QED

Sorry to hear it. In some cases, companies buy other companies to, inter alia, acquire their customer base or to take out a competitor. In those cases, the target company employees are just an afterthought. Relatively rare in tech acquisitions of startups.

Normally, when firms buy other companies, especially private companies (if that was the case), they provide incentives for key employees to stick around for a while. So I wouldn't write them off just yet, unless you have some inside information to the contrary.

That info is a couple of years old.

Is this news related to the prior BDT Capital Partners investment or is this a net new thing?

True enough, but having access to a deep-pocket parent (and parent's parent) firm will make funding R&D/new product projects a bit easier.

I believe GSM was acquired by Gridiron Capital last year so this is probably the first step in a larger, strategic move. Probably a good thing for Senko customers going forward.

My nearest lake (~4 mi) doesn't have a lot of rigid submerged stuff for fish to wrap you up and break you off on so I can get away with UL to light gear most of the time. Watercraft of all types are prohibited so it's bank fishing only. Thanks to covid, we (SV tech company) are still mostly working from home with flexible hours, so except for scheduled zoom meetings, I can go fishing pretty much any time I like. I've been splitting usage of rigs 50/50 between UL/light spinning gear and UL/BFS casting gear, just to keep both types of casting skills part of recent muscle memory. Shimano made some true UL carbon fiber casting rods way back when with beautiful cold forged aluminum pistol grips. Coupled with modern, compact, low-mass-spool casting reels, 4lb line and 1/16oz baits handle just fine, so the spinning and casting rigs have a fair bit of overlap in the UL/light/BFS/finesse range, but I'm relatively indifferent as between spinning vs casting, because I like them both.

I believe (or at least I hope) that lying not is a big issue here. But I do believe that confirmation bias colors most peoples opinions - even informed opinions. That is why contextual information or consistency with personal experience is important to be able to filter the signal from the noise.

By twists, do you mean crossings vs full turns? With respect to improved clinch knots, I've been using 5-1/2 turns (i.e., 11 crossings) for 2-8# test mono without any issues.

I continue to use black spinnerbaits with black blades with black plastic trailers as well as chartreuse spinnerbaits with chartreuse blades with chartreuse plastic trailers. I don't keep enough detailed records to provide any reliable statistics but they both continue to work well for me over a span of many years. So in at least these cases, I believe but can't prove that colored blades don't hurt anything.

OK, I was wrong. Most people have a smart phone now. They are awesome compute and communication devices. Multi-core ARM 64-bit v8 processors in phones are better than those used in desktop computers from not that long ago. Also, if you shoot, then they are absolutely an enormous benefit because of all the great available ballistic solvers. But if you don't have pix of your catch, then it still never happened, Luddite! ?

Bait casting reels generally provide better cast control (i.e., your thumb + brake system) vs feathering a spinning reel with your forefinger. High end ultralight or BFS bait casting reels let you cast very light lures about as well as UL/light spinning gear, so lure weight isn't a particularly definitive decision factor. Do what you prefer. If you prefer spinning, go forth and enjoy. As noted above, you can get casting reels or spinning reels in left or right hand versions so that shouldn't be an important decision factor either.

A healthy dose of skepticism should be de rigueur for reviewing social media or even news media. But if you consider the contextual information in any opinion/recommendation plus how reliably a particular source has provided other [useful] recommendations, then you can usually separate the wheat from the chaff. That's the only way to properly use yelp, for example.

Lol! Fortunately, everyone has smart phones now so "pix or it didn't happen." In a few years, consumer photo editing software may have sufficiently good AI/ML that they can create "deep fakes" so photos won't be valid proof anymore.

My tackle box from high school. Almost everything is 1/4oz or less. Haven't fished it recently because everything is pretty much irreplaceable (other than occasionally on e-bay). But the modern ned rig, 4" wacky senkos, and <= 1/4oz chatterbaits work fine for the same basic light/UL presentations.

With a black colorado blade and a black mister twister sinsation trailer. Has been a great producer for years.

I use polarized shooting glasses. https://www.tacticalrx.com/ This place does prescription shooting glasses. They can grind custom Rx lenses in complex shapes (no inserts required, as inserts suck). Spendy but worth it.

Zman ned rig jigheads with small TRDs, wacky rigged senkos, and Zman chatterbaits. I took a very long haitus from fishing to work on my career (tech transactions, intellectual property, and patents) so these were all new to me, even though they've been around for a while.

This is the best spinning reel. Some would argue that its Daiwa equivalent is the best. Either one is not in the neighborhood of inexpensive,

I always wear polarized sunglasses both for better visibility through the water and for eye protection. Problem solved.

I've successfully used down to 4lb mono on BFS casting gear but eventually settled on 6-8lb test mono based upon practical considerations.

Doesn't BPS use the same contract manufacturer (CM) as Lew's? I prefer Lew's because they sort of invented the low-profile casting reel category and all of their early Japanese CMs knocked off their design features.

I've used opaque purplish/brown and black mister twister 4" lizards forever and they continue to be productive. At the lake near my home (~4 miles), we have indigenous newts all around the adjacent areas so not surprising that they work.

Some aquatic snails can be good eats if you know how to prepare them. And if you are a Francophile, then you can eat land based snails too.

Or break your strong side collarbone in bike racing pileup and then you'll learn to use your off arm/hand pretty quickly. ?