The price of having fun

The weather has been poor lately--windy and cold--and though I love to fish, I'd rather take advantage of a nice day than try to sling my lure against the wind in half-foot choppy water.

With the weather as it is, I've spent some time to work on my gear and organize my tackle box. Doing so has got me thinking about the price of this hobby that I call fishing.

I should first say that I believe in inexpensive gear. I own two rod and reel combos that cost less than $40 each. I expect them to last me a minimum of two years. The line I bought cost me $30 for both reels. In total, that's $110, or $55 per year to fish. From the rod and reel standpoint, that makes fishing one inexpensive hobby. Of course, you have to have something to fish with, and that's where the true costs of fishing are.

When I was driving over the Gandy Bridge this morning, I found myself wondering about the value of a lure, or rather, how long I need to use a lure before I get the full value out of it.

You're read previous entries where I've lamented about losing a lure to this or that. Last year, when I first started fishing, my goal was to catch at least one fish before losing a lure. Sadly, that rarely happened. What did happen is that over time, I learned to cast better, to stay off the bottom, and in short, improved my overall fishing ability.

Now, I tend to lose my lures to fish instead of someone's dock, but I'm not sure if that's better or worse. After losing two big snook, a gator trout and a huge ladyfish to breakoffs, I've learned to not only take the time to tie a stellar knot, but also to check my line from time to time to make sure a barnacle or angry fish hasn't frayed the line.

But back to the original question. How many fish does a lure need to catch before I've got my money's worth out of it? As you know my favorite lure is a Yo-zuri Crystal Minnow, which run about $10 each. I lose about four of these a month, which is equivalent to losing an entire rod and reel. As you can see, it's the lures that make this hobby expensive.

So, whereas my old goal would be to catch a single fish before losing my lure, my new goal is to catch fish with the lure until the paint comes off it. This goal is difficult, but not unrealistic. Still, I've still got a long way to go.