I can’t tell you with a straight face that I’m not materialistic, because I probably have more fishing tackle than I can use in three lifetimes. What I can say, however, is that I’m not so bound by my fishing possessions that the loss of any one of them would make me curl up into a fetal position. Sure, some topwaters and crankbaits are rarer and arguably more effective than others, but two things that you learn over a lifetime of bass fishing are: (1) you need to throw baits into the nasty stuff to catch more fish; and (2) some of those warriors aren’t coming home.

The bottom line is that you’re going to get snagged, and no matter how good your plug knocker is, each attempt to get a lure freed is a mini underwater morality play. How much time do you spend on it? Does it depend on how much the lure cost? Or whether you have more of them? Or whether you’re racing the clock in a tournament? Or whether the lure is stuck where some unfortunate swimmer might step on it? It’s a complicated calculation and you can tell a lot about someone by how they react to snapping off a prized bait. Too casual about it and they’re not a deep thinker, and likely don’t give a damn about anything. On the flip side, if they’re so broken up about the loss that it hampers their fishing (and I’ve seen grown men go through all five stages of grief) then they’ve let the cart pull the horse.