Truth in advertising.

Back in June I posted my bewilderment over a particular Symbicort commercial that appeared to portray fly fishing, albeit very poorly. Myself and many others saw countless flaws in the content of the commercial in which fly fishing gear was apparently merged ignorantly with a mish-mash of gear rods and bobbers. My original post is HERE.

Others also took note of the apparent inaccuracies of the commercial. Why, over at the Ozark Anglers discussion forum they were all in an uproar as well. Check out that discusssion HERE.

The comments posted on the UA confirmed my findings as many of you noted the same twisted depictions that I did. However, in the months since my original blog entry on the matter, a few comments have been posted, setting me straight. Apparently the method of fishing being shown in the commercial is not a rag-tag assembly of gear rods with fly reels and bobbers, as I so alleged, but rather centerpin setups. I’ve heard of centerpin fishing, though I’ve never tried it nor have I ever seen it done first hand. From videos it doesn’t look like that much fun. I could be wrong (I’ve been wrong before).

So let’s give credit where credit is due; to those in the peanut gallery who shown light on the matter:

First up was Sean, who on July 5th said:

“That is actually a center pin reel. You use them with floats (aka bobbers). The rods are typically very long (like 11ft or more). They are VERY effective at drifting your bait or fly in streams and rivers.”

Thanks, Sean, for the clarification.

Then, on September 7th RK chimed in:

“Not a fly reel guys, its a centerpin reel, and they were float fishing..”

RK, thanks for corroborating that which Sean pointed out.

And then the very next day, Mike offered his two cents on the matter:

“This is a center-pin set up (a free running reel with no drag) and yes they do use bobber’s and is a very sucessful way of catching trout”

Thanks, Mike. Sean and RK mentioned the same thing.

One might think that 3 comments would suffice, but wait—there’s more!

On September 22nd Jack wrote:

“Yup, centerpin float fishing…. if you guys had ever fished for a real fish over 1lb… say in the 15-30lb range, like a steelhead or salmon you would understand. Oh and yes, when these fish run upriver they find their way into small streams and creeks to spawn. You use a centerpin set up and float so that you can get an absolutely natural drift on a fish without them seeing your main line. I think the director may have known what he wanted, but obviously the general public has no clue.”

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…except that Sean, RK and Mike were quicker. Jack, you said, “if you guys had ever fished for a real fish over 1lb…”  There’s no need to get surly, Jack—we’re all friends here in the back room of the Unaccomplished Angler. Centerpin fishing is fairly obscure, as evidenced by the fact that so many who left comments on the original post were in the same position as myself: innocently ignorant. And among those who commented are some very experienced fly anglers, some of them very accustomed to fly fishing for large anadromous fish that find their way upriver to span in small streams and creeks. If it was centerpin fishing, so be it. But why did they have a fly line on the centerpin reel?  Isn’t mono what is typically used in centerpinning? Honestly, I don’t know.

Water under the bridge.

I will say one thing: perhaps the director of the commercial was a genius, because by portraying an obscure method of fishing they sure got a lot of people talking about it…

Comments welcome.