What Have We Become ?

[MN Fisher]

15 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

I scoff when people recommend Tatsu Fluorocarbon and then immediately exclaim you will need to buy 15 dollar line conditioner for it...if I am spending more than 40 dollars on a 150 yd spool of fishing line it had better be perfect out of the box.

Another reason I love the $11/600yd YZH - use the KVD, but it still works out to be less expensive.

[Mbirdsley]

1. I’ll never use gloves for fishing. I played 8 years of football with my hand on ground. 4 years of that at the D3 College level.  I didn’t use gloves than I’m not using them now.  
 

I have enough free non fishing hats to last a life time.  Just personal preference I’m not paying money for a hat from a lure, rod, or reel company. If I was given one included with a purchase or give away or somthing I’d wear it. 
 

As far as expensive shirts same with hunting Shirts.  Most sporting goods stores sells cheaper dry fits in the exercise department.  I mean obviously you would want the darker more natural colors.  I have done enough of differnt kinds of fishing that I have learned where I can cut corners to try to cut coast down . making my own stuff helps, well more with same money.  
 

I did break down and finally buy a pair of $180 polarized Oakley’s.  So much better than $20 Walmart ones I was buying 3-4 times a year so it’s a wash actually if they good ones last.  
 

as far as the rest of it I’m as guilty as any body.  Just bought an $1800 trolling motor with spot lock, gps, and wire less remote.  I couldn’t imagine not using some sort of trolling motor for fishing.  
 

The other night I’m fishing some pads and 3 old timers On vacation show up in a tin boat. They dropped anchor and started fishing gills with worms and bobbers having the time of their lives.  That’s what it’s about right there!!!.  98% of the time I fish alone I guess that’s my fault for taking fishing as serious as I do.  I’m buying more and more expensive rods and reels all the time and I’m not even tournament fishing yet. I do like how the better rods and reels feel. With that said other than hunting and model aircraft building fishing is my main hobby.  I could be at the bar couple times a week 

 

. 

[Bluebasser86]

1 hour ago, Mbirdsley said:

1. I’ll never use gloves for fishing. I played 8 years of football with my hand on ground. 4 years of that at the D3 College level.  I didn’t use gloves than I’m not using them now.  

Fishing gloves aren't all about protection from fish spines or the cold though. I mostly wear them for skin protection from the sun. It's very difficult to get sun block on your hands and keep it on and your hands are constantly exposed to the sun while fishing. I worked with some old timers in the fishing department at Cabela's that always had band-aids on their hands covering different spots they'd had chunks of skin cancer cut out of their hands from a lifetime of fishing without any protection from the sun. They always told me they'd wished they'd had that kind of protection from the sun a long time ago so they didn't have to go through the cancer removal treatments. I burn easy so it's a constant concern of mine.

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Fishing gloves aren't all about protection from fish spines or the cold though. I mostly wear them for skin protection from the sun. It's very difficult to get sun block on your hands and keep it on and your hands are constantly exposed to the sun while fishing. I worked with some old timers in the fishing department at Cabela's that always had band-aids on their hands covering different spots they'd had chunks of skin cancer cut out of their hands from a lifetime of fishing without any protection from the sun. They always told me they'd wished they'd had that kind of protection from the sun a long time ago so they didn't have to go through the cancer removal treatments. I burn easy so it's a constant concern of mine.

I know a lot of resourceful old timers that build beautiful buildings and furniture, I believe they could have figured out how to protect their hands before sun gloves hit the market. I think it’s more that they didn’t know the dangers of skin cancer back then, not that Cabela’s didn’t sell sun gloves 

[PourMyOwn]

4 hours ago, Mbirdsley said:

 

I did break down and finally buy a pair of $180 polarized Oakley’s.  So much better than $20 Walmart ones I was buying 3-4 times a year so it’s a wash actually if they good ones last.  
 

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I just replaced my 11 year old Oakleys with a new pair. I have Hazel/grayish eyes so I wear sunglasses a lot, and that also includes 11 years of coaching football. Those glasses have been knocked off my head in OL/DL drills more times than I can count. I also wear them as safety glasses when I'm doing metal work, so they have earned their keep.

[Hook2Jaw]

I manage to keep most of my soft plastics under 4 dollars a bag, my hard baits under 8 dollars, my rods and reels under 150 dollars.

 

I've still managed to become broke.  ?

[mrpao]

Manufacturers want to make the biggest profits they can. We all like the latest and greatest. We all want the best advantage to boat the most and biggest fish. That means we are willing to pay for it. Manufacturers know that. The more we are willing to pay, the more prices will go up. If we're willing to pay the prices they ask then why wouldn't they.

