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September 6, 2009

‘Fishouflage’ not all it’s dressed up to be

By John Cross

I may suffer some insecurities from time to time but worrying about whether people identify me as an avid angler is not one of them.

But some of us evidently need a little bit more to affirm our fondness of piscatorial pursuits.

Otherwise, there would be no need for “Fishouflage.”

Never heard of it?

Neither had I until a friend recently e-mailed several Web links about the stuff to me.

Now, I’ll admit to having my interest piqued a bit over the idea, illogical as it might seem, of a camouflage for anglers.

I mean, what kind of pattern or colors might actually hide or minimize an angler and his movements from a fish?

And if it worked, well, wouldn’t that be something!

But it turns out that making anglers invisible isn’t the point of Fishouflage at all.

Indeed, spokesmen and marketing materials for the product unabashedly admit right up front that the stuff which resembles conventional hunting camouflage except that instead of oak leaves and the like, the patterns consists of aquatic vegetation with various fish species lurking in it, won’t hide an angler, a boat, or anything else from our quarry.

Fishouflage is — in the words of the company marketing it — “designed wholly and solely to be the ‘lifestyle identifier’ for the worldwide angling community” and “created for those men and women who take their recreational fishing so seriously that they chose to be called ‘anglers’ instead of fishermen or fisherwomen.”

Wow! Now this sounds like some pretty serious stuff.

Not that I’ve ever worried about it but that I’m frequently out on the water with a fishing pole in my hand ought to be proof enough that I love to fish.

And if I happen to be sporting a bit of unshaven stubble and smell faintly of fish, so much the better.

Professional angling gurus like Al Lindner and Chad Morgenthaler are even touting the stuff as the uniform of the future for the really serious angling masses. With straight faces, no less.

“You stand a little taller when wearing a uniform,” intones Al in a spot.

Now, I’m not going to criticize either fellow for being a spokesperson for the product. They are, after all, professional anglers which means they get paid for doing things the rest of us do for fun. Or to read a script written by some marketing company.

But my, such gravitas over what we wear (or apparently ought to wear) when we go fishing.

Recognizing that any publicity, even publicity heavily tainted with a degree of skepticism, is better than none at all, I’m probably playing right into the hands of Fishouflage by mentioning it in the first place.

(And admit it. As soon as you’re done reading this, you’ll go to the computer and Google to find out a little bit more about it.) Mea culpa

But I’m still willing to make a prediction that Fishouflage is something that isn’t exactly going to spread like wildfire through the angling masses.

Or in the words of some of their marketing folks, “tell the world ‘I am an angler’ without having to say much at all.”

Of course, this prediction comes from the same guy that said microwaves, VCRs, and cell phones would never catch on, either.



John Cross is a Free Press staff writer. Contact him at 344-6376 or by e-mail at jcross@mankatofreepress.com.

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