The subject of 'who copied who' has come up here before. It has come up again in this thread, and it will come up again in the future. This has been going on since day 1 of big bait fishing (anyone want to argue about who invented the AC Plug? ... oh please don't).

As a fisherman intent on catching bass, my thought around lures is "the more the merrier". The more variations, colors, and actions available the better when it comes to the basic goal of catching fish. If I owned a Rago Baby Tool, a BBZ-1, and this new Reaction Strike bait I would try all of them and and use whichever one caught the most fish. As it is, I don't own any of those three baits - but that is my approach generally with copy baits. I try them, I use what works.

Personal experience has shown me that it's usually the first guy who gets it right. That's why I still fish brush hogs. That's why I still fish senkos. That's why I still chuck the Huddleston Deluxe. But I do keep an open mind, and I do try new stuff, and I do review all the swimbait products I can get a hold of on calfishing.com because I'm trying to serve you, the consumer of this web site, with a complete and objective set of reviews.

This behavior hasn't endeared me to some of the swimbait makers out there who (rightfully) feel a very strong connection to their creations and get really upset when they are copied. I do understand the blood, sweat, and tears that go in to making a bait. I've tried on many occasions to make my own baits and I appreciate the difficulty. But what I don't do is get involved in the 'who copied who' fights. I'm just a fisherman, I'm not the patent office.

As far as this thread goes, if you guys want to have a reasonable conversation about this type of stuff, I can hang with that. I may sit here cringing when I see some of these posts because I've seen where posts like that have gone in the past. But as long as these posts don't degenerate in to name calling and calling each other out, they'll stay. I'm an optimist by nature and I'm going to hope that no posts have to be deleted in this thread. I happen to think that the people who visit and post on calfishing.com are a higher quality group when it comes to fishing, intelligence, and reasonable behavior. Please prove me right.

-Rob