how much longer can we afford to fish

just wondering if i am the only one thinking of this.A new low end bass boat is now what my loaded 96 stratos was,lures rods reels gas.went to bass pro and had a handful of stuff not even a basket and it was 50 bucks.am i the only one wondering how i'm going to afford my habit as years come.There were boats with sold signs on them at the show that cost 2\3 what my new house cost,i envy those that have them but i never will,i make good money and can't afford one, i figure it takes 550 amonth to fish one day.The payment plus gas and insurance,i just say to myself man how do they do that..

I agree with you totally. Use to be poor people could enjoy the things they love to do that would be Fishing and Hunting. Now days its a money making world and it makes it hard for the poor man and the working man to keep up and to do the things they love to do. :(

I agree. It gets worse all the time. I can't blame them for raising the price of items, we keep paying it. The one that hurts me the worst is the gas. Do to my job I fish a lot through the week and usually by myself. It makes it a little harder to fish when gas is $2.25+ a gallon.

i found myself fishing more ponds,i also went back to my youngr days,a shovel a can some worms on the beechfork river...drum,carp,cats and the occasional waterdog on liver it was a blast and cheap.i hear on the by yourself thing,hard to find someone who wants to fish all night or can go when i can and it took $70 minimum and that was limiting my lake running.

Yeah stuff is expensive and gas prices ****. However, if you folks with the 250's on your bass boats doing 120 mph across the lake would back off that throttle for a second you'd save a lot of your gas money. My jon boat catches fish just fine ... just fine indeed.

The part that amazes me is the extremes that people go through to get a new bassboat. Financing for 12 years? 400-500 a month? Second mortgage on the house? I love the sport but i also realize that just because i can buy something doesn't make it a good financial decision. I know it's totally up to each person on how much debt they are willing to get into.
As far as the new boats zipping across the lake, unless i'm wrong the mileage they can get out of these new motors is unbelievable! It might not be as bad on the gas intake as it looks?

I totaly agree that things are getting over priced. Now more than ever, But its not anything that I havent brought on myself. I started as a bank fisherman very cheap. Then I found myself renting a canoe every weekend for $30. "So I BOUGHT ONE"($400) Then I wanted to fish bigger water "So I BOUGHT ONE" a john boat($2000). The more I fished I realized I could cover more water and get into small tournaments if I had a bigger boat "So I BOUGHT One" (83 Astroglass 154V) ($3800). Wasnt long before that old motor bit the dust "SO I BOUGHT One"(115 Johnson) ($8000) on the back of a 15 1/2' boat. That thing would haul boogey! Mid 50's. The more I fished in Tournaments the more I realized that the lay out was nice but it wasnt very comfortable for 2 people and all the gear. So once again "SO I BOUGHT ONE" A BIGGER BOAT (STRATOS) Used($16500).
Although it has taken 10 years to get to where Im at now, I still catch myself on the internet looking at bigger and faster boats. For what I have spent on boats, maintenance, gas, insurance, tournament fees, tackle, rods and reels, not to mention big fishing trips like to Florida at $2000 a pop. I could have been investing for my retirement. If I went back to the basics of bank fishing it wouldnt be that much more expensive. But the urge to compete and trying to bag that double digit bass is what ultimately drives me. At the rate that I am going right now if I caught a 10pounder it will cost over $5000 per pound. Oh Yes!, He Will Go On The Wall!!!!

Funny thing is, fishing has been around forever and will never die out, unless something weird happens and all the fish die....Boat cost and the price of fishing just increases each year like everything else does....Now if gas prices were to drop back down to say 1.00 a gallon, more people would probably invest in more boats and the like....

But I'd say gas will never see the day of being only $ 1.00 a gallon again as long as I live.......

It's like a similar question that was asked on the Community Board about hunting....

People just have that instinct to fish in them, like hunting... But some have a stringer desire to do it (fish) more than others do...

I can't believe the price of crankbaits. I guess I'll always be a live bait fisherman; not that that's particularly cheap, but I just don't have the cojones to actually tie something that cost 10 or 15 bucks onto the end of a fishing line and throw it out in the water hoping to catch a fish. I know, you don't really lose that many if you're doing it right, but still...

You only live once

I can't say much in regards to tournament fishermen and how much they spend because I myself am not a tournament guy, so I have no idea what it's like wearing the tournament guy shoes. But as I consider myself to be a general red-blooded everyday american fish-head, I probably spend more money on stuff that I don't REALLY need than what I realize. How much does it really cost to be able to simply go fishing...in a boat...on your favorite lake? Ditto on what one of the other responses to this thread was when he wrote: "You only live once." I am in agreement with that and what the heck, there sure are other hobbies/interests/vices and/or addictions that are a lot worse than fishing that we could be spending our money on.

Did any of us ever think we would see the DOW over 12,000 and no one is talking about it!