The Asian Angler December 2014 Digital Issue - Malaysia - English | Page 12

My fellow anglers and friends, Being a magazine owner and editor I get asked all sorts of questions. One of them is why I do most of my field tests at commercial fishing ponds instead as they don’t represent the real world of fishing. Valid question this is and this is why. Field testing products out at sea or in a natural lake may be the real deal but we may not get accurate results since not all trips that cost a lot money yield results. Being a free magazine we do not have the liberty to spend and not get results of which simply means catching sizable fishes and have the tackle (being tested) tortured. This is why we field test often at commercial fishing ponds where fishes are large enough to put products through the test. What we basically want to find out is how these products react depending on the various specifications that the manufacturer or brands advertise as well as to see if the general basic conditions are met. Thus it makes more sense to test them at commercial fishing ponds. This is not to say that we do not test products in natural environments. We do and we do often as well but there are trips that end up without results or even the opportunity to test products as the fishes may not be cooperative or may not be large enough to give any form of challenge. Well, in the motoring industry while cars are tested on public roads they are tested at test tracks too such as the famous Nürburgring in Germany. The reason is that the real world may not present enough opportunities to test certain things and thus a test track is needed. The same thing goes to fishing. Thank you for your support and happy reading. Cheers, Phil Editor In Chief