Japan. LOL

Posted by: @blitzdr

↑

I wasn't sure if I was part of this when it was resurrected and found out, yeah, I was.  I'm a firm believer that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything, so I'm a drawer of lines.  Daiwa over Shimano, RAID Japan over Deps, although I'm still working with Daiwa vs RAID Japan on rods ... but mostly JDM over USDM/KDM/ChinaDM and you got to put you money where your mouth is.

Certainly I'm not spending as much as I did BUT I really didn't need that much.  Yeah, I'm thinking about getting a new RAID Japan Power Nose rod because it's the most sensitive light plastic I have ever used.  I just bought 2 new A II reels because I lost info on them in a computer crash.  I'll prefer RAID Japan and O.S.P. baits, with a few exceptions.  

I don't need a Precision bass anymore, just knock around on an old acoustic.  Never was a gear head or tech nut.  When I quit smoking almost 25 years ago, it allowed me to put my cash into others more productive (?) places.

Tight cash makes for researched purchases.  

Well said. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Posted by: @goldrod

↑

Posted by: @saoulons

↑

Lots of great points and I agree with most. I also feel like the market has changed quite a bit. I remember the days of yearly Megabass releases of Monoblocks and Lins and whatever else black magic Yuki Ito would dream up. Now it’s adding a Pop-X stick to the P5 lineup of 25 existing rod models, the 20th version of the griffon re-marketed as BFS and “limited color” #215 for the Vision 110. I am being facetious but I am so so so less excited about the market now than I was 7+ years ago. Maybe that’s what getting old is, looking back on the good ol’ days… lol. Maybe innovation has plateaued, maybe I’ve become a bit saturated and a bit jaded.

For me, the mail calls are few and far between, as are the outings, my Monoblocks have been through the mod ringer and most of my stuff has been through Ian’s magic shop.

I have less to say overall and less time / energy to say it. So I’ve become more of an occasional spectator than a contributor unfortunately and that’s really lame…

But I still love fishing and I still love enthusiast tackle. I’ve definitely focused more on enjoying what I have than chasing the next thing. And I still really enjoy seeing mail calls, outing reports, discussions about mods and tunes, etc.

Maybe I’ll make a New Year resolution to be more active 😎

 

 

Change can be good and life happens. Having a healthy work / life/ balance is important. Since things have grown to "Epic" proportions, my focus "Fury" has shifted in a major way. I can agree with you about change, but everything is changing, has changed or will change. The teachers had to worry about us brining in watch calculators now ever kid in the 9th grade and below knows how to use ChatGpt or that other thing to write papers and I have even heard of adults having AI write them a resume. Boats are a heck of a lot more expensive and the fuel as well. At the end of the day, getting away from it all with a unique and specialized rod and reel will always be therapeutic!

Of the current offerings I am not too impressed and I have not been on the water in great while.

i am pleased to see people modding their reels. I get some ideas from them and when the time comes and hopefully the tariffs ease up, i have some parts to get. For now its about getting more OSP Blitz Max Plus Dr and getting them wet..

God bless you all.  

 

X2…and well said, sir. 

Posted by: @hkbasser

↑

@blitzdr I love that you draw lines.  I am an incredibly opinionated person and it is difficult to sway my beliefs.  In today’s day and age,  I’d go so far to say I am anti-Shimano.  The way they kicked Iyoken out of their team and basically removed the Bantam line was the dumbest move to Shimano bass fishing ever.  No Ken Iyobe, no Shimano Bass, and that’s that, no questions or objections.  Imagine letting the face of your company’s Bass division go.  Shimano has given up on the bass market, forget all the stuff happening here in NA, doesn’t mean anything, a bunch of overly marked up mid-products I don’t care for at all.  And the partnership with loomis on top of that ruins everything.  

Daiwa went ahead and scooped up all the best bass pros in Japan, some of the most notable being Daisuke Aoki, Kyoya Fujita, and Katsuya Sasaki (up and coming).  They’re coming out with awesome stuff, just look at the steez lines.  Allowing Aoki to remake some of his famous tapers in Steez form is a power move.  Shimano is dead, Daiwa is only growing.  

Shimano is part of killing the Bass market, and another company that is responsible is Megabass.  They went from dominating in 2000s to 2010s to being absolute garbage.  They are terrible, mind-numbingly terrible right now, when it comes to dealing with retailers and even just their products in general.  What happened to the old megabass?

The sad thing is so many so-called enthusiasts flock to megabass ONLY when they look at JDM enthusiast gear.  L Catterton buying out megabass only made it worse.  I have briefly mentioned this in another thread before but given a chance to rant, I will keep going.  I hate it when companies get bought out and start deteriorating.

Geecrack is another company that pisses me off, when they went into the US market they became garbage.  You see some of their bait offerings now?  Terrible.  Cookie-cutter, copying other brands, just turning everything into their bellows series.  I can’t stand it, they were my favourite soft bait company at first.

In my opinion, all these companies that I pointed out are killing the industry.  And as an added effect, the community.  

To all the companies out there, please stop producing garbage and at the very least don’t market your garbage as diamonds.  I ain’t falling for you trashy bent handle rod (talking to you megabass), I also won’t fall for your stupid ribbed bait that is the same as your other ribbed bait (Geecrack).  

Innovation has been lost, everyone just jumps on the next big thing.  And the consumers are dumb enough to buy into it.  To be honest as consumers we are to blame too… if we weren’t dumb enough to entertain these trash companies they wouldn’t continue to make trash.  

Sorry for the long-winded rant, but this is coming from a guy who’s been an enthusiast for 10 years with a lot of pent up anger watching the industry go to absolute shambles (certainly a lot shorter than some of you but a long time for my age).

Absolutely love your fire for this HK, and I’ve definitely felt this way about MB/other brands since about 2015. I’m also fairly certain most of the members here have (at one time or another) said much of the same, or at least think it! And as you stated…It’s only getting worse. 

That said…Don’t ever apologize for speaking your mind on this, or any other topic. I’m someone who very much respects honestly and healthy discussions/debates. Not to mention, bringing awareness to such things is very important. The manufacturers need to hear these things from us. This sport is something we are all very passionate about and as consumers that spend waaaaaaayyyyy too much money on our beloved gear, we should have more say in what’s developed. Unfortunately, quantity/profit > quality and ediocrity is the way these days. We need a shift in this trajectory and we need it now. 

Posted by: @blitzdr

↑

@hkbasser 

If you look at the RAID rod line, you can see a lot of the 2000 circa Megabass style rod style.  Talk about dissing your sponsored anglers, look at K Imae and how ABU treated him.  I'm sorry to politicize comment but the Romneyization of tackle companies will not end well.

Truth…🫡