One happy development: I've learned to make knots that are so strong they're actually stronger than the lures I use. Twice I've got (cheap) lures caught on submersed branches. Using gloves and brute strength, I pulled on (itself immensely strong) braided line I'm using and managed in one case to tow the branch (or whatever I was hooked on). Doing so dislodged the thing from the lake bed to the point that a big gas bubble came up. When the thing suddenly snapped, it turned out that it was the lure that broke, not the knot failing.
The knots I use: trilene for mono and fluoro lines; surgeon's knots for putting together unlike types of line; and the mighty palomar for braided line.
If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.
—George Carlin