Mr. Brunt
I don't think you have stepped out on a limb, nor made a fool of yourself. But rather done a good job of explaining your thought process, much of which I totally agree with.

One thing I do is to learn how a bait/lure feels when being cranked, swam, falling, crawling through or hitting structure. For those times that bite is subtle and not bone jarring.
What I actually feel and set the hook on is not the bite, but the difference in what I no longer feel the bait doing.
I like your term;
"We could view this as a natural resonant frequency for the system” a disturbance in that system may be what triggers the "autonomous response" that we (I) pick up on before setting the hook.

And yes some rods are so sensitive that I have taught myself to delay the hook set to allow the fish time enough to engulf the bait completely in their mouths. Whether they are too sensitive or not I think depends on the persons using them and their ability to detect and control what they are doing.

Mr. Brunt,

Are refering to a accelerometer - which can be use measuring motion and vibration (shock). Do you have expericence with this sensor ? What instrument can you find it in other than a car ?

Ben

Ben, I do think an accelerometer could be put to good use. Used to be they were too costly but that is no longer the case. You might care to spend some time with the radio controlled car/plane hobby guys. These days they are used in so many products you would be amazed. Chances are your cell phone, laptop, and game controller have one. I brought up the cycloid part because in one of the threads that you linked to, someone wondered why the hertz of the rod didn't change as the deflection was increased. While it is true that the path of a rod being deflected over a large enough scale will trace an ellipse, for small scale deflections it may be close enough to a cycloid to explain this.

Steve it seems we have much in common, from fishing styles to appreciation of character:) You know in most sports training is taken for granted. The mechanics required are broken down into discrete steps and worked on individually. Every day more importance is placed on the mental aspect. It is vital to believe in one’s ability and to emerge yourself in the activity to the exclusion of distractions. Why is it that most fishermen aren’t willing? Oh they might practice casting but little more. They certainly don’t stand in front of a mirror and utter affirmations. As this topic has been beat to death maybe we should discuss “Zen and the art of becoming one with your lure” next. I’d be afraid to bring up “Personal affirmations and the correlation to fishing success”.

Mostly I say this because of another hobby I have recently taken up, bullseye pistol shooting. It is truly amazing the difference it makes once you buy into the concept that all you have to do is trust in yourself and simply not screw up the shot. Any attempt to time your shot in relationship to what you see through the sights is going down the road to mediocrity. I did feel silly spending hours in a dark room getting intimately in touch with my trigger. Ditto on the time spent aiming at a blank piece of paper and learning that having something to aim at was only a distraction. Main point here is once I understood training didn't involve real bullets and started working on the individual steps and the mental aspect I did much better.

So sure, rod building isn’t rocket science but taking a cue from other sports and science can make us better anglers IMHO. I suspect with a little work you could tell what grit sand paper you just wall papered the swimming pool with.

BTW guys, my dad is Mr. Brunt. I'm just plain old Russ. Steve I do admit to being conditioned to setting the hook and over reacting with braid and circle hooks. Old habits die hard. Personally I am delighted to have such a problem and wouldn't dream of dumbing down my rod to prevent such mistakes on my part.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.