Do you find that this sport is made difficult and expensive for no reason?

[DINK WHISPERER]

I feel ya! I've been liquidating excess and spare gear for a month now and haven't even put a dent in the tackle closet! 

[Buffdaddy54]

I'm laughing at this thread. I just got back from my local BassPro where I bought a certain soft plastic "that I just had to have." Since February I've been out fishing exactly 3 times for a total of 5 hours.(1- 2lber) 

At one point I had 3 KastKing Baitcasters and 3 Pflueger Spinning Reels.All functional for what I needed and skill level,but I got it into my head I just had to have better stuff. So I sold off all of that and within 2 months bought 2 Daiwa Baitcasters and 2 Daiwa Spinning Reels. When each package arrived my wife would look at me and say"why in the world did you buy ANOTHER fishing doohickey? YOU NEVER GO FISHING!" I also had at one point 6 rods but am now down to 4. I find this all kind of funny seeing how infrequently I actually do go out and fish.Boy would I really be in a spot if I could afford a boat!

AND DONT GET ME STARTED REGARDING THE AMOUNT OF SOFT PLASTICS I OWN!!

[JustJames]

It is just another expensive hobby, but at least I got to use it more often than any other expensive hobby of mine. Motorcycle now is parked in garage have not got on it for the last 9 months, in fact I registered as non-operations this year. Wood working tools, they are in the storage collecting dust, have not touch them for almost 2 years.

What else?

The wife?

Nah I keep that for next time lol.

[Smalliefan2]

The sport is more expensive than it used to be. I really don't want to go back to the old rods and reels. New is lighter, smoother, more sensitive and cost more. Like others, I have a limited number of set ups I use on my home lake, but use others on different lakes. My newest electronics are five years old, oldest is 13 years. you know stone age.

Baits, I could stock BPS. Again, different baits for different lakes, fish. Got a Ranger, 13 years old.

I fish tournaments, team and solo. Team out of a friends boat, and never seem to  have the rod or bait I need, because I carry a limited amount as a passenger.  I do have what I need on my boat for the technique when necessary.

Took a lot of my unused tackle and baits and donated to the local high school team. The other piece is I don't buy top end items,mid range is a good value at a reasonable cost.

The difficulty is so much information, different , new techniques, you can have brain overload, instead of just fishing.

I don't golf, go to sports events, travel much, plus I live on Chickamauga. Fishing is my passion, and release, so I don't feel I over do it, too much. 

[Yakalong]

It can be as expensive as you want it to be, or can afford. It is my hobby so I have no trouble with what I have spent on fishing. 

[Deleted account]

No.

[Happybeerbuzz]

No, the sport isn’t made anymore difficult.  That part is up to the fish mostly, and they haven’t changed all that much.  

 

 

As to the expense, it has gone through the roof, but there is a reason.  There are lots of people with more money than time, and you can’t take it all with you.  Generally speaking, that’s a good thing.  Like with many things technology has graced the sport of fishing, and it comes with a price tag.  Also, if you have the means to have every lure in every color, and it makes you happy, good for you.  On a side note, it is also good for me.  It will inspire people to make more lures for you of which one or two might catch my eye. ?

[Deleted account]

9 hours ago, Happybeerbuzz said:

As to the expense, it has gone through the roof, but there is a reason.  

Actually it hasn't. If you look at the cost of tackle, and compare it to a chronological standard like monthly salaries, or adjusted for inflation $, it has actually come down in cost. There are many factors for this of course, but the $300 spent for a reel today for example is much more affordable than the $20-60 one would have spent in the last century or so.

[Happybeerbuzz]

2 hours ago, reason said:

Actually it hasn't. If you look at the cost of tackle, and compare it to a chronological standard like monthly salaries, or adjusted for inflation $, it has actually come down in cost. There are many factors for this of course, but the $300 spent for a reel today for example is much more affordable than the $20-60 one would have spent in the last century or so.

You have to consider the context of the OP question.  He's questioning the merit Stren Original vs. Seagar Tatsu.

[Deleted account]

17 minutes ago, Happybeerbuzz said:

You have to consider the context of the OP question.  He's questioning the merit Stren Original vs. Seagar Tatsu.

My filter just ignored this cause merit and fluro were in the same sentence...

 

Seriously though, that's apples and oranges. That's like someone with their first car wanting to get the same tires the Nascar guys use cause then he'll be able to corner .005% faster on them.

[lo n slo]

On 7/16/2018 at 7:55 AM, the reel ess said:

My dad only wanted to fish a T-rigged 6" purple worm. EVER. 

i am hard headed like this. i still throw a t rig most of the time although i have branched out (LOL) to different colors these days. it comes down to being confident with familiarity i guess. 

 

my old high school football coach ran the triple option and we only had a handful of plays, but we could run them in our sleep. i’ve always held on to that mindset i guess.

 

yes, we had face masks ?

[Happybeerbuzz]

12 minutes ago, reason said:

Seriously though, that's apples and oranges. That's like someone with their first car wanting to get the same tires the Nascar guys use cause then he'll be able to corner .005% faster on them.

I still have the same answer though.  If you have the money, and you are so inclined, pimp your ride.  

[Deleted account]

3 minutes ago, Happybeerbuzz said:

I still have the same answer though.  If you have the money, and you are so inclined, pimp your ride.  

Oh yeah, for sure. I sell sporting goods for a living, so you are preaching to the choir. Spend away!