I work for an automotive company. Each vehicle sells for three to four times the cost to build it. Could my company charge less for their vehicles? Yes.

But if they customers are willing to pay then why not charge the higher prices.

[Cgolf]

7 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

I scoff when people recommend Tatsu Fluorocarbon and then immediately exclaim you will need to buy 15 dollar line conditioner for it...if I am spending more than 40 dollars on a 150 yd spool of fishing line it had better be perfect out of the box.

This is why I love Braid with a Fluoro leader. Braid lasts for a very long time, no line conditioner needed, backlashes are usually easy to pick out, etc. I know braid isn't for everyone, but it has to be one of the most economical line choices out there. The money I saved helped me not feel bad about upgrading to sniper as a leader over red label.

[MN Fisher]

2 hours ago, cgolf said:

This is why I love Braid with a Fluoro leader. Braid lasts for a very long time, no line conditioner needed, backlashes are usually easy to pick out, etc. I know braid isn't for everyone, but it has to be one of the most economical line choices out there. The money I saved helped me not feel bad about upgrading to sniper as a leader over red label.

I'm a cheap sucker (read 'limited funds'). While I do have two braid-equipped reels, for leaders I use the same 12#YZH that's the mainline on two other reels.

[Cgolf]

46 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I'm a cheap sucker (read 'limited funds'). While I do have two braid-equipped reels, for leaders I use the same 12#YZH that's the mainline on two other reels.

That works too, and I can relate to being thrifty. I just didn't like the hybrid as mainline, not enough sensitivity. I think the braid on some of my reels is 6 years old, and I just flipped it around this year so it looks like new. My funds our limited by our better half. We are on somewhat of a fixed income, we always invest any raises for retirement, so have essentially been making the same for the last 10 years give or take.

[MN Fisher]

8 minutes ago, cgolf said:

We are on somewhat of a fixed income,

Ours is totally fixed - I'm on SS, wife is on SSDI...

[gim]

My Grandpa that died of cancer in 2012 told me shortly before he died: Life is measured by the amount of time you have to do what you enjoy.

 

And he sure loved to fish.

[TnRiver46]

12 minutes ago, gimruis said:

My Grandpa that died of cancer in 2012 told me shortly before he died: Life is measured by the amount of time you have to do what you enjoy.

 

And he sure loved to fish.

This is why I make time to fish, whether it’s available or not 

[Nibbles]

On 7/20/2020 at 9:57 AM, RAMBLER said:

There are a lot of people in this country who are making a ton of money pushing buttons and typing codes and don't really work hard for their money.  So, the retailers are charging what they can get for a product, not what the product is worth.

We code monkeys have to do our part to support our fellow cousin bait monkeys after all  

[soflabasser]

On 7/21/2020 at 6:56 PM, Heron said:

Dare I say.....it’s just a Bass.  While I enjoy the activity of fishing for it.  The Bass is certainly not a fish that warrants spending the amount of money that could take yourself and family on an international vacation.

 

 

The bass fishing industry seems Intent on convincing people that they have to gear up like tournament pro angler, just to catch fish.

 

this will help drive the prices up as well

Well said. That is one of the reasons I do not care much for what tournament bass fishermen say. Same goes for people in social media that hype up products since they are sponsored and many of them are not being 100% honest about the product they are endorsing. The truth is you can catch lots of nice bass on sub $100 combos.

[Whatever]

Years ago, I had a friend who owned a saddle shop. When you walked in the door, front and center was a gaudy, tooled leather saddle with all the brightwork. And a $2500 price tag (about a years wages at that time). I asked him who would buy that, and he replied "Probably no-one. But it makes all these $400 working rigs look like the deal of the century".

[Guitarfish]

I'm literally days away from my retirement.  All I can see is the end of the highway coming some day, so I'm going to stop and fish all those creeks by the side of that road. 

 

I'll be fishing the heck out of my old stuff, and using the extra money for gas to get out there and say hi to big momma bass.  And sniff that salt air when I hit the big blue.  If you haven't done that you are missing out. 

 

Turn down the temptation to buy that reel and spend the money on the experience.

[Hawkeye21]

All I see is a list of products at their highest price points.  You're looking at a small percentage of people who spend that kid of money.

 

I buy a lot of the same popular things but I never pay retail price.  It doesn't take much to find good prices on the same or similar items.  If you are concerned about things like this and feel the need to rant about it then I feel you worry about way too much.

