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Camo is not unnecessary

Nutterbuster said:
I have no doubt fish have pretty solid vision since they have camouflage and breeding colors. No need to evolve those things if ya can't see down there.

I have no problem with entertaining the idea that fish learn. Nothing like human consciousness, but they have a nervous system and a brain and many of them are social creatures. It'd be weirder if they didn't learn to some degree than if they did.

But...how many times does one fish have to see a lure, hit it, and have the hook set to catch onto a ruse? How many fishermen have to throw that lure, and for how long? Why did the bass and bluegill in the residential pond at my first apartment hit a white Berkeley powerbait jig almost every day of the summer for 3 years without catching on? And why haven't fish by now learned that earthworms floating in the water almost certainly have a hook attached to them?
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Did you keep these fish? If not, is it possible that they learned it's ok to get hooked? Food > hook?

I definitely agree some fish just don't care, or learn I suppose. My grandfather used to use neon green line and we/he'd catch the same fish with green line sticking out of it's mouth if he decided to cut his line instead of ripping a swallowed hook out
 
The pond at work I had successfully domesticated a largemouth. U could catch him whenever u wanted even twice in the same day.. If he came close enough to the edge u could touch him. 2 pounds maybe so not a lunker butt not a guppy either.... He hung around the break area for couple months but I think someone caught him over a weekend and took him because 1 Monday he was just gone and never seen again.. He had distinctive markings so I know it was the same fish.....I randomly caught that fish 1 day and when I released he just never left the area by the picnic table....weird

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I like the post about not being seen by other people.

I like to wear camo kinda like my work clothes type of thing.
I will say it helps to an extent but the post about being quiet and still is money.

With that said, I have shot deer in shorts, jeans and wife beaters. Everything short of PJs. including crocs(shoutout).
 
I think if you're ground hunting it can absolutely help. In a tree in a saddle.. I'm not sold. I don't like black and if you're just wearing mix and match earth tones I think the gain to camo is minimal. That said, I wear camo most of the time.

The huge benefit of buying solids is you can wear it year round. This isn't unsubstantial considering the cost.
 
Bump79 said:
I think if you're ground hunting it can absolutely help. In a tree in a saddle.. I'm not sold. I don't like black and if you're just wearing mix and match earth tones I think the gain to camo is minimal. That said, I wear camo most of the time.

The huge benefit of buying solids is you can wear it year round. This isn't unsubstantial considering the cost.
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Why would I want to wear my hunting clothes year round? So they can pick up any and all odors known to man.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
Why would I want to wear my hunting clothes year round? So they can pick up any and all odors known to man.
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I wear lots of my hunting clothes year round.

I usually kill as many deer as time/law allows every year. Most of these are bucks.

I wash all but a couple wool garments regularly.

I fail to see the connection between these two things.

I don’t hold out for booners, maybe that’s the issue.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
Why would I want to wear my hunting clothes year round? So they can pick up any and all odors known to man.
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Cost. I've got a family, expensive hobbies and goals. The less I spend on clothes the more I can spend on tags and time off. More time off = more success.

If I get a great deal on camo in some classified section or Camofire I buy it. If I can get the solids cheaper somewhere I buy that. I have accumulated a pretty damn nice setup over the last 10 years. If you get a good deal and wear it year round I have little to no explaining to do for the wife. If I have expensive stuff that sits in a box taking up space.. she's reasonable but it's a conversation I'd rather not have. Especially when it seems like every time I make a purchase coincidentally a Lululemon box shows up shortly after..

Personally, I don't worry that much about scent. I wash my clothes before hunts with scent free detergent, air them out between and hunt the wind. I wear my merino tops all the time, the benefit of merino is that it doesn't as much hold odor. I hike and scout almost every weekend in the offseason and wear my solid hunting clothes. All of my polyester clothes are treated from the factory and really don't get much odor on them. Plus, a lot of the newer solids look pretty sharp.

