Quote Originally Posted by cross creek View Post
This thread has gotten to the point where it's like asking if high dollar autos are worth it, or guns, or musical instruments, or horses--if you can afford nicer things and have the skill to appreciate them, why not? I'm pretty sure that if we leave this life with anything at all, it's a lot more likely to be memories of our great experiences than the money we saved. Will SS lines outlast average or other lines under most conditions (short of trampling with studded boots, dragging through rocks, and other assorted ways we destroy lines)?--yes. Will they turn a neophyte into an expert?--no. Are they worth it?--If you can afford a $70 line (the going rate for most other top lines), I think you can probably handle an additional $30, and I think that one of the many tapers now available in the SS line up will absolutely make your toes curl. If you're happy with $30 lines, and $75 rods, and $150 shotguns, etc, you'll think they're overpriced no matter how many people tell you otherwise, and that's fine, too. An expert fisherman can do a lot more with a bargain basement outfit than a beginner can do with the best tackle, but both will get more enjoyment and, to a varying degree, better performance, out of something better. Personally, I'd rather have a mid-level rod and top-grade line than the other way around, but I know plenty of people who disagree and think line development post 1965 has been pretty unimportant.
-CC
Basically it never has been the $$ with me. Ive never bought the latest and greatest that ever...I repeat EVER turned out to be as good " as advertised". After "it" has been on the market for a time and has undergone the typical improvements...THEN I buy.

Someone already has posted that "they" have changed the lines to reduce the "noise" ( I forget just how it was stated??) they generated...not that any sound it makes less than a full brass band would bother me...but its typical of "the latest and greatest" of anything.

How many times has the latest and greatest been a new series of say flyrod....the lineup which lasts 1 to 1 1/2 years and then disappears because it was superseded by the "next generation" ( i.e. the latest and greatest ).

I didnt work all those years to afford a "Mossberg" when a Browning O/U did the "job" a LOT better. Nor a Sage flyrod as compared to a Cortland kit combo. Motorhomes or "brides"...Im willing to work for them...hence I deserve the absolute best I can afford.