[the reel ess]

15 minutes ago, lo n slo said:

i am hard headed like this. i still throw a t rig most of the time although i have branched out (LOL) to different colors these days. it comes down to being confident with familiarity i guess. 

 

my old high school football coach ran the triple option and we only had a handful of plays, but we could run them in our sleep. i’ve always held on to that mindset i guess.

 

yes, we had face masks ?

I was stubborn about that purple worm myself until I started fishing other places and found that color preference by the fish was mainly a location thing. I don't know if that's due to forage, water clarity, quality or what. But when you go to your buddy's regular place and he says "use this color", you use that color.  

[mattkenzer]

2 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

But when you go to your buddy's regular place and he says "use this color", you use that color.  

Exactly!

[Chance_Taker4]

This reminds me of a time I met a professional Walleye angler. When we were introduced at a family reunion (wife's side) I told him a fish bass tournaments and very rarely for walleye. He chuckled and said "Oh your a bass guy, that means you spend thousands of dollars every year on equipment to catch smaller, easier fish." I laughed and agreed. Then he proceeded to tell me that a successful Walleye angler uses the least amount of tackle that can have compared to a successful bass angler who needs everything.

 

Personally I collect tons of rods and reels as it is my passion as a collector and don't have a lot of actual tackle.

[mattkenzer]

Repeat after me:

 

" Yes my dear, ALL this tackle and gear is necessary! "

[TOXIC]

10 minutes ago, Chance_Taker4 said:

This reminds me of a time I met a professional Walleye angler. When we were introduced at a family reunion (wife's side) I told him a fish bass tournaments and very rarely for walleye. He chuckled and said "Oh your a bass guy, that means you spend thousands of dollars every year on equipment to catch smaller, easier fish." I laughed and agreed. Then he proceeded to tell me that a successful Walleye angler uses the least amount of tackle that can have compared to a successful bass angler who needs everything.

 

Personally I collect tons of rods and reels as it is my passion as a collector and don't have a lot of actual tackle.

That's a funny story.  I had a friend who was on the PWT and he would buy crankbaits 100 at a time in each color.  His bait room for Walleye Tournaments looked like an episode of "Hoarders".  In his defense, he fished all over the country and on more bodies of water with more techniques than I ever hope to.  

[12poundbass]

Zona has us all beat. Granted he probably gets his all for free. Would it be nice to have that man cave?

 

 

[Ratherbfishing]

1 hour ago, mattkenzer said:

Repeat after me:

 

" Yes my dear, ALL this tackle and gear is necessary! "

Me thinks there's a mole in our midst.  :  )

[jbmaine]

I'm not quite sure how to express this correctly, but here goes. When I was a kid ( 60+ yrs. ago) we had a camp on a lake. My folks gave me an old Zebco rod and reel, put on a worm and bobber, and I was fishing. Loved it from the first moment. I would sit at the end of the dock, staring at that bobber, waiting for the fish to make that bobber bounce. Couldn't be  happier.

 

One day a family friend stopped by, came down to the end of the dock, cast out an in line spinner and caught a fish. From that moment on a worm and bobber just didn't cut it. I saved up my money and bought one, then this, and that, and so on. It's been a slippery slope ever since.

 

I'll never be able to afford the best of everything but I have decent stuff. Sometimes I miss the "good old days" when sitting on a dock, with a worm and bobber, satisfied me, but If I did that now I know I'd be bored in no time.

[soflabasser]

Bass fishing can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be and its up to the fisherman/fisherwoman to decide how much to invest in bass fishing. You can catch big bass on a yo yo reel, cane pole, or on a expensive combo if you want. You can catch big bass on live bait you catch yourself or catch bass on expensive hand made lures. You can catch big bass from land in public waters or catch big bass on a boat in private waters. Maybe this is why bass fishing is so popular in the USA and even other countries since there are so many ways to catch a bass that you can spend your whole life bass fishing and never be able to fish with every technique or fish every location that bass live in.

[Glaucus]

Here's where I'm at with this thread.

 

I've got more lures sitting around than I know what to do with. Many of us do. From different sizes, different colors, different techniques. All sorts of unused terminal tackle I will never get to. A plethora of rods and reels I never use. All because, and all when, I only truly do a few things and use a few rods because after a lot of time put in, I know what works the best and what I like the most, and I don't deviate from it. Like if I'm at a pond or something, sure I can throw a chatterbait and catch a few. But I don't because I know if I rig up a 4 inch Green Pumpkin Senko I'm going to out fish that presentation 10 to 1. And then we have the 60,000 dollar + bass boats when it is actually true that any decent Jon Boat is going to do the same thing for all intents and purposes.

 

I'm just getting to the point where I see and have 100 different techniques, But if I'm honest I would only go through them all just for the sake of saying I did it, but my few preferable methods do the same thing, catch a lot of quality and quantity, and don't cost a fortune or waste away unused. 

[ignign0kt]

I don't have a lot but the gear is a major part of the fun of fishing, and having nice gear makes it even more enjoyable. Along with trying new lures... however I think having boxes and boxes of lure's is dumb

But yeah the whole bass fishing industry revolves around selling you ****. You can keep it simple and cheap but it's hard not to give in, especially once you've used the nicer gear.

Throwing bobbers and other wait-baits is super boring unless you're just trying to hang and drink with some buddies :D.

[ww2farmer]

For me personally, I keep it cheap and simple.

 

Aluminum boat, budget rods/reels, sub- $10 hard baits, basic electronics, a few tried and true soft plastics. 

 

I catch a lot of fish, and I am competitive in local tournaments. Good enough for me.