[immortl]

On 7/20/2020 at 3:32 PM, gimruis said:

The Benelli Supersport isn't designed for ruffed grouse hunting and anyone using it for that purpose is going to fail.  Its a competition trap/skeet shotgun.  The barrel is way too long to carry through thick woods for grouse.  He was lucky to bag even one grouse with that gun

Added on edit - Whoops, just realized I was browsing way back in this tab and resurrected a really old thread.  Didn't mean to, thought I was replying to a current thread. I don't see a delete option.

 

2000, wow, it's gone up.  I got my Cordoba (field version) for 1300 in the early 2000s after I got divorced from wife #1.  It is my trap, sporting clays, pheasant, get the hell out of my yard, etc....shotgun.  That said, I prefer an old side by side for grouse, but I used the Cordoba in the MT mountains for grouse to the amusement of others (they all use  22 rifles and shoot them on the ground out there, godless heathens!)

 

I'm getting back into bass fishing these days. I tend to buy the best I can reasonably afford at the time and then hold onto it forever.  The rods I lost this summer were 25 plus year old Cabelas Fish Eagle XMLs.  At the time of purchase they were solid quality for a reasonable for me price. The Shimano Sustains I had on them are still going strong (lost just the rods, not the reels). This go around, yeah, there will be some NRX+ and Conquest Rods along with a Stella and an Antares or three.  These will be my rods and reels for the next 20+ years.  I still have and use my Cabelas clothing gear from 20 and 30+ years and am saddened that it is no longer made. 

 

No shiny bass boat for me, but I did just buy a Hobie Pro Angler and it'll have the best electronics I can afford on it. Technology and tinkering are a part of most of my hobbies and I greatly enjoy it.  Do I need much of this?  Nope.  But I get enjoyment from using it.

[GreenPig]

On 7/20/2020 at 8:10 AM, Catt said:

The #1 key to consistently catching bass is between your ears not between the folds of your wallet.

 

We give to much credit to the tackle & not enough to the angler.

 

A lot of this started with the "technique specific" sales gimmicks.

 

One example I was told I need a casting jig, a flipping jig, a pitching jig,  & a swim jig. If I didn't have all four I would magically miss fish.

 

I was also told due to the amount of stretch in Berkley Big Game I wouldn't feel as many bites, I wouldn't get solid hookups, & I wouldn't be able to get em out of cover.

 

My rant is over...for now! ?

I have a pile of specialized combos cause my wife has to tie my lures on for me the night before a trip.?

On 7/20/2020 at 8:10 AM, Catt said:

 

 

[padlin]

I just read this whole thread thinking it was new.

 

If you want to save money on tackle, don’t frequent a fishing forum. 
 

In past winters I would spend about $50 for the next seasons tackle. Today I put everything I want to get in a wishlist on TackleWarehouse, comes out to about $300. That’s what happened from hanging out here. And that’s just the small stuff.

 

This thread convinced me to go back over the list, got to drop some of the new to me techniques. Maybe just gear up to add just 1.

[GreenPig]

59 minutes ago, padlin said:

I just read this whole thread thinking it was new.

 

If you want to save money on tackle, don’t frequent a fishing forum. 
 

In past winters I would spend about $50 for the next seasons tackle. Today I put everything I want to get in a wishlist on TackleWarehouse, comes out to about $300. That’s what happened from hanging out here. And that’s just the small stuff.

 

This thread convinced me to go back over the list, got to drop some of the new to me techniques. Maybe just gear up to add just 1.

Many here are a bad influence. Always posting about new baits, rods, reels, electronics, and boats. 

[Woody B]

7 hours ago, padlin said:

In past winters I would spend about $50 for the next seasons tackle. Today I put everything I want to get in a wishlist on TackleWarehouse, comes out to about $300. That’s what happened from hanging out here. And that’s just the small stuff.

 

Some of that is due to inflation.   What did a nice Ranger or other brand nice bass boat cost in 1992?  (I've got a reason for that year)   I suspect someone here knows what one cost, or any other nice brand.   I bought a brand new diesel dually in 1992 for $22000.   A comparable truck is close to 4 times that much now.  FWIW my income is only 2 1/2 times what it was in 1992.   

 

In 1976, when I was 12 I just had to have an Ugly stick rod, and an Ambassador 5500c reel.   I worked in the family business for 2 weeks to pay for it.   ($80  iirc)   Was the 5500c and ugly stick top of the line back then?  I had read about them in a magazine.   I don't remember the cost of the reel, vs the cost of the rod.   A top of the line combo is easily 10 times that much now.   

 

My Grandfather used to give us a dollar for Christmas.   I give my Grandkids a grand apiece.