Catch Fish with Diamonds - The Worlds Most Expensive Fishing Lure

We had to do several double takes as far as this diamond and ruby encrusted lure is concerned on the basis that we felt certain that we had fallen prey to an especially far fetched lack of sleep induced hallucination but, having slapped ourselves around the face a few times (the wife seemed unusually eager to assist) and having duly checked the alcohol content of our beer we can confirm that some things are indeed stranger than fiction.

Regular readers will have long since come to the understandable assumption that we are going to dislike this item with a passion and a vigour of such magnitude that your screen is liable to implode (ok, unlikely, but should this be the case we accept no liability whatsoever) but, here’s the rub. We don’t.

How can we? After all we now think we have at last seen the wider picture in the ongoing trend to cover just about everything in precious metals and/or gem stones – and we’re shocked that it’s taken us so long to understand precisely what’s going on here.

There is, we now believe, a concerted effort on behalf of some underground, international group to wholly devalue any ingredient that could be considered a prerequisite of bling, if not of its monetary value then, at the very least, of its desirability. And, the simplest way to accomplish this is to use precious metals and gem stones in some of the most ludicrous manners conceivable to the point where presenting the woman of your dreams a ring fashioned with a glass imitation stone housed in a tin band will be seen as an overt compliment from someone with discerning taste.

We’ve seen gold iPods and jewel laden Nokia N95’s – to name but a few – and now, surely a masterstroke, this diamond and ruby encrusted big game fishing lure valued at a startling $1 million.

And, as if this were not startling enough – we like it. Has the world gone mad? Inexorably so it would seem - and we have every intention of blending seamlessly in on the basis of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em).

It’s hard to explain why we like this having previously slated other items of the same ilk without sounding wholly hypocritical – but we’ll have a go (my apologies in advance).

As a lure we find it totally absurd – and in truth, it stands for everything we despise about so many things: unfettered greed, the growing divide between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and the evolving sense that blatant, overbearing, obnoxious displays of wealth is some new kind spiritualism when in fact it has more akin to porn.

As an object, however, it has a curious beauty and there can be little doubting the degree of craftsmanship involved in its production (the lure consists of 3lbs of gold and platinum and around 100 carets of set diamonds and rubies). It really is exquisite – though rather more so as an item of jewellery than a $1 million big game lure.

Have we convinced you that we’re not hypocrites? No, I thought not as we can hardly convince ourselves.

Perhaps it’s just better to admit to liking it without fully understanding why.