I think odor control is over stated. I'm from out west and the benefit of vast country is you can visually see what you're bumping. I've bumped many an elk from over a mile away with a bad wind. The scent parts per million that is at that distance is so small and they still get you. You learn you just can't get away with it. So I just don't buy that I can control my scent enough to not get busted at close range & sitting stationary for hours regardless of your scent regimen. I think most people in the woods don't realize what they are bumping because you can't see or hear them as easily. Or they just move around you and you never knew what you missed out on.

That said, to each their own. I don't care what others do and I don't want to hijack this thread for scent control.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
Yeah. So If I spend say $300 dollars on Scent Lok clothing and use it for 10 years I've got $30 bucks a year invested. Big deal. Also, I don't worry about what my wife thinks because I'm not kitty whipped:tearsofjoy:
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Fair point on the cost side and as I said, to each their own. We all have different needs and I was just explaining mine. As I said I do have mostly camo and wear it often. Albeit a hodgepodge of different patterns and usually solids mixed in the layers. I just don't put a lot of weight into camo or over the top scent control personally. If that's not for you then awesome.. I was just trying to give honest feedback to the OP.

I've got much more than $300 invested in my clothes as I hunt back home in Montana every year and need a more diverse system than what Scent Lok offers. If I just hunted the whitetail rut, then sure one system. My needs are Early Season Kentucky whitetail, archery elk every year, often a mule deer hunt in SD with my brother, often elk in Wyoming with my best friend, then late season public land KY mobile hunting takes a bit of figuring to get a system dialed. Western stuff tends to be too loud or fragile for brush/torns here in KY. Whitetail stuff is generally awful for active hunting and layering (but getting better). Hunting in the plains, dark timber for elk and whitetail also doesn't always jive for one camo. I've been researching, buying & selling stuff pretty regularly for 8+ years till I got it pretty dialed in now. If I can wear say 50% of it most the winter, hiking, scouting, fishing or the yearly ski trip then it sure helps out on cost. You would be taking that $300 budget and expanding it to $600.

With all my tinkering I could set up a new hunter in solids from hiking/hunting to cover all the conditions above at a much lower cost than my system with camo in the mix. $300 in solids will get you a lot further in quality clothing than $300 in hunting clothes. That's my point.

I love my wife and respect her opinion. I'm not embarrassed by that as she's my best friend and if she wasn't I wouldn't have married her. She puts up with all BS above.... so there's a balance there to keep her happy which I'm glad to do. Mainly consisting of endless home improvement projects that I have no desire to do.
 
Holy crap! You sure do get to hunt a lot. I can see why you have to have a big variety of clothing both camo and solids. I tend to focus on whitetails so my needs aren't as diverse as your. I'm also sure I've spent more than $300 dollars on hunting clothes too :tearsofjoy: Also no offense with the kitty comment I hope. That's just me being the the grumpy old Mainah that I am.
 
I think one area I like camo for is hiding from other hunters. It does trick the human eye more than red and black plaid with blue jeans, even if we assume deer aren't affected.

I have one area where you have to wade a shallow river to get to it....and it seems no one else is doing it. I have a few hundred acres of public untouched. My arrow wraps are blaze orange. When vehicles drive by slow looking and they can see me, I stop moving and hide my arrow wraps so they are less likely to get the idea "hey, that guy was able to cross that river...maybe we should too?"
 
DroptineKrazy said:
Holy crap! You sure do get to hunt a lot. I can see why you have to have a big variety of clothing both camo and solids. I tend to focus on whitetails so my needs aren't as diverse as your. I'm also sure I've spent more than $300 dollars on hunting clothes too :tearsofjoy: Also no offense with the kitty comment I hope. That's just me being the the grumpy old Mainah that I am.
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I don't want to overplay it... as my success rate or size really isn't great! Yeah I get out pretty much every weekend while home in Kentucky where I've been now for a few years, a 4.5 month season. Quite the learning curve coming from out west. Part of the deal moving to Kentucky where my wife is from I go home to hunt 1-2 times per year.
 
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